Irvine previews essay from new book
Amy Irvine, noted regional author, read from her book a “Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land”, and a newer essay, “Mother’s Milk,” Thursday in USU’s Alumni House. Irvine’s writing is centered on her time spent outdoors, her religious upbringing and “complicity,” or as Christopher Cokinos, associate English professor, said, “acknowledging that we are often critical of things we are part of.”
“I think it’s so easy to jump away from it,” Irvine said. “I can do it in a heartbeat.”
She also acknowledged complicity within her own life and talked about the repercussions of letting it control the person.
“If you can’t own your complicity,” she said, “then there’s no intimacy between self and other.”
A wilderness activist and former nationally-ranked competitive rock climber, Irvine said she used the wilderness as a way to escape the “demons” from her father’s suicide and her own inner conflict. Cokinos, the influence that brought Irvine to USU, first met her a year ago. He said it seemed “inevitable and important” to bring Irvine to Logan.
“She’s an important writer from the American West,” he said.
Cokinos said he hoped the campus and community pay attention to Irvine’s work.
“She has things to say about our relationship with the land,” he said. “I’m hoping that comes through.”
Irvine reflected on her time spent as a member of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). On the organization’s homepage, SUWA describes its mission, as the “preservation of the outstanding wilderness at the heart of the Colorado Plateau, and the management of these lands in their natural state for the benefit of all Americans.”
When asked by an audience member about her work with SUWA and as a wilderness activist, Irvine said she has hope for activism in the west. There is a debate, she said, that comes from those who advocate traditional ranching and hunting and the “tree-huggers.” Though Irvine said she supports the preservation of ranching and hunting, she said SUWA has been a strong voice in environmental legislature.
“Though I’m very ambivalent about drawing a line in the sand,” she said, “SUWA has been remarkably effective.”
During her time with SUWA, Irvine worked with Terry Tempest Williams, another regional author, known for such books as, “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place” and “Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert.” Williams reviewed Irvine’s “Trespass,” saying it is a book “full of transgressions” because Irvine has “dared to examine the nature of orthodoxy, be it religion, environmentalism, or marriage.”
Irvine said she was “irreverent and cavalier” about her writing before Williams took an interest during their work with SUWA. After her initial critique of Irvine’s writing, Williams often gave suggestions to Irvine. At one point, Williams told Irvine something that Irvine said has stayed with her ever since, a phrase she encouraged the audience to write down: “Story is the arrow that bypasses rhetoric and pierces the heart.”
Heather Griffiths, an American studies senior, attended the event and said she took away many things from the reading.
“I really enjoyed the ‘how can I get closer to this’ thought,” Griffiths said. “I can’t even reiterate. It was too brilliant for me.”
After the readings and questions, Irvine signed books for the attendees and gave advice to several students regarding their schooling and writing.
“You have to see the weather in your own little sphere,” she said, and gave a suggestion to all USU students:
“We worry about being too fundamental,” she said, “and really, we’re all after the same thing. It has nothing to do with doctrine. It’s about opening the heart.”
–k.vandyke@aggiemail.usu.edu