The Meaning Of Refuge with Terry Tempest Williams

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This is one woman's story of growing up downwind of an atomic testing site in a wild, beautiful, and “virtually uninhabited” area near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. “My family were some of the virtual uninhabitants,” Williams says. In 1983, as her mother was dying of cancer, there was a catastrophic flood of the Great Salt Lake which threatened the wildlife on its flood plain. The flooding was a natural event and the nuclear testing was a by-product of technology. Both were devastating. Nine women in her family developed cancer, and seven of them are now dead. Williams has emerged from this background as a poetically and politically aware naturalist and author, with powerful personal perspectives on grief, love, and the spirituality of nature, lake and desert. She speaks with rich insight on cancer and creativity, living boldly in the moment, and the meaning of refuge. “We no longer can be complacent to the dark side,” says Williams. “It’s where the source of our power lies. . . The only risk to ourselves is if we choose to remain silent.” (hosted by Justine Toms)

Bio

Terry Tempest Williams is a naturalist, environmentalist, and award-winning author. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her work is widely taught and anthologized around the world. In 2014, on the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Ms. Williams received the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award honoring a distinguished record of leadership in American conservation. She currently is the writer in residence at Harvard Divinity School and divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Castle Valley, Utah.

Terry Tempest Williams is the author of many books including:

• Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (Pantheon 1991)
• Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert (Vintage Books 2002)
• An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field (Vintage Books 1995)
• Leap (Vintage 2001)
• The Open Space of Democracy (The Orion Society 2004)
• Finding Beauty in a Broken World (Pantheon 2008)
• When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice (Sarah Crichton Books: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2012)
• The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks(Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2016)
• Erosion: Essays of Undoing (Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019)

To learn more about the work of Terry Tempest Williams go to terrytempestwilliams.com

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• Why refuge is important
• How poetry can feed your soul
• Why you need to express your truth
• How nature speaks to us
• What is the importance of making peace with your ancestors
• What is the healing quality of risk-taking

Host: Justine Willis Toms       Interview Date: 11/4/1991        Program Number: 2294

Music included

From Album: Desert Vision
Artists: David Lanz and Paul Speer
1987 Narada Equinoxe #ND-63003

From Album: Return of the Condor
Artist: Inti Illimani
1989 BBC Records #REH 515

From Album: Sunlit Reverie
Artist: Radhika Miller
1985 Radhika Miller Music #RMM-1101

From Album: Songbirds - The beauty of birdsong
Auvidis #A6117

From Album: Chaco Canyon
Artist: Rusty Crutcher
1990 Emerald Green Sound #ED 8404
Track - Soft Eyes (Owl cry)