THE VIEW FROM
T O R R E Y H O U S E
July 2018
Words like Clear Water
by Anne Terashima
Associate Editor and Publicity, Marketing, and Development Director at Torrey House Press
Underneath a large white tent strung with lights, Cynthia Gómez stepped up to a wooden podium to offer a Land Acknowledgment. She reminded us all that the land upon which our plastic chairs were unfolded is the traditional land of the Nez Perce People—occupied and unceded land. “It is important to acknowledge the ancestors of this place and to recognize that we are here because of the sacrifices forced upon them,” Cynthia said. “In remembering these communities, we honor their legacy, their lives, and their descendants.”
Land Acknowledgement, according to the grassroots action network U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, “is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people’s history and culture and toward inviting and honoring the truth.” A simple, powerful step. What other steps must we take? As writers—and readers—how do we unearth, focus upon, and honor—not erase or obscure?
With a new piece every month, Voices Rising elevates millennial voices through a digital platform to publish diverse forms of storytelling. From poetry and creative nonfiction to song and visual art, we hear from young people grappling with the greatest challenges society faces.
Defending the Narrative of Wildness
From my house in eastern Salt Lake County, I’m a ten minute drive then a ten minute walk to the Mount Olympus Wilderness—the big W, political designation kind of Wilderness—and every July, I can’t get enough of these beautiful slopes and peaks and draws in the Wasatch Mountains. This year, the trails are dry and dusty, the wildflowers fading fast under too-dry skies. But the canyons are cool and small streamlets still trickle, and I’m grateful to have forests of firs and aspen to retreat to as the asphalt city bakes. This respite of wildness renews my spirit and rejuvenates my energy, essential stuff as Torrey House Press stands ever stronger to fight for public lands with story. Utah’s congressional delegation and the executive branch race to roll back protections, accelerating destruction that would wipe out hard-fought gains, and it’s starkly clear that every purple aster or redtail hawk I see in the mountains above my house is there because storytellers long before me spoke from the heart about beauty.
People have been telling stories about their surroundings since people started talking, of course. How many humans over how many millennia have walked the Wasatch Mountains, returning home to share the year’s first columbine blossom or the hidden shake of a rattlesnake, politely identifying itself? But the narrative of wildness got pretty lost as colonizers exploited continents and populations boomed. Called to a moral defense of the natural world, writers like Susan Fenimore Cooper, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Terry Tempest Williams, asked folks to wake up to wild beauty, taking readers into the places they loved. Some of their words compelled action, including the very act of Congress that make my walks in the Wasatch possible.
Wallace Stegner’s 1960 Wilderness Letter is worth a ceremonial read each year as a reminder that words matter and make a difference. Plus, it’s beautiful. When my spouse Mark Bailey and I got married, my son read a portion of Stegner’s Wilderness Letter during our ceremony in Capitol Reef National Park, and I think of its power and eloquence every time I hike by a sign announcing a Wilderness. “We simply need that wild country available to us,” Stegner insisted. “For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.” His letter inspired and informed the Wilderness Act of 1964, which enables the highest levels of landscape protection, allowing plants, animals, and ecosystems to flourish without industrial or residential development in over 100 million acres in 44 states—about 5% of the entire United States land mass. Contrary to the assertions of protection opponents, people have open access to these splendid public lands via foot, horse, and paddle—traveling as people have for thousands of years—and some of America’s most scenic byways take folks by car through the forests, mountains, and deserts that contain America’s 765 Wilderness areas.
The Wilderness Act and the wilderness idea are under attack, with all the levers of power at the hands of those who would—and do—turn nature’s splendor into false flags of fear and exclusion. They strive to control the narrative as much as the landscape. But the compelling human truths found in our connections with the plants and animals of our home grounds are not available to these short-sighted extractors. At Torrey House Press, it’s our job to speak truth and beauty to the forces that would abandon wild places and creatures to greed and destruction. And we are poised and ready to do it, with the strongest staff in our history and a growing list of fantastic authors. As the only nonprofit literary press focusing on conservation through literature, the books we publish bring to the page important stories that sustain the spirit, inspire action, and share essential beauty. We’re filling a vital role in the conservation movement, and we need your help to do it. Please join us by making a gift today.
—Kirsten Johanna Allen,
Torrey House Press Publisher and Editorial Director
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We are beyond pleased to announce that Anne Terashima is back at Torrey House Press after a two-year sojourn in Chicago, where she earned a master's degree in writing and publishing from DePaul University. Anne first started with Torrey House in October 2011 as an intern, then as part-time publicist and copy editor, learning the ropes of publishing and book publicity alongside Kirsten Allen in the earliest days of the press. After doing freelance work during graduate school, she now brings valued depth and breadth of experience (and a taste for deep-dish pizza) to her new role as Associate Editor and Director of Marketing, Publicity, & Development. You can reach Anne at anne@torreyhouse.com—or on the trails of the Wasatch Mountains. Welcome back, Anne!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Join us at a author event near you!
