NW Voices Virtually Presents Author Robert Michael Pyle and Judy VanderMaten on February 25

Come join us for the first NW Voices event of 2021, and our first Zoom version, on Thursday, February 25, 2021 featuring author Robert Michael Pyle and photographer Judy VanderMaten. The authors of The Tidewater Reach will have an online reading via Zoom beginning at 7:00 p.m. Specific Zoom information can be found on the library’s website.

The Tidewater Reach: Field Guide to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures, pairs poems and pictures, complementing the beautiful verse of celebrated naturalist, writer, and environmentalist Robert Michael Pyle with the stunning photographs of collaborator Judy VanderMaten to evoke "a different kind of way of seeing." The Tidewater Reach extends our idea of what a Field Guide might be and the language we use to characterize and illuminate the natural world. "'These are images and words captured in hopes of furnishing for you a new kind of aesthetic, imaginative, and yes, even factual guide to our oh-so-luckily shared home: the Tidewater Reach.” This latest work “extends our idea of what a field guide might be and the language we use to characterize and illuminate the natural world..."

Robert Michael Pyle grew up and learned his butterflies in Colorado, where he fell in love with the Magdalena Alpine and its high-country habitat. He took his Ph.D. in butterfly ecology at Yale University, worked as a conservation biologist in Papua New Guinea, Oregon, and Cambridge, and has written full-time for many years. His twenty-two books include Wintergreen (John Burroughs Medal), Where Bigfoot Walks (Guggenheim Fellowship), and Sky Time in Gray’s River (National Outdoor Book Award). He lives in rural southwest Washington State and still studies butterflies. Originally a native of Iowa, Judy VanderMaten has lived in the Northwest since 1980.  Her initial interest in photography was sparked at the age of eight when her parents gave her a Brownie Instamatic camera for her birthday.  It wasn’t until after graduating from Iowa State University that she took her first photography class. Her work has been shown in galleries ranging from Astoria, Portland, on the coast and up the Columbia River, and as far as Iowa and Illinois; her photos have been published in magazines and books as well. She recently retired from LCC after 23 years.  She and her husband currently reside in Cathlamet.

All events are free and open to the public. Northwest Voices is funded by the Longview Public Library and Lower Columbia College, Friends of the Longview Library, Longview Library Foundation, and the LCC Foundation.