From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with author Terry Tempest Williams.
At first glance, a desert may appear barren. But it’s actually a place teeming with life. There are coyotes, wind in the cottonwood trees, a never-ending night sky, and once in a while, water that comes and goes with ferocity.
The Utah desert, with its raw beauty, has long been a muse for writer Terry Tempest Williams, who lives in Castle Valley. Her environmental classic “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place” interwove a story of environmental crisis with her mother’s battle with cancer.
In her 2026 book, “The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary,” Williams explores miraculous moments of grace that call for our attention, even in spaces that may at first seem unremarkable. When Williams joined us for an online Living on Earth book club event, we asked her to start by reading from a passage near the beginning of her book, one of her first encounters with a “Glorian”:
In late spring, fierce winds converge in our valley in the Red Rock Desert, a reliable occurrence that has shaped this erosional landscape. The winds are particularly strong one morning in May. I am outside admiring the coyote willow draped in magenta flowers, each one resembling a snapdragon blossom, only larger than the length of my index finger.
