Serendipity Based on Paying Attention

Meet Northwest writer David B. Williams

This bonus newsletter is a monthly feature for paid subscribers, the second in the series. These extras will showcase edited interviews with someone whose work intersects in some way with this newsletter’s focus—place, history, writing. I hope you enjoy this one and those to come.

Introduction

I bumped into David B. Williams’ name years ago because of a mutual interest in Northwest nature. A few months into my newsletter’s existence he generously reached out to me. Since then, we have periodically met to discuss our shared and abiding fascination with our region’s past and our mutual efforts to capture it in words. I keep learning from and being inspired by him. I think it will be obvious why. Read on!

(NOTE: the following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.)

David B. Williams strikes a casual pose, Stanwood, WA, September 2023. (author photo)

Adam

How do you describe yourself and your work?

David

I describe myself as a natural history writer, as opposed to, say, being a nature writer. And by that, I mean I am interested in the nature of place and in the history of place. And try to weave together those stories.

That is where I'm different as a historian or different as a nature writer: That as a historian, I incorporate, I think, more of the natural story than most historians, and as a nature writer, I incorporate more of the human story.

My goal as a writer is to help people connect to place through slowing down, being an observer, and participating in that landscape.