Sept. 5, 2019

Author and activist Terry Tempest Williams will give a free public lecture at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at Prochnow Auditorium, as part of the 15th Biennial Conference of Science and Management for the Colorado Plateau and Southwest Region. The event is sponsored by BYU’s Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, NAU’s Office of the President and NAU’s College of Arts and Letters humanities department.

Known as “a citizen writer”—a writer who speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life—Williams has consistently shown how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. She has testified before Congress on women’s health issues, been a guest at the White House, camped in the remote regions of Utah and Alaska wildernesses and worked as a “barefoot artist” in Rwanda.

Williams is the author of several environmental literature classics, including: “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place;” “An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field;” “Desert Quartet;” “Leap;” “Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert;” “The Open Space of Democracy;” and “Finding Beauty in a Broken World.” Her newest book, “Erosion: Essays of Undoing,” will be published in October.

The Biennial Conference, which will take place Sept 9-12 at the High Country Conference Center, will bring together resource managers and research scientists, including students, to share information and learn from one another to foster the common goal of improving the management of the region’s incomparable natural and cultural resources.