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Terry Tempest Williams
Environmental Writer and Activist, Utah

The work of celebrated nature writer and activist Terry Tempest Williams has been widely anthologized, having appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Outside, Audubon, Orion, The Iowa Review, and The New England Review, among other national and international publications. Williams is perhaps best known for her book, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (Pantheon, 1991), now regarded as a classic in American Nature Writing. Her most recent book, The Open Space of Democracy (Orion, 2004), offers a sharp-edged perspective on the ethics of politics and place, the soul of democracy and the responsibilities of citizen participation. The triptych of essays was the focal point of a nationwide pre-election barnstorming tour across the United States, in the fall of 2004. Her other publications include, Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert (Pantheon, 2001), and Leap (Pantheon, 2000).

Williams has been a fellow for the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and received a Lannan Literary Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction. She has served on the Governing Council of the Wilderness Society, and was a member of the western team for the President's Council for Sustainable Development. She is currently on the advisory board of the National Parks and Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Ms. Williams has testified before the United States Congress twice regarding women's health and the environmental links associated with cancer, and has been a strong advocate for America's Redrock Wilderness Act. Williams has been inducted to the Rachel Carson Honor Roll, and has received the National Wildlife Federation's Conservation Award for Special Achievement.

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