Books & Reading

Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Lecture

About the Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Lecture

The lecture honors the late Lawrence Clark Powell, librarian, literary critic, prolific author, self-proclaimed "bibliomaniac," and Tucson resident for more than 30 years. Powell helped to found the University of Arizona's School of Library and Information Science in the 1970s. After his death in 2001, the library began celebrating his contributions with the lecture.

In memory of Powell's writings and reverence for the Southwest, the lecture bearing his name is delivered by an author whose breadth of work reflects the values, landscape, history and culture of the region.

In addition to the lecture, the library honors one person with the Lawrence Clark Powell Lifetime Achievement Award for his/her contribution to southwestern letters. This award, sometimes called "The Powie," was first presented in 2002.

The lecture is one of a series of literary events presented in December by the Pima County Public Library's Southwest Literature Project.

Honorees

Year	Lecturer	Lifetime Achievement Award
2009	Craig Childs	Dr. James S. (Big Jim) Griffith
2008	Gary Paul Nabhan	Dr. Bernard L. "Bunny" Fontana
2007	Luci Tapahonso	J.C. Martin
2006	Jimmy Santiago Baca	Winn Bundy
2005	Richard Shelton	Katie Lee
2004	Luis Urrea	Byrd Baylor
2003	Patricia Preciado Martin	J.P.S. Brown
2002	Charles Bowden	Marguerite Noble
2001	Denise Chavez	no award

2009

Listen now

• "Bunny" Fontana introduces 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Dr. James S. (Big Jim) Griffith
• Dr. James S. (Big Jim) Griffith's Acceptance Speech
• Author Gregory McNamee introduces 2009 Lecturer Craig Childs
• Craig Childs' Lecture

Lecturer: Critically-acclaimed Author Craig Childs

On Thursday, December 10, 2009, Craig Childs delivered the 9th Annual Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Lecture. Childs is a critically-acclaimed writer who focuses on natural sciences, archaeology, desert ecology and mind-blowing journeys into the wilderness.

About Craig Childs

An Arizona native, Childs is well-known for his forays in the wild, expeditions that influence and inform his writing and prompted the New York Times to characterize him as "a modern day desert father." Likewise, the LA Times compares his writing to "pure oxygen," that "stings like a slap in the face." He has won numerous awards, including the 2008 Galen Rowell Art of Adventure Award, the 2008 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and the 2003 Spirit of the West Award for his body of work, an honor he shares with Wallace Stegner, N. Scott Momaday and Terry Tempest Williams.

Craig Child's Publications & Awards

Childs is the author of The Animal Dialogues, The Secret Knowledge of Water, House of Rain (a Southwest Books of the Year Top Pick in 2007), Soul of Nowhere and numerous other books and articles. He is also a frequent contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition. He lives off the grid in Colorado.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. James S. (Big Jim) Griffith

The Lawrence Clark Powell Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. James S. (Big Jim) Griffith. One of the foremost folklorists in the nation, Griffith ran the University of Arizona's Southwest Folklore Center between 1979 and 1998, hosted a weekly spot called "Southern Arizona Traditions" on KUAT's Arizona Illustrated program, and curated numerous exhibitions of regional art. He is the author of six books on southern Arizona folk arts and, with his wife, Loma, started the Tucson Meet Yourself folklife festival, held annually in October.

2008

Lecturer: Author and World-Renowned Desert Ecologist and Conservation Scientist Gary Paul Nabhan

On Tuesday, December 9, 2008, award-winning author and conservationist, Gary Paul Nabhan, delivered the 8th annual Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Lecture. He was introduced by Christine Szuter, Director of the University of Arizona Press and associate professor of anthropology at UA. Listen now.

About Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan

Nabhan is an Arab-American writer, lecturer, food and farming advocate, rural lifeways folklorist and conservationist whose work has long been rooted in the U.S./Mexico borderlands region he affectionately calls "the stinkin' hot desert."

He is currently a research social scientist at the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona, and formerly served as the director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.

Nabhan has been called a "localvore hero" for his work championing conservation and consumption of locally-grown, region-specific foods as a way to preserve the genetic diversity of our cuisine.

He is a co-founder of Native Seeds /SEARCH in Tucson, a non-profit organization which marks its 25th anniversary this year. He also helped found project RAFT: Renewing America's Food Traditionas and has edited several RAFT publications, including Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods.

Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan's Publications & Awards

Nabhan is the author of many books, including Coming Home to Eat, The Desert Smells Like Rain, The Forgotten Pollinators, Gathering the Desert, Why Some Like it Hot, and Counting Sheep.

His most recent works include the 2008 publication of Arab/American: Landscape, Culture, and Cuisine in Two Great Deserts by the University of Arizona Press, and Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine, published by Shearwater on September 1.

