Edmonds CC ninth annual Community Read discusses global warming and climate change

Edmonds Community College invites the community to read "Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North” along with its students. The book by Nancy Lord is its Edmonds CC Community Read selection for 2015-16.

Lord will come to campus to talk about her book 7 p.m., April 27, in the Black Box Theatre. She will be joined by Kurt Hoelting, author of “The Circumference of Home,” to help lead a discussion on global warming and climate change. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In “Early Warming,” the Alaskan Writer Laureate takes a cutting-edge look at how communities in the North — where global warming is amplified and climate-change effects are most immediate — are responding with desperation and creativity.

The narrative takes readers deep into regions where the indigenous people who face life-threatening change also demonstrate impressive conservation ethics and adaptive capacities. Underpinned by a long acquaintance with the North and backed with scientific and political sophistication, Lord's vivid account bring the challenges ahead into ice-water clarity.

Lord is an award-winning author including fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation, a Pushcart Prize, and a number of artist residencies. Her work has appeared in many magazines, journals, and anthologies, including “Best Spiritual Writing.”

Among her published books are three collections of short stories and five works of literary nonfiction, including the memoir “Fishcamp” and the cautionary “Beluga Days.” She most recently edited the anthology “Made of Salmon: Alaska Stories From The Salmon Project,” due out this spring.

For Edmonds Community College students, the book read is also a scholarship opportunity. Students who read the book and submit a project inspired by it may apply for a scholarship that covers spring quarter tuition.

The Community Read was created to build community through a common intellectual experience; promote literacy across the campus and community through the adoption of thoughtful, noteworthy works of literature or scholarship; offer instructors an opportunity to invigorate curriculum with vital issues and great ideas; and enrich the lives of students, employees, and the community of south Snohomish County.

Previous Edmonds CC Community Read books are “You’ve Got it All Wrong,” by the students of Scriber Lake High School; “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot; "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet," by Jamie Ford; “The Big Burn,” by Timothy Egan; “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer; “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World,” by Dan Koeppel; “Middle Passage,” by Charles Johnson; and “Zaatar Days, Henna Nights, Adventures, Dreams, and Destinations Across the Middle East,” by Maliha Masood.

Reserve your ticket to ensure your seat at the Black Box Theatre.