Writer in Residence

Welcome to my Writer in Residence blog.  This is the place for writers and other souls to share insights on living the creative life: on retreat, at home, or while traveling and researching–basically while in residence on the planet.

I’m an author and natural scientist whose passion is exploring and writing about human and wild nature.  My work has been published in Orion, Sierra, The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Shenandoah, Standing Wave, THEMA, the acorn, More, and other magazines.  My collection of essays on rivers and the whitewater guiding culture, Reading Water: Lessons from the River (Capital), was a San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller and ForeWord Nature Book of the Year finalist. Recently I completed Junction, Utah, a river novel due out in 2013.

As a long-time river guide and researcher, I have spent much of my adult life studying water or navigating it. I love to set stories on rivers, with river people. Place is more than a setting, it’s an influence. We all respond to it; I believe our need and desire for place is innate, and it makes for good storytelling. How does your connection to place manifest?

My website is here: www.beccalawton.com. Join me in the conversation about life as a writer in residence.