David B. Williams And Mary Ann Gwinn Discuss “Homewaters”

Join us for a conversation about the human and natural histories in, on, and around Puget Sound. Click here to register via EventBrite.

David B. Williams will discuss his new book Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound with Mary Ann Gwinn.

The event is presented in partnership with Elliott Bay Book Company and University of Washington Press. This event is supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation. Thanks to media sponsor The Seattle Times.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region’s ecological complexities.

Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today’s ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound’s ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change.

Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home.

A Michael J. Repass Book

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

David B. Williams is a naturalist, author, and educator. His many books include the award-winning Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography and Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City. His newest book Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound is available now.

Mary Ann Gwinn writes about books and authors for The Seattle Times, Kirkus Reviews, the Los Angeles Times and other publications. A Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, she was the book editor of the Seattle Times from 1998 to 2017 and a judge for the 2017 Pulitzer fiction award. She’s a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

View in Catalog: Homewaters by David B. Williams

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