Laura Waterman – Calling Wild Places Home

Climber, conservationist and author, Laura Waterman will talk about her new book, Calling Wild Places Home: A Memoir in Essays, with Mary Margaret Sloan.

Join us to learn more about this new collection of poignant and vulnerable essays that weave together seemingly disparate themes of wild places and mountain stewardship, books and reading, and building a new life after loss.

Laura Waterman writes, “I began writing these essays in my late seventies. By then much had changed in my relation to mountains. I wanted to capture that, too: how aging had increased my joy of being in the mountains at the same time it had limited what I could accomplish. And how this limiting of ambitious mountain days had focused me on explorations from my door, my own home territory, where I found unexpected beauty and experienced a sense of discovery.”

Laura Waterman grew up in New Jersey and was an editor in book publishing in New York City where she met and married Guy Waterman. In 1973, they moved to Vermont to establish an off-the-grid homestead. For the next nearly 30 years, Laura and Guy collaboratively wrote books about mountain ethics and stewardship, subjects that grew out of their own climbing life until Guy’s death in 2000. Guy’s choice to take his own life steered Laura to write Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage, a memoir about their homesteading, writing, and climbing years, and her attempt to understand her own role in her husband’s decision. Laura, and posthumously Guy, were awarded the David Brower Conservation Award from the American Alpine Club in 2012, and in 2019, Laura was inducted into the AAC’s Hall of Mountaineering Excellence.

Mary Margaret Sloan and her husband grow flowers and wine grapes at their historic farm at Gilbert’s Hill in Woodstock, the site of the first ski rope tow in the country. Before retiring last year, Mary Margaret led and supported nonprofit organizations, ranging from Vital Communities and Student Conservation Association based in the Upper Valley to American Hiking Society based in Washington, DC. Currently, she serves on the Board of the Children’s Literacy Foundation, volunteers and subs at the Norman Williams Public Library, and plays pick-up volleyball.

This event is free and open to all! RSVP of your interest in attending (below) is appreciated as seating is limited.

Yankee Bookshop is co-hosting and will have books for purchase and signing.

Please email Programs@NormanWilliams.org for more information.