…in the desert there is everything and there is nothing. Stay curious. Know where you are—your biological address. Get to know your neighbors—plants, creatures, who lives there, who died there, who is blessed, cursed, what is absent or in danger or in need of your help. Pay attention to the weather, to what breaks your heart, to what lifts your heart. Write it down.                    

~E.M.  November 2004

Ellen Meloy's sudden death on November 4, 2004, sent waves of shock and sorrow from her red rock home in Bluff, Utah. She contributed a sensual lodestone, a shining river cobble to the literature of natural history, science and the southwest. A world of readers, friends and family seek to illuminate and honor her legacy of words through a memorial fund, established to empower other writers with a place in the desert.

All good writing finds voice in place and experience; really good nature writing lives in the field. Ellen Meloy breathed the desert air and wrote. Her voice was strong and sure because her inspiration was direct. Ellen was widely recognized for her excellence, which gave birth to four books, all collections of essays, largely about human connections to wilderness, deserts and rivers. No river trip, hike or car camp was complete without her journal.

Ellen had a successful writing career in the desert through her perseverance as a lone eagle free-lance writer. She was fortunate to achieve recognition and support herself, her passion and her lifelong love affair with the Colorado Plateau.

The Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers is a nonprofit organization with tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3).

OBITS

• Ellen Meloy, Helena Independent Record, 11/18/04
• Author Ellen Meloy dies at her Bluff home, Sudden death at 58: She is renowned for her works illustrating ties between people and nature, By Christy Karras - The Salt Lake Tribune - 11/9/04
• Mourning the loss of naturalist writer, By Dennis Lythgoe, Deseret Morning News, 11/14/04

TRIBUTES/REMEMBRANCES

• Remembering Ellen Meloy, by Elizabeth Grossman in High Desert Journal, April 2005.
• IN MEMORIAM - ELLEN MELOY - 1946-2004, by Phil Condon, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Program, University of Montana.
• Tribute by Four Corners Free Press, by Suzanne Strazza, December 2004.
• "There are a lot of people working, particularly in the West, who are doing some wonderful writing about rural living," he says. "I think particularly of a woman named Ellen Meloy who is a wonderful writer about the subtleties of living in red rock Utah. It's a very hard thing to represent." Excerpt from "Rural Stories, Urban Listeners: An Interview with Verlyn Klinkenborg," By James Norton on the online Flak Magazine.

POEMS

• For Ellen -- with love, by Terry Tempest Williams.
• Places to look for Ellen, by Ann Weiler Walka. She writes: "On this Solstice Day I'm sending a list poem I've made as a meditation on Ellen's incandescent spirit. If it's added to the web site, I hope that other folks will join me in a collective celebration by adding their own images to the list."
• For Ellen, My Sandstone Sister, by Katie Lee. This poem was read at a memorial service for Ellen in Helena, Montana.
• In Memory of Ellen Meloy, for Mark, calligraphy by Renny Russell.

INTERVIEWS WITH ELLEN

Listen to Ellen in her All Things Considered interview with Howard Berkes on September 21, 2002, talking about and reading from The Anthropology of Turquoise.
You will need RealPlayer to listen to this audio file -- download it free at http://www.real.com.
Listen to Ellen on KPFA Radio: November 22nd 2004 - Cover to Cover Program. A tribute to the late Ellen Meloy, who died suddenly November 4th. Host Denny Smithson rebroadcasts a 2002 interview with the author and naturalist about her last book, The Anthropology of Turquoise: Meditations on Landscape, Art and Spirit. 30-minute program (MP3)

ELLEN'S RADIO COMMENTARIES FROM KUER RADIO - UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
A sampling of the 22 short radio essays (MP3) that Ellen recorded for Utah Public Radio. For every $100 (or more) donation to the Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers, you can receive the complete set of commentaries (great for listening in your car while driving through the desert) or a first edition hardback edition of The Anthroplogy of Turquoise.

Animal Anxieties

Bighorn Sheep

Bluff Essay

Bread Dough Cookie