An interview with novelist Andrew Sean Greer
Essays
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Coming home to the cosmos
A wandering meteor-chaser puts down roots
Posted inJuly 27, 2009: The Most Cooked-Up Catch
The bare bones of life
The Southwest reminds one writer of Mars
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
A tenderfoot in Taos
An exhausted mother. A lively baby. A compassionate drunkard.
Posted inJune 15, 2009: Let's Get Small
The other Trail of Tears
Selling Your Father’s Bones: America’s 140-Year War Against the Nez Perce TribeBrian Schofield 368 pages, hardcover: $26.00.Simon & Schuster, 2009. A white 30-something British guy might not seem like the obvious source to turn to for a definitive history of the persecution and flight of the Nez Perce — one of the most complex, tragic […]
Posted inWotr
Army targets southeastern Colorado rangelands
Ranchers feel under siege from site expansion
Posted inWotr
Bring on the chickens
There is nothing funnier than a hen running. She clucks so seriously, leaning so far forward, wings spread out, moving that wide load on quick, skinny legs. I know chickens are getting trendy these days, but the main reason I keep yard chickens is for the laughs. My daughter was a colicky baby, and for […]
Posted inWotr
The movie-magic West rides again
This time of year, you’re bound to see photos of ranchers branding cattle, along with all those newspaper pictures of graduations and proms. And why not? A photographer can find a picture waiting everywhere, of neighbors helping neighbors, handsome cowboy types with spurs and coiled lariats, little kids wearing Wranglers and big hats. There’s smoke […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
Time to breathe
Stargazing and geology satisfy the spiritual needs of a Utah writer and teacher
Posted inWotr
Government capitalism can be a very good thing
This year marks the 70th anniversary of an important event in western Colorado: the first annual meeting of the Gunnison County Electric Association. The group had only 116 members when it started and just $275 in the bank, but it went on to bring electric power to the area’s ranches, thanks to the federal government’s […]
Posted inWotr
When neighbors become cops
It’s a frustrating dilemma for many who conserve — watching other people squander the resource you’re trying to save. Maybe you’ve installed a low-flush toilet and a low-flow showerhead, but how can you convince that wastrel down the street to fix her sprinkler and stop using a hose for a broom? Don’t worry, help is […]
Posted inWotr
The real Washington vampire story
Vampires are taking the West by storm, descending on rural communities like Forks, Wash. Is this a reference to Twilight, the now cult-classic book and movie? No, in this case, the malevolent outsiders are agents of ICE, which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Border Patrol. There is a strong parallel here […]
Posted inWotr
Democrats and Republicans can work together
Like a ghost from the 1970s, when Republicans and Democrats teamed up to pass major environmental laws, bipartisan politics has reappeared in Washington, D.C. The just-passed Omnibus Public Land Management Act has something for nearly everyone, including more than 2 million acres of new wilderness, more than 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers; expansions […]
Posted inWotr
For the love of wastelands
Every summer when I was a kid, my parents would load my brother, my sisters and me into our van and haul us from Colorado to eastern Wyoming and Montana, where we searched for fossils left by ancient inland seas. We drove to places with names like Froze to Death and Dead Horse Point, broke […]
Posted inWotr
Why a sheep rancher never needs to go to Las Vegas
Shearing is risky: We could visit Wyoming’s reservation casinos, but we choose to run sheep. For us, the essential annual task — shearing — must happen during a particular moment in time. Our sheep recently left their Red Desert wintering grounds for the 80-mile trek to our lambing grounds. Ideally, the shearing crew shows up […]
Posted inWotr
Call me a local and forget about my grandpappy
I live in Lemhi County, Idaho, but nobody else in my family ever did, and recently, that’s become a problem. I love the boiled-down democracy of city council meetings, the frank discussions of local school boards, the drama of planning and zoning hearings – and no, I’m not kidding. I find local politics fascinating, and […]