William Johnson Everett
I grew up in and around Washington, DC, before moving to New England for my undergraduate education at Wesleyan University and subsequent theological studies at Yale Divinity School and Harvard University. I then taught in the field of Christian social ethics for over thirty years, first at St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, then in Atlanta at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, and finally in the Boston area at Andover Newton Theological School before retiring in 2001. Over the years, sabbaticals took me to Germany, Switzerland, India, and South Africa. My publications – in English and German — focused on church and society issues involving family, economics, ecology, politics, symbolism, and law. After seven books and some fifty articles I felt a deep need to turn to fiction writing and poetry, leading to the publication in 2008 of Red Clay, Blood River, a story told by Earth of connections between America’s Trail of Tears and South Africa’s Great Trek. My wife Sylvia and I now live in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina, a region rich in history, writing, woodworking and the arts. In the past eight years I have built a number of round communion tables and other worship furniture. For more about my woodworking and writing as well as my wife Sylvia’s art, visit our website at www.WisdomsTable.net.
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.