During this program, Scott Elliott talks with TWQ producer Chérie Newman about his novel Temple Grove, which includes environmental, mythological, and American Indian themes. He also reads a passage from the book.
About the novel:
Deep in the heart of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula lies Temple Grove, one of the last stands of ancient Douglas firs not under federal protection from logging. Bill Newton, a gyppo logger desperate for work and a place to hide, has come to Temple Grove for the money to be made from the timber. There to stop him is Paul, a young Makah environmentalist who will break the law to save the trees.
A dangerous chase into the wilds of Olympic National Park ensues, revealing a long-hidden secret that inextricably links the two men. Joining the pursuit are FBI agents who target Paul as an ecoterrorist, and his mother, Trace, who is determined to protect him. Temple Grove is a gripping tale of suspense and a multilayered novel of place that captures in taut, luminous prose the traditions that tie people to this powerful landscape and the conflicts that run deep among them.
The music in this program was written and performed by John Floridis.
The Write Question blog
The Write Question on Facebook
The Write Question podcast
Scott Elliott was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1970 and grew up in Anchorage, Kentucky and on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. He earned degrees from Vanderbilt University (BA); Columbia University (MFA); and the University of Houston (Ph.D).
Scott has taught writing and literature for Hofstra University, The Teachers and Writers Collaborative (New York), Writers in the Schools (Houston), and the Inprint Organization (Houston), and was a Teaching Fellow at the University of Houston. Since 2004, he has taught at Whitman College.
His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Sniper Logic, The New York Times, the Antioch Review, the Writers Chronicle, American Book Review, Juked, Mayday, Forklift Ohio, Hawk and Handsaw, and elsewhere. His first novel Coiled in the Heart was published by Bluehen/Penguin Putnam in 2003 and was a Booksense 76 and One-Book-One-Community pick. His collection of stories, Return Arrangements, was a finalist for the 2009 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Temple Grove was published in 2013 by the University of Washington Press.
