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| photo: Terry Tempest Williams | |
Brooke Williams writes about evolution, consciousness, and his own adventures exploring both the inner and outer wilderness. He grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, eventually opting for time outside wandering instead of a Mormon mission. Recent books include Open Midnight: Where Wilderness and Ancestors Meet and Mary Jane Wild: Two Walks and a Rant.
His latest is Encountering Dragonfly: Notes on the Practice of Re-enchantment (Uphill Books, April 8, 2025), which is his account of being drawn into a different kind of relationship with the natural world. He believes that the length of the past equals the length of the future. He lives with the writer Terry Tempest Williams and their two cats near Moab, Utah, where they watch the light and wait for rain.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Dragonflies helped me see that if the disenchantment of the world is the root of our most serious problems, re-enchantment is part of the solution.
On your nightstand now:
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami. I love how matter-of-factly and realistically he dissolves the borders between worlds.
Dancing with the Dead by Red Pine. His translations of ancient Chinese poems add a valuable dimension to my life. This book samples so much of his work and includes his philosophy of life and the art of translating.
Naked at Our Age by Joan Price. We are in our 70s.
Jung, Synchronicity, and Human Destiny by Ira Progoff. One of hundreds of books we inherited from Terry's grandmother. It adds greatly to my understanding of synchronicity, which I believe to be a major element of the enchanted world.
Treekeepers by Lauren E. Oakes. A friend and former student, Lauren has made trees a new dimension to my life.
Was It Worth It? by Doug Peacock. Doug, my friend (more like a big brother) provides me with foundational wisdom, and is there when my own conscience is insufficient.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.
Favorite book when you were a child:
First, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Looking back, I think that this book opened a door for me to feel the way I do about all life.
Then, On the Loose by Terry and Renny Russell (see below).
Your top five authors, today:
Red Pine, David Hinton, Paul Shepard, Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami.
Book you've faked reading:
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. I wish I could read this, but every time I try, I get bogged down and want a nap.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Existence by David Hinton. So short--on viewing one painting, yet powerful enough that now, if asked about my religious affiliation, I'd consider myself a Taoist.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Red Book by Carl Jung--I'm a real disciple of Jung and thought that a book this big and this red must be a treasure chest. (It is.)
Book you hid from your parents:
On the Loose by Terry and Renny Russell. For me, this book took the place of the Book of Mormon, which was sacrosanct in my family.
Book that changed your life:
On the Loose by Terry and Renny Russell. At the perfect time in my life, this book opened the door to a huge new world.
Favorite line from a book:
From Nature and Madness by Paul Shepard:
"Beneath the veneer of civilization, in the trite phase of humanism, lies not the barbarian and the animal, but the human in us who knows what is right and necessary for becoming fully human: birth in gentle surroundings, a rich non-human environment, juvenile tasks with simple tools, the discipline of natural history, play at being animals, the expressive arts of receiving food as spiritual gift rather than as a product, the cultivation of metaphorical significance of natural phenomena of all kinds, clan membership and small-group life, and the profound claims and liberation of ritual initiation and the subsequent stages of adult mentorship. There is a secret person undamaged in each of us, aware of the validity of these conditions and sensitive to their right moments in our lives."
Five books you'll never part with:
Nature and Madness by Paul Shepard. This helped me put words to the story which I've pursued most of my life: "...how, during these complicated and dangerous times, do we find and call upon our own evolutionary bodies?"
Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Red Pine. When age forced me to confront my own physical inability to access wild places, this book helped me enter my own hermit phase, which I'll stay in the rest of my life.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. We spent a week studying this book while wandering the paths that Woolf and her people walked in England. She gives me permission to follow the streams of my own consciousness, which adds an important dimension to my life.
Existence by David Hinton. This book continues to supply words that make sense.
Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences by Abraham Maslow. At just the right time in my life, this book empowered me by allowing me to legitimize my own primary experience over those of others I was taught controlled my life.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock. A difficult question, but this book came up spontaneously just now, so I'll trust that. It's about grizzly bears and Vietnam, and it is thrilling.