I elect that bull elk in the Snake River. I elect that raven in Canyonlands National Park. I elect autumn moonlight on metal roofs. I elect the strand of barbed wire that fell from the post and is now woven into the tall brown grass. I elect the tall brown grass. I elect my neighbors’Continue reading “Write-Ins for President by Leath Tonino”
Author Archives: Terra Firma
Still Birding While Black
Hey America, Was out birding a while back, black as I am and have always been, checking out my white-crowned sparrow honey hole, absorbing one of my fave winter birds. Fully engrossed in their melancholy leftover Northwoods songs and snazzy namesake stripe-headed plumages, I wasn’t expecting to have my identity challenged as I was identifyingContinue reading “Still Birding While Black”
Kurt Caswell’s Plea for Walking
My book, Getting to Grey Owl: Journeys on Four Continents, is a collection of travel essays that celebrate a wandering life. While I love being at home, travel is one of my central tenets. When I was a boy, my father’s work with the U.S. Forest Service took our family from one place to anotherContinue reading “Kurt Caswell’s Plea for Walking”
Greetings from San Antonio
Celebrated Texas historian Lewis Fisher has been collecting San Antonio postcards for more than 20 years; his assortment of colorful cards is currently in upwards of 7,000. Taken individually, each shows a different side of the River City beginning in the 1890s, but as a collection they offer a compelling visual narrative of San AntonioContinue reading “Greetings from San Antonio”
What To Read During a Pandemic
Though it should, it does not dismay me that former students have been e-mailing me to say they are reading (or, for a very, very few) re-reading Defoe’s A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR or Camus’ THE PLAGUE. I have grown accustomed to students making unusual choices. Nevertheless, others have asked me for reading suggestionsContinue reading “What To Read During a Pandemic”
A Grandson’s Hot Butter Rum Toast to Donald Culross Peattie
Donald Culross Peattie and his wife, Louise Redfield Peattie, with their son, Malcolm, uncle of David. I never met my grandfather Donald Culross Peattie. Or if I did, I was too young to remember. He died when I was growing up in Japan, so all the stories I heard, in addition to a few oldContinue reading “A Grandson’s Hot Butter Rum Toast to Donald Culross Peattie”
Michael Nye Wins Prestigious National Federation of the Blind Award
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has presented $50,000 in cash awards to individuals and organizations that are a positive force in the lives of blind people and whose work advances the goal of helping transform their dreams into reality. The twelfth annual Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards honored five innovators, including San Antonio photographer andContinue reading “Michael Nye Wins Prestigious National Federation of the Blind Award”
Moving the Dream Forward
In 1987, shortly after I decided to leave my husband of twenty years, I started dreaming about making art. My dreams became my nightly compass, my way of listening to my inner authority rather than allowing external events to continually shape my life. As part of the silent and stoic generation of women who cameContinue reading “Moving the Dream Forward”
These Conversations
The book arrived today, a collection of interviews and letters between Gary Snyder and myself. Last week my editor emailed me a FedEx number, and at once Google popped up a link for tracking the book’s journey across the planet. Over the next while I could occasionally check its progress. It traveled from San AntonioContinue reading “These Conversations”
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