Wild+human nature

Greetings.

At the Hess Collection, Napa, California. Photograph by Rebecca Lawton.

Welcome to my author site. You can visit my blog, see samples of my writing here, find my books.
Stay and comment. I’m glad you’re here.

My work is based on field observations, as a scientist, river guide, naturalist, and inveterate journal keeper. I’ve believed for many years that our world is changing so fast, writers and artists in all media have a huge task to record the details of places as they alter with warming climate, culture shifts, and other vagaries of time.

I live and work in California, but my work is situated all over North America. Landscapes of drought, flood, migration–all hold my interest and no doubt pique your curiosity, too.

For creative nonfiction about rivers and water, check out my book Reading Water: Lessons from the River. For short stories on water and species at risk, including vulnerable human subcultures, check out Steelies and Other Endangered Species: Stories on Water. For long fiction on water and danger in small communities and wilderness, you’ll love Junction, Utah. My essay “Sacrament,” written about California’s biggest river, the Sacramento, is paired with my friend Geoff Fricker’s photographs in the lovely Sacrament: Homage to a River. If you’re a geology nut, read Discover Nature in the Rocks, written for laypeople who are just curious about the earth.

Occasionally I get the opportunity to teach workshops or give readings. I keep a list of upcoming events here. When I’m fortunate these are done in collaboration with my writer, artist, and scientist friends. You can read more about some of those talented people in the writer-in-residence pages of my Wild + Human Nature Blog.

Hoping to see you soon!