Dirt and Life
Thanks to recommendations from two friends, I have been enjoying the writings of Barry Lopez and William Bryant Logan. North Carolina poet Kay Byer, after hearing about the ecological framework of Red Clay, Blood River, suggested I read Lopez’s collection, Vintage Lopez. I then went on to his About This Life, a collection of essays. [...]
Desert Beauty
Where water hides divorced from shimmering air, and plants stand sentinel within unbounded space, unnurturing wind besieges beauty blooming blood among the fractured rocks, leading eye beyond myself to see what farther is, what chaos constitutes the wild creation.
Cosmic Wonder and Parochial Idols
On our recent trip to Florida we spent a day and a half at the Kennedy Space Center and Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. Some might think it ironic that this awesome testimony to human ingenuity and aspiration would shelter and safeguard an abundance of the natural, from alligators to snowy egrets. One aims for the [...]
Earth Speaks in Haiti
All our careful plans and fervent hopes are devastated by one brief shudder in earth’s crust. In the face of such appalling suffering and destruction, an offering of words seems an obscene gesture. Yet words must come, not only to spurn on our action, but to reconstruct the world of meaning which a cataclysm threatens. [...]
keep looking »William J. Everett
In my teaching career I authored eight books and numerous articles in social ethics and religion. After over thirty years of academic work — in Germany, India, and South Africa as well as in the United States — I wanted to turn my hand to a poetically written novel to probe the issues of ecological and human reconciliation.
When I am not writing, I create furniture for worship settings. For more about my work, go to www.WisdomsTable.net, where you will also find galleries of artwork by my wife Sylvia, whose ancestors were the original inspiration for Red Clay, Blood River. Click to read my complete bio...
Red Clay Blood River
Red Clay, Blood River is a story told by Earth about two brothers from Germany and an enslaved South African woman whose lives bind together America’s “Trail of Tears” and South Africa’s simultaneous “Great Trek” of 1838. Memories of their journeys through oppression, estrangement and reconciliation reverberate in the lives of three contemporary students brought together by their interests in ecology. Through their often difficult friendship and a surprising discovery they begin to unravel the mystery of their estrangements, struggles, and deep connections to each other and to the earth.
Based on extensive research in the United States, South Africa, and England, this book takes readers through a sweeping saga of love and conflict in the context of emigration, invasion, slavery, and exploitation. Through its stories we are invited to see our fractured human history from within the sensibilities of an earth that seeks the flourishing of all creatures and transcends their deaths within its life.
I welcome you to read Excerpts from Red Clay Blood River.
You can also view some Reader's Responses to the book.
If you are already reading Red Clay, Blood River, check out the Reader's Guide and Glossary of Names.
If you are in a Book Club, go to the Guide for Discussion Groups.
If you want to know more about people who helped me in writing this book check out the People Present at the Creation.