Writer Reflections on Desert Landscapes
Celebrate this year’s Waterston Desert Writing Prize! Join us at the Museum on Thursday, September 22 at 5:30pm for an evening of readings from the Prize winner, Caroline Tracey, keynote speaker Kevin Fedarko and guest judge Raquel Gutiérrez.
The Waterston Desert Writing Prize honors literary nonfiction that illustrates artistic excellence, sensitivity to place and desert literacy with the desert as both subject and setting.
We are honored to be joined at the Museum by this year’s winner of the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, Caroline Tracey for “SALT LAKES.”
Her submission is a collection of 18 essays providing a queer perspective on climate change in arid environments. Tracey is based in Tucson, Arizona and focuses her work on culture, environment and migration in the southwestern United States, Mexico and the borderlands between the two.
We’re honored to welcome acclaimed author Kevin Fedarko, the writer behind The New York Times bestseller The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon. He will share insights about the Grand Canyon in his presentation titled “Beneath the River of Shooting Stars: Beauty, Hardship and Grace in the Grand Canyon.”
We’re also privileged to include 2022 Waterston Guest Judge Raquel Gutiérrez in our celebration. Gutiérrez is an MFA faculty author at OSU-Cascades. A 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism, their writing has appeared in Art in America, The Georgia Review and on NPR Music. Gutiérrez recently published a memoir, Brown Neon.
Waterston Desert Writing Prize Award Ceremony
Thursday, September 22
5:30-6:30pm reception
6:30-8pm program
$7, members receive 20 percent discount
RSVP: Registration