Highlands Book Fair
On Saturday, September 11, I will be at the “Celebration of Books” in the Highlands Civic Center, Highlands, NC, from 9 am to 3 pm. Around 12:20 I will be doing a reading from Red Clay, Blood River, and perhaps a bit of poetry. This event is sponsored by the Cashiers/Highlands Writers group. It looks [...]
Poetry: Musing and Reading
On Thursday, August 19, I will be reading and reflecting on my poetry at 10:30 am for the “Coffee with the Poets” group at City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC. The poet’s group is just one of several under the umbrella of the Netwest Mountain Writers, affiliated with the North Carolina Writers Network. (Check out www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com.) [...]
Ligaments of Love
Ligaments of love hold life erect, pump tendrils out across the clearing where the giant tree has fallen. In dappled light we gather, sing, let weeping like lianas fall to ground, touch earth, sink new root, receive the sun, let life ascend, grow back. It’s love that gives a funeral its birth. *** This poem [...]
Body Match
For many years Sylvia and I have kept a list of body types that seem matched in happy conjugation, as if drawn together by a magnetism created solely by their size, shape, and body mass. We have absolutely no scientific evidence to support the hypothesis that this bodily conjunction is a prime ingredient in mate [...]
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.