July 29: Tom Fleischner, Edie Dillon, Gwen Heistand, and Sarah Juniper Rabkin will be reading from Nature Love Medicine at the historic Parsons Lodge in Yosemite National Park's beautiful Tuolumne Meadows. Come hear these important words as part of the High Sierra Natural History Celebration. (Yosemite, CA)
August 3, 6:00 p.m.: Reading, discussion, and book signing at Bright Side Bookshop (Flagstaff, AZ)
August 12, 6:30 p.m.: Reading, discussion, and book signing with Between the Covers at the Wilkinson Public Library (Telluride, CO)
August 13, 7:00 p.m.: Presentation, discussion, and book signing with Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership and Mountain Independent at the Sherbino Theater (Ridgway, CO)
August 21, 6:00 p.m.: Reading, discussion, and book signing at Grand Valley Books (Grand Valley, CO)
August 23, 7:00 p.m.: Reading, discussion, and book signing at Lithic Bookstore and Gallery (Fruita, CO)
August 8, 2:00 p.m.: Join the Curiosity Bibliotherapy book club to discuss The Scholar of Moab by Steven L. Peck at the J. Willard Marriott Library, room 1705F (SLC, UT)
August 11, 8:00 a.m.: Visit the Torrey House Press table at the Downtown Farmers Market (SLC, UT)
August 15, 7:00 p.m.: Join authors Scott Graham (Yosemite Fall) and Chip Ward (Stony Mesa Sagas) for “Fiction as a Force for the Environment,” a discussion on the benefits and drawbacks of using fiction and the universal truths of storytelling to address today’s environmental challenges. Hosted at The King's English Bookshop (SLC, UT)
August 17, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.: Meet Scott Graham and chat about mystery, national parks, and his latest book Yosemite Fall at Dolly's Bookstore (Park City, UT)
JULY NEWS AND EVENTS
(l-r) The Torrey House Press table at the Salt Lake City Downtown Farmers Market. Jonathan Thompson speaks to a crowd for a River of Lost Souls event at Townie Books on July 17.
On July 14, Rachel and Barbara greeted people at the Salt Lake City Downtown Farmers Market. It's always a pleasure to visit with our nonprofit neighbors and chat with passionate readers. We hope to see you there next month!
Jonathan Thompson (author of River of Lost Souls) and Kirsten Johanna Allen (Torrey House Press Publisher and Editor) led Writing Place: The Animas River Region Writing Workshop in Durango, Colorado, on July 16. Kirsten caught a storm rolling in at sunset on her drive back to Utah through Bears Ears National Monument—check out the photos on our Instagram!
Jonathan Thompson also made an appearance the following day, July 17, at Townie Books to discuss River of Lost Souls and the impact of mining and mining-related pollution on the region. Thanks for coming out, Crested Butte folks!
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With July and August ranking among the most popular months to move and about 80% of the U.S. population living in urban areas, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Best Big Cities to Live in.
To take the guesswork out of finding the right city for urban dwellers, WalletHub evaluated the 62 largest U.S. cities in terms of 56 key metrics. The data set ranges from quality of public school system to job opportunities to median annual property taxes.
Best Big Cities to Live in
1
Seattle, WA
11
Minneapolis, MN
2
Virginia Beach, VA
12
Denver, CO
3
Austin, TX
13
Las Vegas, NV
4
San Francisco, CA
14
Raleigh, NC
5
San Diego, CA
15
Mesa, AZ
6
Honolulu, HI
16
Tampa, FL
7
Portland, OR
17
Pittsburgh, PA
8
San Jose, CA
18
Washington, DC
9
Colorado Springs, CO
19
Omaha, NE
10
New York, NY
20
Charlotte, NC
Best vs. Worst
To view the full report and your city’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-large-cities-to-live-in/14358/
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The mainstream media will seemingly do almost anything to block President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court. Today, news broke that the New York Times is sifting through the work emails of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s wife in an effort to dig up dirt and manufacture a fake scandal.
Now is the time to show your support for Trump's pick. The left knows that Kavanaugh is a constitutional conservative who will not legislate his personal political agenda from the bench, but rather hold fast to the Constitution.
If you believe in defending your first and second amendment rights, then sign Heritage Action’s petition in support of Judge Kavanaugh. Let’s send a message, loud and clear: CONFIRM KAVANAUGH.
Jessica Anderson
Vice President
Heritage Action for America
