This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with author and environmental activist Rick Bass, author of With Every Great Breath, a collection of new and selected essays spanning nearly thirty years: from 1995-2023. These essays attempt to step away from lamentation and prescription (so often tenants of environmental writing and activism in the face of crisis), to inhabit and celebrate, as deeply as possible, the greater depths of our world’s natural beauty—from Libby, Montana, to the far-flung Galápagos, Namibia, and Alaska.
About Rick:
Rick Bass is the author of over thirty books. He is a winner of the Story Prize, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, a PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He has served as contributing editor to Sierra, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Big Sky Journal, Amicus Journal, Outside, Orion, Field & Stream, The Contemporary Wingshooter, and many other publications. He currently serves on the editorial board of Whitefish Review. He was born and raised in Texas, worked as a petroleum geologist in Mississippi, and has lived in Montana’s Yaak Valley for almost forty years.
Rick Bass recommends:
Some Horses: Essays by Thomas McGuane (Lyons Press)
One Hundred Paintings by Russell Chatham (Clark City Press)
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen (Scribner)
The music of George Winston; Maggie Rogers; David Byrne; and Martha Scanlan, especially “Hallelujah” and “Seeds of the Pine”
Lauren Korn recommends:
With Every Great Breath: New and Selected Essays, 1995-2023 (Counterpoint Press), Winter: Notes from Montana (Mariner Books), and Why I Came West: A Memoir (Mariner Books) by Rick Bass
Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness by Pete Fromm (Picador USA)
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams (Vintage Books)
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray (Milkweed Editions)
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, producer, and editor; and Jake Birch, co-producer; and Chris Moyles, sound engineer. This episode is sponsored by Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana, a literary and community resource for the Bitterroot Valley—providing space to explore, discover, and share passions since 1974. More information can be found at Chapter1Bookstore.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
