Erica Watson

@rickirobin.bsky.social

601 Followers 444 Following

Writer, reader, knitter, sometimes organizer. Student of climate & shifting seasons. Contentedly discontent. Ghosts of Distant Trees, Porphyry Press 2025 Denali National Park, AK. Part of my heart lives in the desert. she/her ericarobinwatson.com

LIFE ON THE BOUNDARIES SHORT READINGS - ON-STAGE DISCUSSION - RECEPTION - SIGNING GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES ERICA WATSON BETWEEN LATITUDES Poems MICHELLE LATVALA Drawing from their poetry, essays, and lived experiences, local authors Jeremy Pataky and Michelle Latvala, with Denali-area author Erica Watson, will reflect on how they understand and communicate place in their work while living in close proximity to National Park Service public lands. How does the environment, seasonal rhythms and changing climate, and human history and policy interact to create both belonging and tension in communities? Join us for an evening of short readings followed by conversation. A reception and signing will follow the program, with books available for sale. PORPHYRY PLACE DOWNTOWN MCCARTHY WMC CAMPUS TUES, JULY 28, 2026, 7 PM
Taken from in the water, shallow waves rolling onto a beach. A group of dinette’s stand in a line near where the water seems to meet the sky. Nearer to the photographer, a group of silhouetted children. Gulls fly in a line overhead. No one is catching fish
Cover of Marketing the Wilderness by Joseph Whitson, sitting in a bed of dwarf dogwood flowers
A white woman with glasses with homegrown lettuce sticking out of her mouth
Sourdough bread and pizza with sausage, nectarines, greens, and cheese
There is a system that attempts to remove soot from the exhaust using a diesel particulate filter and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). The fluid freezes below 12 degrees requiring a heated tank in winter. The system has been a continual problem on our machines that use it - especially the dump trucks. It’s a pita. The fluid comes in 2.5 gal plastic containers that last for one tank of fuel on a pickup truck. For heavy engines in equipment we use a lot. The system is a complex assembly of hoses pumps wires actuators filters and special metals that can handle high heat. Repairs usually involve assemblies rather than small parts. All in all, considering the environmental cost and the energy use of mining, manufacturing, and transport, the fluid production, plus the plastic jug waste stream - I would be curious to see if we’re actually saving on anything
The south peak of Denali in evening sun, clouds on each side, as viewed surrounded by spruce trees. The top of the mountain is reflected in a small pond in the foreground
A mediocre selfie of a white woman in sunglasses and a visor holding a drink, spruce trees and partly cloudy blue sky behind her
Moose mama butt and an uncertain calf, standing over an orange sled filled with water
GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES SUMMER RE-LAUNCH PARTY ART & JUNE 6: ACTION! 6:30-9PM
Cottongrass tufts, like cottonballs on thin stems, bobbing in the brown tundra on a sunny day
Selfie of me, a white woman with dark hair, glasses, and a lot of knitwear, in front of a sign that says “welcome to bethel, hub of the Kuskokwim, quyana tailuci”
Drooping Pasque flowers in the snow. Again.
Purple mountain saxifrage growing from a rocky outcropping, snow in the background
4 DenaliCare cards, each dated one year since August 2022
Community Writing Workshop with Erica Watson Friday, May 29 5:30 - 8 pm. @ Cultural Center In this session, we will spend time reading examples of short nonfiction, writing in community in response to prompts, sharing what comes of those prompts (always optional but encouraged), and talking about techniques for honing our skills. Participants will leave with some drafts to keep working on, and/or tools for getting started on new projects. Writers of all levels welcome. Please bring your writing materials of choice (pen and notebook, laptop, tablet), and a spirit of curiosity and openness! No time commitment is required outside of the workshop.
What We Do in the Shadows characters on stage with Bernie Sanders, masked in mittens, (5 genders on stage) and a bald figure in the pit looking up at them, labeled #6
screenshot of Forrest Dunbar looking at Rauscher's notes with a subtle "wtf" look on his face
