Testimony
Writers of the West Speak on Behalf of Utah Wilderness
compiled by Stephen Trimble and Terry Tempest Williams
"A landmark document for the U.S. environmental movement. " —The Amicus Journal
"If writing itself can be an act of public service, then this collection is it." —Senator Bill Bradley
"In Testimony, we finally have an authentic definition of wilderness.... Anyone who is concerned about the values of love, respect, and genuine care—for land, for other species, for children, for the arts—has to consider how to bring these values to bear on the policies that so affect our present and future worlds. Testimony is one model for how we can do that." —ORION Magazine
"Moving through the pieces of Testimony feels something like splashing your face with cold water. A spirit of devotion to community jumps off the pages." —Eugene Weekly
"It all feels fresh, as if twenty voices had struck an undiscovered and irresistibly powerful chord…It will, inevitably, move thousands of readers and become part of the canon of the best American writing about landscape, outer and inner." —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Stephen Trimble and Terry Tempest Williams originally created Testimony as a limited edition chapbook presented to Congress. Senators Russ Feingold and Bill Bradley read into the Congressional Record essays from this historic statement on behalf of the land in their fight to defeat an exploitative Utah wilderness bill. The book laid the groundwork for Milkweed Edition’s “The World As Home” program and became a model of environmental advocacy writing. Since *Testimony*, other activist writers have gathered "testimonies" about endangered wild places from Alaska's Tongass National Forest to New Mexico's Petroglyph National Monument. Each collection was presented to Congress, and each may have moved a staffer or senator reading late one night. Each may have made a difference.
These passionate and eloquent essays ask us to decide how we value wilderness and what actions we must take to preserve it.
Contributors: Stephen Trimble, Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass, Olive Ghiselin, Brewster Ghiselin, William Kittredge, Barry Lopez, Thomas Lyon, John McPhee, Ellen Meloy, N. Scott Momaday, Margaret E. Murie, Gary Paul Nabhan, Richard Shelton, Karen Shepherd, Donald Snow, Mark Strand, T. H. Watkins, Ann Weiler Walka, Charles Wilkinson, and Ann Zwinger.
(Milkweed Editions, 1996)
Our Gardens, Our Canyons (at Living On Earth)
Testimony, Landscape and the West—A Conversation with Stephen Trimble (in Weber Studies)
Terry Tempest Williams website
