Author Rebecca Lawton at Readers’ Books
Author Rebecca Lawton will present her new book, The Oasis This Time, at Readers’ Books on May 1. The event begins with a reception at 6:30 followed by reading at 7 p.m.
A former Springs resident, Lawton worked for many years at Sonoma Ecology Center.
In her new work, Lawton, a fluvial geologist and former Colorado River guide, examines the complex relationship between desert waters and both humankind and wild species. Traveling between warming deserts, tapped-out rivers and rising Pacific tides, she views the multiple complex relationship humans have towards water in the West.
As climate change and environmental disaster looms ever nearer, Lawton considers the human relationship, physically and spiritually, with life-giving water that gives us life. The book has won the inaugural Waterston Desert Writing Prize.
Lawton grew up exploring rivers and deserts throughout the American West. Her work on water, climate, and wild and human nature has been honored with a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, the Ellen Meloy Award for Desert Writers, a WILLA Award for original softcover fiction, Pushcart Prize nominations in prose and poetry, and residencies at Hedgebrook, PLAYA, and the Island Institute.
Her other books include Sacrament: Homage to a River, and Junction, Utah. She lives with guitarist Paul Christopulos in Summer Lake, Oregon, where she directs PLAYA’s residency program for writers, artists, and scientists.
Readers’ Books, 130 E. Napa Street, Sonoma.
