Terry Tempest Williams

  ,The beloved author of ,Refuge, returns with a work that explodes and startles, illuminates and celebrates,Terry Tempest Williamsâ€™s mother told her:Â â€œI am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you wonâ€™t look at them until after Iâ€™m gone.â€,Readers of Williamsâ€™s iconic and unconventional memoir, ,Refuge,, well remember that mother.Â She was one of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah who developed cancer as a result of the nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. It was a shock to Williams to discover thatÂ her mother had kept journals.Â But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them.Â Â ,â€œThey were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books . . . I opened the first journal.Â It was empty. I opened the second journal.Â It was empty.Â I opened the third.Â It too was empty . . . Shelf after shelf after shelf, all of my motherâ€™s journals were blank.â€ What did Williamsâ€™s mother mean by that? InÂ fifty-four chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, each with its own logic and beauty, Williams creates a lyrical and caring meditation of the mystery of her mother's journals. ,When Women Were Birds, is a kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question â€œWhat does it mean to have aÂ voice?â€,Â ,

Autobiography,Memoir,Nonfiction,Feminism,Writing,Essays,Poetry,Environment,Nature,Biography,Biography Memoir,Womens,Language,Writing
When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice