Chapter Meeting: Tuesday, May 21, 7:00 p.m.
Posted Feb 18, 2024
Tuesday, May 21, 7:00 PM: Melissa Sevigny. Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon
Hybrid meeting: In-person and via Zoom
Melissa Sevigny will present her new book, Brave the Wild River, the remarkable story of and an evocative and beautifully written chronicle of botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter’s history-making journey through the Grand Canyon in the summer of 1938. Before Clover and Jotter, no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first. Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, Sevigny traces their daring forty-three-day journey down the river, during which they meticulously cataloged the thorny plants that thrived in the Grand Canyon’s secret nooks and crannies. Brave the Wild River is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a defining landscape in the American West, at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever.
Following the presentation will be a book signing. Purchase your books ahead of time at Bright Side Bookshop. Books will not be available at the event.
Melissa L. Sevigny is a science journalist at KNAU (Arizona Public Radio). She has worked in water policy, sustainable agriculture, and space exploration, and is the author of Under Desert Skies and Mythical River. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.
