NAUTILUS BOOK AWARD WINNER
The problem of dominion that has always complicated humanity's
relationship with wild places is at the center of Rebecca Lawton's essay
collection...her expertise is apparent, as is her enthusiasm.
--THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Water, the most critical fluid on the planet, is seen as savior,
benefactor, and Holy Grail in these fifteen essays on natural and faux
oases. Fluvial geologist and former Colorado River guide Rebecca Lawton
follows species both human and wild to their watery roots--in warming
deserts, near rising Pacific tides, on endangered, tapped-out rivers,
and in growing urban ecosystems. Lawton thoroughly and eloquently
explores human attitudes toward water in the West, from Twentynine
Palms, California, to Sitka, Alaska. A lifelong immersion in all things
water forms the author's deep thinking about living with this critical
compound and sometimes dying in it, on it, with too much of it, or for
lack of it. The Oasis This Time, the inaugural Waterston Desert
Writing Prize winner, is a call for us to evolve toward a sustainable
and even spiritual connection to water.
REBECCA LAWTON grew up exploring rivers and deserts throughout the
American West. Her writing on water, climate, and wild and human nature
has been honored with a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, the Ellen
Meloy Award for Desert Writers, the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, a
WILLA for original softcover fiction, Pushcart Prize nominations in
prose and poetry, and residencies at Hedgebrook, PLAYA, and The Island
Institute. She lives with guitarist Paul Christopulos in Summer Lake,
Oregon, where she directs PLAYA's residency program for writers,
artists, and scientists.
