Wendy Williams

After returning from a stint in Peace Corps in Africa, I chose to spend my career in journalism, working first as a reporter for a daily newspaper, and then as an independent. My work has been published in a myriad of places ranging from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to Ladies Home Journal and Audubon. As a daily journalist, I have won many awards. As a free-lancer, I have returned to Africa many times and can honestly say that Africa and the Africans I have met there have changed my life -- very much for the better. Now, nearing the age of 70, I feel blessed. Journalism is far from lucrative, financially. But I can't imagine a more rewarding life. The endeavor has provided me with everything I could ever really want. In Africa I learned that material goods -- stuff -- are not the most important thing in life. Had I not learned that, I might have chosen a profession other than journalism. I'm so glad I stayed the course. I am the author of seven books, including now The Language of Butterflies. These books too have received many awards. They have also been inestimably rewarding to write. My most recent three books emphasize the deep and essential connections between human beings and the rest of the natural world. We all live in context: We cannot survive on our own. We are products of the land on which we live, which is a product of deep tectonic convulsions, which is a product of our universe’s restless atoms… I learned this during my earliest days in Africa, and have learned it over and over again since then. Another way of saying this is that “We are Stardust. We are Golden. And we have to get back to The Garden.”