This episode of Access Utah was rebroadcast Thursday, October 18, 2012.
Terry Tempest Williams’ mother told her, “I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone.”
“They were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books . . . I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It too was empty . . . Shelf after shelf after shelf, all of my mother’s journals were blank.”
In her new book, When Women Were Birds, acclaimed Utah writer Terry Tempest Williams considers the mystery of her mother's journals and the questions “What does it mean to have a voice?” Tom Williams will ask that question and many others on Tuesday's hour-long interview with Williams on Access Utah.
Terry Tempest Williams is the author of Refuge and Finding Beauty in a Broken World and many other books.