From Ì¢‰âÂèÏa’aÌ¢‰â”a highly fluid panhoehoe lava in Hawaii that moves with a sound like crockery breaking–to zigzag rocksÌ¢‰â”a series of low- chevron-shaped dams built by Native Americans designed to make the water more conducive for fishing, the words in Barry Lopez’s latest project–a dictionary of American landscape terms–radiate a sense of belonging.

“The language we employ to say what we’re looking at is now collapsing toward an attenuated list of almost nondescript wordsÌ¢‰â”valley, lake, mountain,” Lopez writes in his introduction. This dictionary of words from the language of landscape, is an attempt to “gain a sense of allegiance with our chosen places.”

Lopez has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “arguably the nation’s premier nature writer.” He is the author of the National Book Award-winning Arctic Dreams and eleven other books of fiction and nonfiction. Lopez is uniquely suited to reviving the language of the American landscape in Home Ground.

The Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism is pleased to bring Barry Lopez to UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism to discuss this important new book. A book signing will follow.