| | |  Travel Writers' Resources | September 2008 
Writer of Harsh Truths
 David Jasper - The Bulletin
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| | Author and journalist Charles Bowden will visit Bend in November to participate in The Nature of Words. | | |
Former reporter to bring expertise on social injustice to literary panel discussion at The Nature of Words.
Organizers of The Nature of Words recently chose "borders" as the theme of this year’s event, slated for Nov. 5-9 in Bend.
Which should make for an interesting panel discussion at the annual literary festival.
Because one expert on the topic of borders, including the one shared by the U.S. and Mexico, is author Charles Bowden.
If it’s possible to be both soft-spoken and outspoken at once, Bowden is. If anyone out there remembers Annie Proulx at the inaugural Nature of Words panel discussion — and her ability to set off small verbal bombs of candor — we may not have seen anything yet.
A former newspaper reporter, Bowden, of Tucson, Ariz., has established himself as a journalist for the likes of Esquire and GQ.
He’s also written numerous books on all manner of subjects, including life, death and drug wars on the Mexican border in books such as "Down by the River."
He’s also written movingly about the environment, in books such as 2006’s "Inferno," which he wrote as an "antibiotic" for time spent successfully lobbying the government to create the Sonoran Desert National Monument.
When The Bulletin called him, Bowden spoke for close to an hour in his signature low rumble, a wise voice familiar to listeners who have caught him on National Public Radio.
Hearing Voices, a collective of independent radio producers, featured Bowden in a podcast last year, summing him up this way:
"His style is both harsh and beautiful, and somewhat painful to read, as he takes the position that we are all to blame, or perhaps that there is no one to blame, for the violent and destructive acts committed against nature and society. He writes about child molesters, drug traffickers, savings and loan executives, real estate developers and crooked politicians in a way that implicates all of us. And so his work has been largely ignored."
Further, Bowden avoids book-promoting events such as The Nature of Words — "I try to do them very infrequently," he says — which makes his upcoming visit all the more exciting.
Part of the incentive of coming to Bend is that he simply hadn’t been to Eastern Oregon in a long time, he says. "It’s a good reason to go see part of the United States again."
Man about country
Bowden has seen plenty of it. In recent years, he’s spent time on the Plains, including North Dakota on an assignment for National Geographic, as well as southern Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
These are the "two parts of the country that deeply interest me," Bowden says. "Because in a sense both are living in the future: They’re both seeing climate change that’s altering the ability to survive there. In one case, the change in moisture down in Louisiana, with rising seas."
"Let me put it this way," he adds. "There are two places in the United States living in the future. The rest of us will have to catch up."
In both areas, the "enduring people" are friendly descendents of long-ago settlers.
"If you go to North Dakota, almost everybody there is a descendent of a settler. It’s not a region that people move into," he says. "There’s a tremendous continuity."
That’s unlike Tucson, which remains his home despite explosive growth and "almost zero continuity."
Bowden, who was born in 1945 and grew up in Tucson, which in his opinion has "gone to hell."
"When I was a kid, there were about 150,000 people in Tucson metro. And now there’s a million. All you get with the additional 850,000 is noise and traffic. It’s deteriorated."
So why does he stay?
"Two things: One, inertia. And the second thing is I’m gone 100, 150 days a year doing stories."
Home away from home
In a sense, he says, he’s a transient himself. Lately he’s been investigating the rapid uptick in the murder rate in Juarez, Mexico.
"I just spent six or seven months on a homicide spree in Juarez," Bowden says, meaning he was conducting an investigation there. "I don’t have a simple explanation."
In 2007, a record 317 murders occurred there, according to Bowden. Already, as of mid-September 2008, there have been 960. And almost no one in the wider world is aware of it, he adds.
Bowden believes a skilled writer can make such a story come to life for the reader.
"Most of the things you read are simply people confirming what they already think," he says. "That’s why most of the things you read don’t interest you. There has to be some risk for the writer to make stuff come alive."
With his January National Geographic story about the abandoned farmhouses of North Dakota, Bowden stirred up controversy among the state’s citizens.
"Two or three papers ran essay contests to rebut me. I’ll be honest, I never saw it coming, because I wasn’t writing about North Dakota today. I was writing about, basically, these remnants of abandoned towns and farms from an earlier pattern of settlement."
"So I was baffled by the response, since they responded to something I didn’t write," Bowden says. "Having said that, I went back there and gave a speech in June and defended the thesis."
He laughs.
"I raised a little hullabaloo, but I had a good time."
On Friday, Bowden sent an email to The Bulletin saying he was heading off to Juarez again.
"It is nice to (be) in Mexico and know the water is the least of one’s worries."
David Jasper can be reached at djasper(at)bendbulletin.com.
• For more information about The Nature of Words, visit www.thenatureofwords.org, e-mail info@thenatureofwords.org or call 541-330-4381.
• This is the fourth in a series of articles about authors who will participate in The Nature of Words, which will feature author readings, writing workshops and more Nov. 5-9 in Bend. Earlier reports on Judith Barrington, Luis Urrea and Pam Houston are available online at www.bendbulletin.com/words. |
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