“The
natural world is the only one we have. To try to not see the natural world - to
put on blinders and avoid seeing it - would for me seem like a form of madness.
I'm also interested in the way landscape shapes individuals and populations,
and from that, cultures.” - Rick Bass
Bass, who was
born on this date in 1958, is the son of a geologist and studied petroleum geology at
Utah State University. He started writing short stories on his lunch breaks
while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, MS, and eventually
gravitated toward environmental activism.
Today he and his wife, artist Elizabeth Hughes Bass, live in a remote
area where he both writes and works on environmental issues.
Among his more than two dozen books
are the award-winning Where the Sea Used to Be, his short story
collection The Lives of Rocks, and his autobiographical Why I Came
West. While he has an equal number of nonfiction
and fiction works, he said approaching the latter, especially incorporating tales about real people, is more delicate.
“I think a novelist must be more
tender with living or 'real' people,” he said.
“The moral imperative of having
been entrusted with their story looms before you every day, in every sentence. A novel that features real people is complicated, but in the end, that extra
challenge is all for the good.”
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