The Elliott Bay Book Company

"True geography is spiritual," writes Idaho poet/essayist William Johnson. "It heeds land, mind, and heart." So begins his new prose collection, A River Without Banks: Place and Belonging in the Inland Northwest (Oregon State University Press), which chronicles one family's journey to Idaho, a place he calls "still pretty wild." "Beautifully written ... no ends-of-the-earth, cliff-top drama ere, but the quiet pleasure of watching a flight of hawks through a kitchen window, taking a night walk along an Idaho river, getting rid of a no-longer useful wood stove, or observing moose while in the company of children on a family vacation ... unique in its quiet emphasis on the day-to-day rewards of observing the natural life at hand, almost always within the context of a human family ..." - Mary Clearman Blew.