For his literary non-fiction, grassroots conservation and community-based ethnobiology projects, Nabhan has been honored with the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, a Mac Arthur "genius" award, a Western States Book Award, a Lannan Literary Award, a Pew Fellowship in conservation and environment, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Bernard L. "Bunny" Fontana

The LCP Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Dr. Bernard L. "Bunny" Fontana, a retired UA Anthropology professor, prolific author and historian, and champion of the Mission St. Xavier del Bac restoration. Listen now.

Dr. Fontana's career documenting and writing about Southwest history and Native Americans spans more than 50 years, with the bulk of it spent at the Arizona State Museum and the University of Arizona.

He is most frequently recognized for his work documenting the restoration of the stunning artwork inside the Mission San Xavier del Bac, including the discoveries of a new angel, La Divina Pastora and the Virgin Mary diapering the baby Jesus.

He will be introduced by Nicholas Bleser, former Parks Service historian at Tumacacori National Historical site, and who has long been involved in the Southwest Mission Research Center, Kino Mission tours.

Dr. Fontana's Contribution to Southwest Letters

Dr. Fontana is author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 23 books and monographs, most of them related to the history and Native Americans of the Southwest. Some of his better-known works include:

• Biography of a Desert Church: The Story of Mission San Xavier del Bac
• Massacre on the Gila: An Account of the Last Major Battle between American Indians, with Reflections on the Origin of War
• Trailing the Holy Cross: Soldiers' Feet, Apache Ears and the Santa Cruz Valley

He also received the Border Regional Library Association awards for literary excellence for Tarahumara: Where Night is the Day of the Moon (1979) and Of Earth and Little Rain: The Papago Indians (1981).

He has received many awards, most recently the Dr. Richard Carmona Community Service Award of Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucson (2005), the Luminaria Award of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (1998), and the (1995) Governor's Award for Historic Preservation.

He has also authored more than 150 articles and chapters in books in professional and popular publications about the Southwest.

2007

Lecturer: Luci Tapahonso

On December 6, 2007 Luci Tapahonso delivered the seventh annual Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial lecture. Listen now.

Luci Tapahonso is a professor of American Indian Studies and English at the University of Arizona. Known for her stories of growing up and living on the Navajo Nation in northwest New Mexico, she is the author of five books of poetry as well as three children's books. Her writing expresses her love of the Navajo world and gives readers a new way of understanding themselves and their connections to each other.

Blue Horses Rush In, which received the Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association's 1998 Award for Poetry "...marks a major accomplishment in American literature for its successful blending of Navajo cultural values and forms with the English language, while at the same time retaining the Navajo character," noted the University of Arizona Press.

Tapahonso's recognitions and honors also include the 2006 Lifetime Achievement award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.

Lifetime Achievement Award: J.C. Martin

Listen now to J.C. Martin's acceptance speech at the seventh annual Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial lecture on December 6, 2007.

Journalist J.C. Martin was honored for her lifetime contribution to southwestern letters.

Currently the author of "Southern Arizona Authors," a monthly column that appears in the Arizona Daily Star, Martin recently retired as coordinator of Southwest Books of the Year - a publication she began nearly 31 years ago as a listing of the year's best books written about the Southwest.

2006

Lecturer: Jimmy Santiago Baca

You can listen to the lecture given by Jimmy Santiago Baca on December 7, 2006 right here. Listen now.

One of the foremost voices in American literature and poetry, Baca's rags-to-riches writing career began 25 years ago in a most unlikely place - behind bars in Arizona's maximum security prison in Florence.

Then, he was functionally illiterate, serving time in solitary confinement. Today, he is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the National Book Award for Poetry, the International Hispanic Heritage Award, the International Prize, and has held the Wallace Stevens Endowed Chair, Yale University and the Regents Chair, University of California, Berkeley.

His recent published works include his memoir, A Place to Stand, winner of the prestigious International Award, a collection of short stories entitled The Importance of a Piece of Paper, and Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande.

Today, Baca also conducts writing workshops for children and adults at schools, community centers and correctional facilities. While in Tucson, he conducted workshops at the Tucson Complex of the Arizona State Prison on South Wilmot Road and the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Winn Bundy

Winn Bundy - Listen now to Winn Bundy's acceptance speech at the sixth annual Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial lecture on December 7, 2006.

Winn Bundy, owner of the Singing Wind Bookshop in Benson, Arizona, received the 2006 Lawrence Clark Powell Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to southwestern letters.

Bundy's bookshop has been a destination for lovers of Southwestern literature since 1974, when she set up shop in an alcove of her Benson-area cattle ranch. Over time her "book stock" has grown to tens of thousands of titles. Her reputation for shelving a rich representation of southwestern authors and regional topics draws avid readers from around the world.

Bundy holds master's degrees in history and library science from the University of Arizona. She credits her friend, Lawrence Clark Powell - librarian, literary critic, prolific author, self-proclaimed "bibliomaniac" and Tucson resident for 30 years - for nurturing her love of books and literature.

Thanks to Our Sponsors

The Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Lecture is made possible by a generous gift from the Friends of the Pima County Public Library, with additional support from the Arizona Historical Society.

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