Focus on Ariz. landscapes
By Doug Kreutz
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.28.2006
Three books celebrating Southwestern landscapes — a canyon, a desert and a grassland — will be featured at a free "Tribute to the Southwest" event Saturday in Tucson.
Authors and photographers of the books, all published by The University of Arizona Press, will discuss their work from 4 to 5 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 5130 E. Broadway.
Here's a passage from "Tséyi'/Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly" ($15 by Navajo poet and educator Laura Tohe).
"Deep in the rock, the interplay of texture and color. Iron and manganese dribble down the rock face. Will it matter to this land, carved by steady wind and rain, after our bones have crumbled into dust?"
Tohe's words, along with photographs by Stephen Strom, paint a lyrical portrait of the sheer-walled sandstone canyon in the heart of the Navajo homeland in northeastern Arizona.
Another featured book is "Sunshot: Peril and Wonder in the Gran Desierto" ($24.95) by author Bill Broyles and photographer Michael Berman.
Tucsonan Broyles, who has ventured repeatedly into the Grand Desert region along the border of Mexico and southwestern Arizona, writes of the area's perils, wonders, stark beauty and people.
"I opened one eye and then the other," Broyles writes about being awakened one night in a desert camp. "A kindly face with two short horns peered at me quizzically, much like a mother looking at a kid who fell back to sleep on a school day."
It was a close encounter with a bighorn sheep — one of many memorable wildlife encounters Broyles has had in his years of desert exploration.
The third book featured at Saturday's event will be "Sonoita Plain: Views From a Southwestern Grassland" (($20).
Authors Carl Bock and Jane Bock and photographer Stephen Strom focus on the ecology and aesthetics in a region of rolling grasslands and savannas near the Southern Arizona communities of Sonoita and Elgin.
"The days when ranchers and their cowboys ruled the Sonoita Plain are over," the authors write. "That is less a bad thing or a good thing than it is a sure thing. We have not made an actual count, but it seems there are about the same number of realtors and ranchers in the valley today, if you define a rancher as somebody who actually makes a complete living raising and selling livestock."
The book examines the impact of people in the area, delves into the natural forces that affect the land and highlights the biodiversity that brings it to life.
Holly Dolan, spokeswoman for the UA Press, said copies of the books will be available for sale and signing at Saturday's event.
She said the books also are available through the press Web site — www.uapress. arizona.edu — and at some bookstores.
● Contact reporter Doug Kreutz at dkreutz@azstarnet.com or at 573-4192.
