Terry Tempest Williams

Finding Beauty in A Broken World

Terry is one of the most exquisite and powerful voices for healing ourselves and the earth. Terry has been called “a citizen writer” who speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. A gifted naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, Terry has shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. “So here is my question,” she asks, “what might a different kind of power look like, feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably even beyond our own species?”

Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Terry about her book, Finding Beauty in A Broken World.

Terry Tempest Williams

Known for her impassioned and lyrical prose, Terry is the author of the environmental literature classic, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and PlaceAn Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the FieldDesert QuartetLeapRed: Patience and Passion in the Desert; and The Open Space of Democracy. Her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World, was published in 2008 by Pantheon Books. She is a columnist for the magazine The Progressive.

In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. In 2009, Terry Tempest Williams was featured in Ken Burns’ PBS series on the national parks. She is also the recipient of the 2010 David R. Brower Conservation Award for activism.