"On Sacred Ground" explores the literature of the Northwest, the
area that extends from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains,
and from the forty-ninth parallel to the Siskiyou Mountains. The
Northwest exhibits astonishing geographical diversity and yet the
entire bioregion shares a similarity of climate, flora, and fauna.
For Nicholas O'Connell, the effects of nature on everyday
Northwest life carry over to the region's literature. Although
Northwest writers address a number of subjects, the relationship
between people and place proves the dominant one, and that has been
true since the first tribes settled the region and began telling
stories about it, thousands of years ago. Indeed, it is the common
thread linking Chief Seattle to Theodore Roethke, Narscissa Whitman
to Ursula K. Le Guin, Joaquin Miller to Ivan Doig, Marilynne
Robinson to Jack London, Betty MacDonald to Gary Snyder.
Tracing the history of Pacific Northwest literary works--from
Native American myths to the accounts of explorers and settlers,
the effusions of the romantics, the sharply etched stories of the
realists, the mystic visions of Northwest poets, and the
contemporary explosion of Northwest poetry and prose--O'Connell
shows that the most important contribution of Northwest writers to
American literature is their articulation of a more spiritual human
relationship with landscape. Pacific Northwest writers and
storytellers see the Northwest not just as a source of material
wealth but as a spiritual homeland, a place to lead a rich and
fulfilling life within the whole context of creation. And just as
the relationship between people and place serves as the unifying
feature of Northwest literature, so also does literature possess a
perhaps unique ability to transform a landscape into a sacred
place.
Nicholas O'Connell is the author of "At the Field's End:
Interviews with twenty-two Pacific Northwest Writers." He is the
founder of www.thewritersworkshop.net and an instructor at the
University of Washington Extension School.
"As a reader, I'm grateful to O'Connell for amassing his
material and presenting it in thought-provoking fashion, and as a
teacher, I'm happy to have a book such as this as a starting place
for discussing Northwest literature with students. "On Sacred
Ground" is of value to anyone interested in the on-going attempt to
define and articulate our region's literature." - David
Guterson
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