One Book Yuma Welcomes Author Melissa Sevigny to AWC/NAU-Yuma Branch Campus on March 21
February 21, 2018Yuma, AZ (February 21, 2018)— Meet author and Science & Technology Reporter for KNAU, Melissa Sevigny, on Wednesday, March 21st, 2018 from 1:00-2:30pm in the Schoening Conference Center-South (located inside the 3C: Conference Community Center) on the Yuma Campus of AWC/NAU-Yuma, 2020 South Avenue 8E in Yuma. Sevigny’s appearance is hosted by Arizona Western College and Northern Arizona University Yuma Branch Campus, and sponsored by the Friends of Yuma County Libraries, AWC Campus Life, AWC Foundation and the Yuma Sun.
Sevigny is the author of Mythical River. In a lyrical mix of natural science, history, and memoir, Sevigny ponders what it means to make a home in the American Southwest at a time when its most essential resource, water, is overexploited and undervalued. Mythical River takes the reader on a historical sojourn into the story of the Buenaventura, an imaginary river that led eighteenth- and nineteenth-century explorers, fur trappers, and emigrants astray for seventy-five years. This mythical river becomes a metaphor for our modern-day attempts to supply water to a growing population in the Colorado River Basin.
Sevigny also explores acts of restoration. From a dismantled dam in Arizona to an accidental wetland in Mexico, she examines how ecologists, engineers, politicians, and citizens have attempted to secure water for desert ecosystems. In a place scarred by conflict, she shows how recognizing the rights of rivers is a path toward water security. Ultimately, Sevigny writes a new map for the future of the American Southwest, a vision of a society that accepts the desert’s limits in exchange for an intimate relationship with the natural world.
In addition to the AWC event, Sevigny will be at the Yuma Main Library from 6:00-7:30pm. The community is invited to meet and learn more about Sevigny at both events on March 21st. The events are free to attend.
Mythical River is available for sale at the Arizona Western College Bookstore and at the event. The book is also available on loan at the Yuma County Library and the AWC/NAU-Yuma Academic Library.
One Book Yuma is a literacy and humanities program aimed at engaging our community in dialog about pertinent, topical and timely issues important to our region and the world beyond.
For more information, please contact Tymmi Woods, AWC’s Acquisitions Librarian at Tymmi.Woods@azwestern.edu, or (928) 317-6434.
Contact:
Tymmi Woods
Acquisitions Librarian
Arizona Western College
(928) 317-6434
Tymmi.Woods@azwestern.edu