From the Teton County Public Library in Jackson:
Meet the man named "the nation's premiere nature writer" when the Teton County Library and Library Foundation present "Page to the Podium: Barry Lopez" on Thursday, December 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the Center Theater, Center for the Arts.
Free tickets are required and can be picked up with the presentation of a Teton County library card or card number beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday, November 16 at the library. The evening is free and open to the community with support from donations, large and small, to the Teton County Library Foundation.
When
O, The Oprah Magazine decided to publish a special section on the greening of American society in April 2009, the editors asked Barry Lopez to write an introduction. In the piece entitled "Call from the Future," Lopez addressed his environmental and humanitarian concerns: "Instead of the numbing rhetoric of 'us' and 'them,' we will have to invent a new kind of 'we.' It's the 'we' already welling up in many of us, born out of empathy, out of genuine love for each other and the Earth, and out of sober assessments about our predicament." (Read the article at
http://bit.ly/13lYHe.)
"What impresses me most about Barry is that when you read his writing or hear him speak you can feel how much he cares about people and how strongly he believes that we can meet current social and environmental challenges -- really any challenge -- through empathy, tolerance and imagination. He doesn't just write about observing nature and nurturing relationships -- it's
what he does on a day-to-day basis," said Pauline Towers-Dykeman, the Associate Library Foundation Director who secured Lopez's presentation.
Lopez is best known as the author of
Arctic Dreams, for which he received the National Book Award and,
Of Wolves and Men, a National Book Award finalist for which he received the John Burroughs and Christopher medals. He has penned eight works of fiction, including
Light Action in the Caribbean,
Field Notes, and
Resistance. His essays are collected in two books,
Crossing
Open Ground and
About This Life. He contributes regularly to
Granta, The Georgia Review, Orion, Outside, The Paris Review, Manoa and other publications in the United States and abroad. More about Lopez's work and links to recent articles can be found at
www.BarryLopez.com/works.htm.
Lopez, who was active as a landscape photographer prior to 1981, maintains close ties and collaborations with a diverse community of artists. In addition to his stunning literary career, he has traveled to more than 60 countries and worked on international humanitarian projects with Mercy Corps and Quest for Global Healing.
Lopez is also the recipient of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John Hay Medal, Guggenheim, Lannan, and National Science Foundation fellowships, Pushcart Prizes in fiction and nonfiction, and other honors. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of The Explorers Club.
FMI: Contact Pauline Towers-Dykeman, 733-2164 ext. 217.
From a UW press release:
