Apologia

Biographical

Barry Lopez has a Web site you may wish to visit for information about his life and works. You will find interviews, additional works, and much, much more.

Click here for Simon & Schuster’s biography of Lopez.

The Steven Barclay Agency represents Barry Lopez and keeps his biography on their Web site.

Cultural

Reflect upon this writing advice Lopez provides on his Web site. In one section, he writes:

"If I were to offer any advice to young writers, it would be this: be discriminating and be discerning about the work you set for yourself. That done, be the untutored traveler, the eager reader, the enthusiastic listener. Put what you learn together carefully, and then write thoughtfully, with respect both for the reader and your sources."

Consider whether Lopez heeds his own advice in "Apologia," particularly about being an "untutored traveler."

Listen to Lopez speak about the responsibility he believes writers have in times, like these, of environmental crisis.

Bill Moyers, a highly regarded American journalist and commentator, interviewed Barry Lopez in April 2010. Moyers says that Lopez's writing "is one man's effort to go out into the world, to discover what is beyond and within us." See and listen to the interview here.

Are writing and reading keys to everyday life? Hear what Barry Lopez has to say about understanding meaning through writing.

Mull over the material from the California Roadkill Observation System, a research group dedicated to recording, understanding, and reducing roadkill. How might Lopez react to this site?

In this Paris Review interview, Lopez discusses an introduction he wrote for a book titled The Tree, by John Fowles. Early in the interview, he explains the meaning of the word ramulose, a term he uses in his essay, "Apologia."

In this january magazine interview, Lopez discusses how he writes fiction.

Lopez has forged a special relationship with Texas Tech, where his manuscript collection is housed.

Bibliographical

In this video, Lopez makes a statement about hope for human beings.

In this talk, Barry Lopez speaks about the relationship of place and language. He focuses on the healing that can result from having a "conversation" with the land.

Lopez speaks often about authentic storytelling, stories that tell what it means to be a human being.

Lopez urges us to "pay attention to the mystery" of nature in this article, "The Naturalist," published in the Autumn 2001 issue of The Onion.

While "Apologia" is non-fiction, Lopez has written numerous works of fiction, including "Dixon Marsh," a short story published in the online magazine Places and in Orion.