Climate change should be seen as a number one priority.
Laura Pritchett
Posted inAugust 31, 2018: The Big Threat to Bighorns
The beauty — and dangers — of living wild
Two new fearless memoirs deliver stories of pragmatism and boundless courage.
Posted inFebruary 5, 2018: Caught Between Crises
On love in Death Valley, and what’s been lost
An ode to a time of both sorrow and new found laughter.
Posted inNovember 13, 2017: Solace and Perspective
What to do if you had just one day left to live
Two writers contemplate their last moments.
Posted inArticles
Knocked down by the election? Here’s how to move on.
As Donald Trump takes office, natural rhythms remind us of larger patterns.
Posted inArticles
He didn’t die with dignity (so I threw a party)
My father’s recent death was not beautiful, and neither were any of the other deaths I’ve witnessed of late. This has left me wondering about a better path. Death is not easy, to be sure, but these were made particularly painful by medical interventions — or perhaps I witnessed the confusion between saving a life […]
Posted inNovember 9, 2015: The Campaign Against Coal
An ode to germs, guts and gardens
When calamity strikes, a gardener finds her way back to the basics.
Posted inSeptember 14, 2015: Close Ties in Big Landscapes
Writing beyond the reservation stereotype
A Native author creates characters who are making a life in the urban West.
Posted inArticles
On crossing the border, writing novels and mangos
The boy’s name was Alejandro, and when I stepped off the bus in Oaxaca, Mexico, he handed me a mango, half of it peeled so I could both hold it and eat it on our walk up the mountain to his village. I was 16 and my Spanish was lousy, which is to say, this […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
An ode to snow
Laura Pritchett on the joy of snow.
Posted inFebruary 20, 2012: How Arizona's culture helped shape the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
I don’t love my dog
There’s a dead fawn outside my front door. The sweet young body is completely covered in tall grass, which means this is a mountain lion kill, which means that the mountain lion responsible is going to come back for the next few mornings and nights to finish eating. I must admit that, although I’m reflexively […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2011: Growing a Revolution
Can an old mine become a work of art?
As I wander past a scrawled “NO TRESSPASSING: SHOTGUN ENFORCED” sign, I can’t help but recoil and glance around. I am, after all, on private property, and instinct is instinct. My safety at this particular mining site, however, is assured: I’m with a bunch of internationally acclaimed artists and a slew of locals. Even the […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
The Western Lit Blues
I’m-a-gettin’ tired of living up to my fictional counterpart
Posted inMay 10, 2010: The Secret Lives of River Guides
Little doses of danger
Parenthood scares a fearless outdoorswoman
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
The Universe on Blacktop
A family dumpster-dives for cash and satisfaction.
Posted inSeptember 9, 2008: Reclaiming the low country
A Western primer
The Rocky Mountain Land Library asked a panel of Western writers a simple question: What books would you recommend to the next president? What does the next administration need to know about the American West? Our respondents were both generous and inspired with their suggestions. Although I’m sure they would all agree with author Rick […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
My short tenure with a blind pigeon
There is a blind pigeon – a pigeon born without eyeballs – living in my house, and I’m not very happy about it. It’s my mother’s fault; she has a new habit of adopting these eyeless creatures, which are hatched in the barn rafters at my family’s ranch. When the mama bird is done feeding […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Safe out there
When Jade shuffles down the abandoned railroad track that leads from her junked-up house to the rambling farmhouse I grew up in, the dogs go crazy, barking and snarling. I run out of the house to admonish them, embarrassed that these peace-loving dogs are tormenting the insane with their own insane behavior — behavior they […]
Posted inNovember 13, 2006: Bred for success
A Proud Member of PAOBHA
My house is a previous-owner-built oddity with small, random additions, situated on a rural county road along with a line of other houses, most of which are nicely bewildering in their construction and habitation. There are goats in backyards, a donkey that escapes fairly regularly, a mishmash of people who want to live outside of […]