Erosion: Essays of Undoing

“Each of us finds our identity within the communities we call home,” writes Terry Tempest Williams in Erosion, a galvanizing new collection of essays that navigates the emotional, geographical, and communal territories of home. Sizing up the assaults on America’s public lands and the erosion of our commitment to the open spaces of democracy, Williams fiercely examines the many forms of erosion we face—of democracy, science, compassion, and trust. From the gutting of sacred lands to Native Peoples of the American Southwest to the undermining of the Endangered Species Act, Williams testifies about the harsh reality of the climate crisis and how our earth—our home—is being torn apart. One of today’s most important writers and conservationists, Williams is the award-winning author of The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks; Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; and When Women Were Birds. Discussing her new essays, Williams blazes a way forward through dispiriting times to arrive at new truths about the beauty of human nature.