Terry Tempest Williams returns to Livingston with National Parks Book

In honor of the National Park Service centennial, bestselling author, activist and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams will read from and discuss her latest book, The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, on Tuesday, July 19, at 7 p.m. The event is free and will be held at the Shane Lalani Center for the Arts, 415 E. Lewis St. in Livingston. Donations to cover the venue rental are highly appreciated. A book signing and reception will follow.

The Hour of Land is a literary celebration of our national parks, and an exploration of what they mean to us and what we mean to them. From the Grand Tetons in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history to something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and a manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America.

Andrea Wulf of the New York Times writes, “It’s impossible to do Williams’ thought-provoking insights and evocative images justice in a short review. My only advice is to read the book. And then read it again, with pen in hand.”

Williams has published books on the environment, culture, politics, family and the strong interconnections of these seeming disparate areas. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Wallace Stegner Award, the Lannan Literary Award and the International Peace Award. Her memoir, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, won the Evans Biography Award and the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award for creative nonfiction. Her writings on environmental and social issues have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times and Orion. She recently made national headlines for her protest of an oil and gas lease auction in Utah which resulted in her purchase of a parcel of land destined for energy development. With her new company, Tempest Exploration, she plans to develop the human energy to fuel the Keep It in the Ground movement to end fossil fuel extraction on public lands.

Elk River Books has been described by Richard S. Wheeler as “more than a bookstore, it’s the heart of a community.” It specializes in collectible outdoor, regional and Western history books, and provides a lively venue for southwest Montana’s unique literary community. For more information, call 333-2330 or visit ElkRiverBooks.com.