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 [...]
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. [...]
Plugged In!
I am finally and hopefully able to send out announcements of recent postings after a two-month hiatus due to a malfunctioning “plug-in” that wouldn’t work in my new server. I can now invite you to check out recent poems and other posts. “On the Trail,” a poem prompted by the constant need to understand the [...]
On the Trail
Walking in his moccasins I felt a pain shoot up my leg. I tried to shift terrain, find smoother ground, a grassy place rolled flat. I shook my foot and curled my toes. The pain insistent made me stop, sit down, remove the pebble buried in the hide, the stone that made him cry in [...]
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.