Terry Tempest Williams is an award-winning writer, poet, biologist, educator, conservationist, and activist. Known for her impassioned and lyrical prose, she has constantly shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. Her work, significantly influenced by the Utah landscape, focuses on critical challenges including the protection of public lands and women’s health. Her honors, awards, and publications are numerous.
Attendees were treated to a surprise reading from her new book The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary which was released a few weeks later. The book is a work of creative nonfiction that explores finding meaning and beauty in the natural world during times of crisis, such as the pandemic and climate change.
The Great Salt Lake has been a major subject of Williams’ work throughout her career, so it was fitting to have Jake Dreyfous, Managing Director of Grow The Flow, introduce her. Grow The Flow is a citizen-led nonprofit movement uniting science, storytelling, and civic action to save Utah's Great Salt Lake. The exhibition installed at the time, Natural Order (link), featured work by environmental artists Edward Burtynsky, Sebastião Salgado, and Susan Swartz. 20% of proceeds from the exhibition were donated to Grow The Flow.
“We can reweave the world anew not from the places of fear and bout, but from intimate spaces of belonging. We are meant to engage, not withdraw.” - Terry Tempest Williams, The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary
