CSU Monfort Professor-in-Residence Program Brings ‘Citizen Writer’ Terry Tempest Williams to Fort Collins April 12

Colorado State University Libraries will host an evening with author Terry Tempest Williams as she discusses and reads from her newest book “Finding Beauty in a Broken World” on April 12. An impassioned plea for a better relationship between the natural world and humankind, Williams travels the world to see how broken pieces of history and earth can create something new and whole in this narrative of hopeful acts.

Williams’ talk is free and open to the public, and will be held from 7:30 – 9 p.m. on Monday, April 12, at the Hilton Fort Collins Ballroom, 425 W. Prospect Road. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. No registration or tickets are required. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow the talk.

A naturalist and advocate for freedom of speech, she has consistently shown us how environmental issues are social issued 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?”

Known for her lyrical prose, Williams is the author of the environmental literature classic, “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place,” and she also wrote “An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field;” “Desert Quartet;” “Leap;” “Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert” and “The Open Space of Democracy.”

A voice for ecological consciousness and social change, Williams is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and numerous anthologies worldwide. She has testified before Congress on women’s health issues, been a guest at the White House, has camped in the remote regions of Utah and Alaska wildernesses, and worked as “a barefoot artist” in Rwanda.

This Monfort Professor-in-Residence Program is hosted by Colorado State University Libraries, Friends of Colorado State University Libraries, the CSU English Department and creative writing program, Associated Students of CSU, Organization of Graduate Student Writers, KUNC Radio and the Hilton Fort Collins.

The Monfort Professor-In-Residence program brings accomplished leaders from business, government and the arts to campus to interact with students and enrich their learning experiences. The program is provided through the Monfort Excellence Fund. Some of the leaders who have visited CSU include Reza Aslan, Iranian-American author and scholar; Joann DiGennaro, president of the Center for Excellence in Education; Sylvia Earle, marine biologist and explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society; Carl Williams, civil rights attorney; Robert Fornaro, president, AirTran Airways; and Kent Rominger, former NASA space shuttle commander and vice president of Advanced Programs, ATK Launch Systems.

For more information about the event, contact Jane Barber at (970) 491-5712 or jane.barber@colostate.edu or visit http://lib.colostate.edu/about/news/2010/ttw/.

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