Terry Tempest Williams, author, environmentalist, and activist

Terry Tempest Williams has been called “a citizen writer,” a writer who speaks and speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. A naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, she has consistently shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. Known for her impassioned and lyrical prose, Williams is the author of environmental literature classic "Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place," "Finding Beauty in a Broken World," and "When Women Were Birds," among others. Her most recent book, "The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks," honors the centennial of the National Park Service and is a New York Times best seller. Among many awards, she is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. In 2014, on the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, she received the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award honoring a distinguished record of leadership in American conservation. Williams also received the 2017 Audubon New York Award for Environmental Writing.