Twenty–five never–before–published essays by National Book Critic Circle Award finalist Ellen Meloy, full of her signature wit, charm, and illuminations of human connection to nature.
"Sharp as the needles on a pinyon pine, these essays will make you rethink your view of the American West. Meloy's wise and unexpected observations are a pure delight." —MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
The late writer and naturalist Ellen Meloy wrote and recorded a series of audio essays for KUER, NPR Utah in the 1990s. Every few months, she would travel to their Salt Lake City studios from her red rock home of Bluff to read an essay or two. With understated humor and sharp insight, Meloy would illuminate facets of human connection to nature and challenge listeners to examine the world anew. Seasons: Desert Sketches is a compilation of these essays, transcribed from their original cassette tape recordings. Whether Meloy is pondering geese in Desolation Canyon or people at the local post office, readers will delight in her signature wit and charm—and feel the pull of the desert she loves and defends. With a foreword by Annie Proulx.
ELLEN MELOY was a native of the West and lived in California, Montana, and Utah. Her book The Anthropology of Turquoise (2002) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the Utah Book Award and the Banff Mountain Book Festival Award in the adventure and travel category. She is also the author of Raven’s Exile: A Season on the Green River (1994), The Last Cheater’s Waltz: Beauty and Violence in the Desert Southwest (2001), and Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild (2005). Meloy spent most of her life in wild, remote places; at the time of her sudden death in November 2004 (three months after completing Eating Stone), she and her husband were living in southern Utah.
Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Distribution
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 100 pages
ISBN-10: 1948814013
Item Weight: 0.36 lbs
Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.6 x 6.9 inches
"Brief essays buoyed by a wonderful conversational ease and puckish sense of humor." —THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"Profound, sometimes deceptively breezy…Seasons telescopes decades spent exploring home and the desert, two terms that for Meloy became synonyms." —HIGH COUNTRY NEWS "Funny, wry, steeped in nature and as sharp as the needles on a pinyon pine, these essays will make you rethink your view of the American West. Meloy's wise and unexpected observations are a pure delight." —MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
"Meloy's nonfiction sparkles, taunts, and ensnares the reader with her incisive humor and stunning depictions of desert landscapes and wildlife." —15 BYTES
"This cinematically vivid collection feeds both intellect and soul, and shows that Meloy possessed the brevity and vision of a poet, and the coy sass of an understated comedian." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“These essays explore life in the desert lived by a woman who loved it fiercely. A vital collection.” —LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review
"Ellen Meloy just might be my favorite Utah writer. She’s smart and witty. She’s laugh–out–loud funny. She’s self–deprecatory and never preachy. She always gets her natural history right." —STEPHEN TRIMBLE, editor of Red Rock Stories: Three Generations of Writers Speak on Behalf of Utah’s Public Lands
Ellen Meloy was a native of the West and lived in California, Montana, and Utah. Her book The Anthropology of Turquoise (2002) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the Utah Book Award and the Banff Mountain Book Festival Award in the adventure and travel category. She is also the author of Raven's Exile: A Season on the Green River (1994), The Last Cheater's Waltz: Beauty and Violence in the Desert Southwest (2001), and Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild (2005). Meloy spent most of her life in wild, remote places; at the time of her sudden death in November 2004 (three months after completing Eating Stone ), she and her husband were living in southern Utah.
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