A hawk wheeled up into the sky above the crowd gathered for my friend Mary’s memorial service in Twisp. Acknowledging its significance, our eyes followed the bird as it rose over the forested bluffs surrounding the small town: Mary was a naturalist and photographer, profoundly connected to the Methow Valley. She shared this connection with me in a myriad of ways, through birding walks and wildflower hikes, through her annual Methow Valley calendar and other photography, and through introductions to the people and institutions that sustain this community such as the Methow Conservancy and Twispworks.
Five years after her death from cancer at age forty-five, Mary’s influence on the Valley continues through the Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship Awards. These awards are offered annually to artists, photographers, naturalists, and environmental educators whose projects reflect the virtue of living in balance with the earth, and an intense appreciation for the place they call home.
The creative spirits I met at the recent Methow Valley Authors’ Fair reflect these values.
- The New Silversmith is Nicole Ringgold’s first book. Documenting her unique self-taught smithing techniques, it was written in collaboration with her photographer daughter Cymone Van Marter.
- Susan Blair, Sierra Golden, Sam Owen, Susan Lagsdin, and Greg Wright are all members of a thriving community of poets who find inspiration in the local landscape.
- David Lukas, a recent Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship Award recipient, is a naturalist and writer. His book, Language Making Nature, contains insights on how words were shaped and offers tools for new word creation to writers, artists, and thinkers.
- I especially enjoyed talking to herbalist Rosalee de la Floret, another Community Fellowship Award recipient, whose I am the Land, These are my People, a naturalist coloring book contains an homage to Mary: in one of the line drawings of Methow landscapes, there she is, bending over a plant, ever curious about the natural world.
The invitation to participate in the Authors’ Fair and the inclusion of my publications in the Methow Valley Authors’ Library are because of my part-time residence in the Valley. My historical fiction and mysteries are not connected by setting or plot to the Methow. But this place does inspire me—it’s where I do my most productive writing. And at this time of year, with arrowleaf balsam and lupines carpeting the hills, snow still capping Last Chance and Gardner Mountains, I feel a deep connection to this rural community and its flora, fauna, and people.
Pipestone Canyon is a familiar local hike. I used it as the background for a short story included in the Whatcom Writes 2017 anthology on the theme of forgiveness, and I read it at the Methow Valley Authors Fair. It is reprinted on my website here. I hope it gives you a taste of this enchanting environment. If my nature references are inaccurate, I hope Mary, ever the observant artist and generous teacher, would forgive me.
