On Friday, May 10th at 7pm at the library, author Heather Durham will be in conversation with local author Iris Graville regarding Heather’s new nature memoir in essays, “GOING FERAL: Field Notes on Wonder and Wanderlust.” The two authors were classmates at the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program, and they’ll share experiences about writing memoir, finding publishers, and the joys and terrors of being the main character in your own book.
GOING FERAL is an examination of a life of wandering in wild nature. With the scientific knowledge and observation skills of an ecologist and the existential inquiry of a philosopher, Heather immerses readers with all their senses in adventures, wanderings, and musings in wild places around the United States. Part reverential nature writing, part soul-searching memoir, GOING FERAL is the story of a human animal learning to belong to the earth.
Heather Durham holds a Master of Science in Environmental Biology from Antioch New England University and a Master of Fine Arts from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. She’s held a variety of environmental jobs around the country from interpretive park ranger to field biologist, trails worker to restoration ecologist. She currently lives in the foothills of the Washington Cascades where she works behind the scenes at Wilderness Awareness School. When not working or writing, you are likely to find Heather reading other nature writers, birding, or hunkered down in a riverside cedar grove with a journal, field guide, and binoculars, remembering wildness.
Iris Graville is a writer and retired nurse from Lopez Island, WA. Her profiles and personal essays have been published in national and regional journals and magazines. She holds a Master of Nursing degree from the University of Washington and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts where she served as nonfiction editor for Soundings Review. Iris is also the publisher of SHARK REEF online literary magazine. She blogs regularly about writing and spiritual matters. In August 2018, Iris was named the first writer-in-residence with the Washington State Ferries. You can follow her progress there at https://writingtheinterisland.org. Learn more about Iris’s publications and events at Irisgraville.com