Serving 'The only world we have'

 

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.” - Rick Bass

 

Bass, who was born in Texas in March of 1958, started writing short stories on his lunch breaks while working as a geologist in the petroleum and gas industry.  Eventually he left that field and gravitated toward environmental activism.

 

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.  Also a noted essayist, his most recent book is With Every Great Breath: New and Selected Essays, 1995-2023.   In addition to writing, he is a noted public speaker, appears often on television, and is a frequent college lecturer.

 

While Bass has authored an equal number of nonfiction and fiction works, he said approaching the latter genre’ is a more delicate proposition.

 

“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.”