Terry Tempest Williams

2005 Wallace Stegner Award Recipient

Author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams will be honored by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West on Nov. 2 at 7:00 p.m.

The Center will present Williams with its highest recognition, the Wallace Stegner Award. The free public event will be in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom. Williams also will be available to sign books at a reception before the event at 5:00 p.m. Given Williams’ popularity, audience members are encouraged to arrive early for the reception and award presentation.

The Stegner Award presentation will feature an interview and discussion of Williams’ career conducted by Patty Limerick, Professor of History and Environmental Studies and Chair of the Board at the Center of the American West, and Charles Wilkinson, Distinguished Professor of Law at CU-Boulder.

A well-known writer and naturalist, Williams is perhaps most noted for her book Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. She has long been active in environmental and conservation issues in the West. She also has testified twice before the U.S. Congress about women’s health and the environmental links to cancer.

Her work has appeared in national and international publications, including The New Yorker, The Nation, Outside, Audubon, Orion, The Iowa Review, and The New England Review. Williams is the author of ten books, including two children’s books.

“Terry Tempest Williams is one of those unusual people who is as memorable and moving as a speaker as she is as a writer,” Limerick said. “If you never quite understood what it means to say that someone has a ‘radiant and charismatic personality,’ you can find out on the evening of November 2.”

The Center presents the Wallace Stegner Award to individuals who have made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or understanding of the West. John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War, was the most recent recipient of the award in 2003. Other recipients include N. Scott Momaday, Rudolfo Anaya, Vine Deloria, Jr., and Alvin Josephy.

The handmade certificate features a personalized inscription to reflect the recipient’s distinguished accomplishments and includes a $1,000 cash award. The Wallace Stegner Award is sponsored by the Olson Family.

The Center of the American West originated in a conversation between Limerick and Wilkinson in 1986, and focuses on identifying and addressing critical issues in the West.