By Annie Holub
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 5, 1998

Slick Rick

The remotest lands of this country hide behind the freeways and the skyscrapers, trapped somewhere within Emerson poems and the essays of Annie Dillard, thrown together into what's known as "the wilderness" - almost nameless places where the anxieties of civilization cease to be important.

Montana's Yaak Valley is one of these places, with an exception: It has a spokesman.

Rick Bass, who will give a reading Wednesday as part of the University of Arizona Poetry Center's free public reading series, is a writer whose stories weave together the landscape and the people, set mostly in rural areas, much like the valley where Bass lives with his family.

"The Yaak Valley is a real wild, magical, forested place right on the Canadian border, bordered by Idaho and Montana," Bass said over the phone from his home.

He describes the valley as the meeting point for the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Rockies, so there are species of animals from both areas relating with one another; the perfect place to write almost magical tales of people who are thoroughly of the land - stories that draw from the perspectives of the men, women and the terrain at once. The wilder areas of the States have a certain enigma about them, especially to desert dwellers; these dynamic settings seem to hold stories of their own that are played out by the characters in Bass' work.

His most recent book, The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness, published in 1997, signifies a return to fiction for Bass. The book starts out with a novella called "The Myth of Bears," about a man searching for his wife, who is hiding out in the snow-covered forest. The story is beautifully written, following a woman from Tucson who feels trapped in the barren wilderness of a northern forest, and how she tries to escape from her equally misplaced husband.

"Part of the reason it's set way south and way north is to show how these characters didn't really change in landscape; they weren't able to learn from their experiences," explained Bass.

The story is so packed with imagery, flashbacks and myth that it does its job of transporting you back to a winter forest so well, you're shivering.

When asked about his use of these raw natural settings, in contrast to the seemingly more modern use of urban environments, Bass quickly stated, "For as long as I've been writing, people have been saying that 'fiction these days is set in suburbs and cities' ... I like to write for myself. I tried to consider stories in urban environments, but they don't interest me. I'm not going to pretend that setting in a story is not important - setting, and landscape, is important. Most of my stories are set in rural landscapes because it's what I know best."

He refers to the authors that he likes to read himself as "the nature writers - there are dozens of them these days." And Bass himself is one of the more well-known of these people who truly write what they know.

In line with that, Bass has been working for the past several years lobbying to protect the wilderness of the Yaak Valley, to "raise a national consciousness that there are these rare qualities that are in dire need of protection," he explained.

Bass has written numerous short stories, essays and non-fiction works dealing with natural history - basically, as he put it, "everything except poetry."

Alison Deming, director of the UA Poetry Center, noted that Bass, who is originally from Texas, started out in science as a geologist, so his writing is therefore multifaceted.

"We usually have a couple of writers (read here) every year who aren't poets, to give a little breadth to the (reading) series," she explained.

Bass is an excellent choice to bring in that diversity, because his work extends into different genres.

"He's one of the most exciting fiction and non-fiction writers in the West," said Deming.

As for what people should expect from Bass' visit, he commented, "I might show slides and talk about the environment where I live, and read a short section from the novel I'm working on, so there will be activism and art both."

Bass' first work of fiction was published in 1987 in the Paris Review, and since then, he has published numerous fiction and non-fiction books, including In the Loyal Mountains, a collection of short stories, and The Book of Yaak, which chronicles the saga of the valley he calls home. He's been called "the best young writer to come along in years" by Annie Dillard, and has received praise from such publications as the Chicago Tribune and Publisher's Weekly.

"Where the Sea Used to Be" is the title of the first work he published, a novella in The Sky The Stars, The Wilderness, and also of his first full novel, which he has just recently completed.

"I've been fooling with the novel, working on and off with it, for 14 years," Bass said, "It's a relief to have it done - it's not my natural genre."

Where the Sea Used to Be, the novel, is set in Montana and involves a wolf biologist, which is all Bass would let on.

"I've been working on the book for fourteen years - I can't really summarize it yet," he laughed.

Perhaps the depth that draws the reader in also comes from the fact that Bass really is writing for himself, writing about what is surrounding him that very moment.

"When I'm writing, I'm not thinking or worrying, or considering a reader's reaction," Bass said. "I guess it's selfish, but I don't have a reaction that I want from the reader at all. But after editing and when the story is done, I would like them to finish the story and say, 'this is a beautiful thing.'

Rick Bass will read in the Modern Languages Auditorium on Wed., March 11, at 8 p.m., and the reading will be followed by an informal reception. Admission is free and open to the public; books will be available for sale. For more info. call the Poetry Center at 321-7760.