This is one woman’s story of growing up downwind of an atomic testing site in a wild, beautiful, and “virtually uninhabited” area near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. “My family were some of the virtual uninhabitants,” Williams says. In 1983, as her mother was dying of cancer, there was a catastrophic flood of the Great Salt Lake which threatened the wildlife on its flood plain. The flooding was a natural event and the nuclear testing was a by-product of technology. Both were devastating. Nine women in her family developed cancer, and seven of them are now dead. Williams has emerged from this background as a poetically and politically aware naturalist and author, with powerful personal perspectives on grief, love, and the spirituality of nature, lake and desert. She speaks with rich insight on cancer and creativity, living boldly in the moment, and the meaning of refuge. “We no longer can be complacent to the dark side,” says Williams. “It’s where the source of our power lies. . . The only risk to ourselves is if we choose to remain silent.”
