““The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other's memories. This is how people care for themselves.” ” - Barry Lopez
— Crow and Weasel
Terry Tempest Williams
When Women Were Birds
It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence art and in our world. When Women Were Birds is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?
Ginny Jordan
Clear Cut
In the course of her life, Ginny Jordan has been diagnosed with breast cancer, undergone surgeries and chemotherapy, experienced debilitating vertigo, and other conditions; at the same time as she has been a daughter, wife, mother of three, and member of a large, active family. In prose that is startling and evocative, witty and generous, Clear Cut explores biographically, symbolically, and culturally the meanings of nine different parts of the body, of how much we can lose and still remain whole and know who we are. Jordan mourns for and celebrates the wisdom and beauty of body and soul as they struggle to find endurance in the face of multiple setbacks, and the courage to confront loss and separation and celebrate life and community instead.
Barry Lopez
River Notes
"In these few stories about a rural river community, the threads that tie human life to the subleties of a landscape- the prolonged arrival of dawn, the otherness of wild animals, the austere movement of a river--- become clear."
Terry Tempest Williams
Refuge
We see, with unflinching clarity, that the same tenuous bonds that make up an ecosystem are present in the habitat we create for ourselves. In this poignant story, one woman learns to celebrate those invisible ties and through them nurture a sense of place and of peace.