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Secret Language of Snow
Examines over a dozen different types of snow and snowy conditions through the vocabulary of the Inuit people of Alaska. Discusses the physical properties and formation of the snow and how it affects the plants, animals, and people of the Arctic.
- GenresPoetry
129 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
1 person is currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Terry Tempest Williams
101 books1,446 followersTerry Tempest Williams is an American author, conservationist and activist. Williams’ writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah in which she was raised. Her work ranges from issues of ecology and wilderness preservation, to women's health, to exploring our relationship to culture and nature.
She has testified before Congress on women’s health, committed acts of civil disobedience in the years 1987 - 1992 in protest against nuclear testing in the Nevada Desert, and again, in March, 2003 in Washington, D.C., with Code Pink, against the Iraq War. She has been a guest at the White House, has camped in the remote regions of the Utah and Alaska wildernesses and worked as "a barefoot artist" in Rwanda.
Williams is the author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; Leap; Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert; and The Open Space of Democracy. Her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World was published in 2008 by Pantheon Books.
In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfictionand a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. Williams was featured in Ken Burns' PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009). In 2011, she received the 18th International Peace Award given by the Community of Christ Church.
Williams is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah and a columnist for the magazine The Progressive. She has been a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College where she continues to teach. She divides her time between Wilson, Wyoming and Castle Valley, Utah, where her husband Brooke is field coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
She has testified before Congress on women’s health, committed acts of civil disobedience in the years 1987 - 1992 in protest against nuclear testing in the Nevada Desert, and again, in March, 2003 in Washington, D.C., with Code Pink, against the Iraq War. She has been a guest at the White House, has camped in the remote regions of the Utah and Alaska wildernesses and worked as "a barefoot artist" in Rwanda.
Williams is the author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; Leap; Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert; and The Open Space of Democracy. Her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World was published in 2008 by Pantheon Books.
In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfictionand a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. Williams was featured in Ken Burns' PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009). In 2011, she received the 18th International Peace Award given by the Community of Christ Church.
Williams is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah and a columnist for the magazine The Progressive. She has been a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College where she continues to teach. She divides her time between Wilson, Wyoming and Castle Valley, Utah, where her husband Brooke is field coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 11, 2012
When I read this book many years ago, it opened my eyes and ears to two of my favorite things in the world: language and snow. Before I read this book, I had never thought about all the different manifestations of snow, and it certainly had never occurred to me that there might be words to describe it. Since then, I have been fascinated not just by the glorious things that snow can do, but also by how languages describe the elements in their environment that are important to their culture - sand, color, plants, water, sky, rocks, etc. etc.
July 29, 2019
Williams shares detailed explanations of various Eskimo words for types of snow, animal adaptations in cold conditions, pictures of the seven basic shapes of snowflakes, and snow fort instructions.
July 7, 2018
A sweetly illustrated and informative children's book that is also interesting for adults. This one makes me wish that Terry Tempest Williams would write more books for children.
May 18, 2019
Well written with beautiful pen and ink illustrations by Jennifer Dewey. A Sierra Club book.
April 12, 2020
Superb first book from Terry Tempest Williams. Poems, science, anthropology, and gorgeous illustrations about the many forms and lives of snow make the topics accessible and enjoyable for all.
February 17, 2022
I read this years ago. Fun book about snow and its different qualities. If you have ever heard about the Inuits and all their words for snow you will enjoy this book.
Want to read
May 13, 2022Out of print and hard to find?
November 2, 2015
It's hard to believe this (older) children's book is from just 1984 - it feels like it's from a completely different era. I'd put this book in the "they just don't make em like they used to" category.
About the spring thaw: "The Kobuk River, swollen with snow language, carries winter away."
About the spring thaw: "The Kobuk River, swollen with snow language, carries winter away."
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews