Fiction as a Filter: On Writing the American West’s Water Crisis
Years ago, during the Great Recession, I attended an event sponsored by an environmental organization that had formed in protest to a planned dam construction project on the Cache La Poudre River in northern Colorado. At the time, my husband
During the Great Recession, the author attended an environmental protest against a dam project on the Cache La Poudre River in northern Colorado. The author, a farmer, opposed the dam due to their environmentalist beliefs. However, their husband, who also owned water rights from the river, supported the project. This disagreement highlighted the division between farmers and environmentalists over water management.
The author later wrote a novel, Appraisals, exploring the emotional impacts of climate anxiety on rural communities and the challenges of balancing personal and political perspectives. The novel delves into water rights, marriage, local farms, parenting, zoning laws, and grandmothers, all set during the Great Recession. The author aimed to write a novel that would "redeem" the water crisis through imagination, similar to how fiction can help understand and potentially resolve complex issues.
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