Matthiessen will speak at the Salt Lake City Main Library for the free Nov. 13 event, joined by his collaborator and friend, photographer Subhankar Banerjee, a regular visiting scholar in the U.'s environmental humanities program.

Matthiessen contributed to Banerjee's 2003 book Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, a "photographic journey" of Alaska's iconic migratory-wildlife area that has become a flashpoint in debates over global warming and domestic energy development. The 81-year-old Buddhist priest, a New York resident, has published novels and books of nonfiction about humans' relationship with the natural world, such as The Snow Leopard and In the Spirit of Crazy Horse.

The event is part of the U.'s Lyceum II Peace with Nature lecture series, inspired by the 19th century lyceum movement in which leading intellectuals such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Abraham Lincoln gave public addresses. Past keynoters include poet W.S. Merwin, explorer Wade Davis, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert and Utah author Terry Tempest Williams.

At the November event, Matthiessen and Banerjee will discuss their Arctic work.

Matthiessen will also read from his most recent work, Shadow Country, a reworking of his famous Watson trilogy under one cover that was named Wednesday as a finalist for a National Book Award. The trilogy, published during the 1990s, is a fictional rendering of historical accounts detailing the violent life of Florida planter Edgar J. Watson and his murder shortly after the Southwest Florida Hurricane of 1910.

- Brian Maffly

If you want to attend

Nature writer Peter Matthiessen and photographer Subhankar Banerjee will speak Nov. 13 in the auditorium of the Salt Lake City Main Library, 210 E. 400 South. Limited overflow seating will be available in nearby conference rooms. Their appearance is part of the University of Utah's Lyceum lecture series. Admission is free.