Six Bridges Book Festival: James McCommons / Ragan Sutterfield

Moderated by Jodi Morris

Six Bridges Book Festival presents James McCommons (Feather Wars) and Ragan Sutterfield (Watch and Wonder: Birding as a Spiritual Practice). Moderated by Jodi Morris.

James McCommons

James H. McCommons is a professor emeritus at Northern Michigan University and a veteran journalist, specializing in ecology, environmental and travel topics. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Audubon, Discover among other publications. He is the author of Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service, and Camera Hunter: George Shiras III and the Birth of Wildlife Photography.

The Feather Wars is an entertaining and expansive work of American history, an incredible story about how disparate characters—progressive politicians, free-thinking society belles, nature writers and artists, bird-loving U.S. presidents, gunmakers, business titans, and brave game wardens—came together to save hundreds of species of birds. Heroes, martyrs, villains, and conflicted do-gooders—the early bird conservation movement had them all. Together they transformed how Americans thought and cared about birds, forever altering the American landscape.

Ragan Sutterfield

Ragan Sutterfield  is a priest in the Episcopal Church and serves a parish in his native Arkansas. His writing has appeared in a variety of places, including Men's Journal, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Sojourners, The Oxford American, Plough, and Birding Magazine. Sutterfield's books include This Is My Body, The Art of Being a Creature, Wendell Berry and the Given Life, and Cultivating Reality. He seeks to live the good life with his wife, Emily, and two daughters, Lillian and Lucia, on their small urban homestead.

Birding can nourish our spiritual lives. Birdwatching is a delight, a deepening. It puts us in touch with the ineffable, and it draws us toward self-denial for the sake of love. Birding brings us close to hope, abundance, and joy. In fact, it looks a lot like prayer. From having his vision opened by a rare flycatcher, to learning the power of naming while watching shorebirds, to forging friendships on a Christmas Bird Count, naturalist, birder, and Episcopal priest Ragan Sutterfield delves into how birdwatching shapes our souls. He writes of turning yards into refuges for birds on their long migration. Even as we reckon with the inconsolable grief of habitat loss and species decline, he writes, birds can give us hope amid the desolation.

Readers of Margaret Renkl, Drew Lanham, and Terry Tempest Williams will find a kindred spirit in Sutterfield as he explores, in verdant and lyrical prose, the spirituality of birding over a year of watching, waiting, and wondering. In each chapter, Sutterfield names a particular way in which paying attention to birds shapes our souls and draws us toward awe. Twelve virtues and practices rooted in the Christian tradition--including joy, attention, slowness, kenosis, and friendship--are nurtured within us as we wait and watch and wait some more. Watching birds, we move toward sacramental sight: looking at the visible to find the holy hidden behind it. Winged wonders that delight and sometimes disappoint, birds are ever within and beyond our vision. Whether you are a serious birder with an extensive life list or a casual observer of hawks along the highway, this book is an invitation to wonder and awe. It only takes paying attention.

Sponsored by the Alan Ross Kumpe Memorial Endowment

ASL interpretation will be provided for all Six Bridges sessions held in CALS Ron Robinson Theater. ASL interpretation for sessions at other CALS locations and Six Bridges venues (including CALS Main Library) will be provided by request. To request ASL interpretation, please submit an ASL Interpretation Request form.

CALS will validate parking in the CALS Library Square surface lot and the CALS Parking Deck. The entrance to the surface lot is located on 2nd Street near River Market Ave. The entrance to the parking deck is located on Rock Street and can be accessed from President Clinton Ave. Street parking is also available throughout the River Market District (free after 6pm and on weekends).