Screenshot of an email: We have an update about Office 2019 on your Mac. Starting July 13, 2026, a security certificate update is required to keep Microsoft 365 and Office apps current. Since you have a device that cannot support this update, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote will switch to view-only mode. You can still open and read all your files, but editing and saving will not be available on this device. Your files are safe. Office 2019 for Mac ended support in October 2023 and is no longer receiving updates. This means the certificate change cannot be resolved by updating or reinstalling your current software. Your files and documents are fully intact. Here are your options to keep working: • Use Microsoft 365 on the web for free. Open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in any browser, no installation required. If your files are saved to OneDrive, your existing files open and work just as they always have. • Purchase Office Home 2024. Check aka.ms/
A purple pasque flower finally unfurling
A tower where, as I recall, the airship launched from, on a tundra landscape with arctic mountains in the background. Artists milling around. Not a great photo if im honest
Subarctic snow. Falling in a forest flooded with meltwater. Wow. It’s a lot.
6 pairs of colorful fingerless gloves, arranged in a circle on snow. 3 of them have embroidered designs on them: a tree, a crescent moon, a mountain
A single flower bud covered in light snow, growing from a mossy forest floor
A triptych of images resembling mountains, drawn over graphs
A mostly black dog with brown eyes looks forlorn while laying in rotten spring snow. It’s tragic, spring.
Potential Benefits Alaska LNG Would be the single largest investment in Alaska's history: $45B - $65B Jobs * Could create 9,000-15,000 jobs for design and construction ~1,000 jobs for operations could be generated Could generate billions of dollars of new tax revenue for Alaska Would provide access to natural gas for Alaskans Followed by 3 graphics showing dollar signs and an upward arrow, human figures and the caption “15,000 added jobs,” and a bar graph with no values on the axis, saying “investment in local economies
5 fuzzy flower buds emerging from a hillside brown with last year’s grass and leaves. In the distance a snow patch is visible through the trees
Screenshot of speed test, download speed 24.75
A white woman with glasses wearing an orange shirt stands at a podium, showing a photo of Denali National park on a screen
Ghosts of Distant Trees Book Signing & Reading TUESDAY April 7th 7:00 PM PAGE PUBLIC LIBRARY GUEST SPEAKER Erica Watson Join us for a reading from Ghosts of Distant Trees where we'll explore the layered ecologies of Denali National Park-its shifting landscapes, seasonal rhythms, and the quiet politics of inhabiting place. Through lyric and narrative essays, Watson reflects on belonging, vulnerability, and the fragile intimacies that persist in a warming world. Made possible through a special collaboration with: THE AUTHORS & POETS READING A. SERIES PORPHYRY PRESS GLEN CANYON — CONSERVANCY- PAGE Public Library The Glen Canyon Lecture Series is provided through a partnership between Page Public Library and Glen Canyon Conservancy: offering free monthly presentations on a range of educational topics to the community and surrounding area
Screenshot of campaign text reading: Holy mackerel!!! Mary Peltola's campaign is SURGING. Give now (even $1) before her 1st FEC deadline at 12am: https:// secure.actblue.com/donate/. mp-ads-mobile26? refcode=v4-ads-260331-ga-ak-dtd_b3&refcode2w=nJr2Bn
A black and white mutt who is not a sled dog attempts to play tug of war with a kind of expensive bungee line attached to a person riding a fat bike on a groomed snowy road on a bluebird day
A group of 35-40ish people holding signs and flags in a plowed out area on the shoulder of a highway, mountains behind them
Free Public Reading to celebrate the launch of Alaska Literary Field Guide Join co-editors Marybeth Holleman & Nancy Lord and contributors to share stories, poems, and artwork about Alaska's beings big and small. ECOLOGY I POETRY Books will be available for purchase & signing ARTI Edited by Marybeth Holleman, Nancy Lord, and Shaelene Grace Moler Friday, April 3, 2026 | 6:30 PM Anchorage Museum Auditorium 625 C Street (@ 7th Ave Entrance) ANCHORAGE MUSEUM 49 Writers MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS M SKIPSTONE BRAIDED RIVER recreation ・lifestyle conservatlor
Wide angle pic of a colorful blanket laying in snow with spruce trees and a cloudless sky
Rending - Book Signing With Erica Watson Thursday, April 2, 6:30pm Flying Souirrel Bakery Café Mile I 1 Talkeetna Spur GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES ERICA WATSON Erica will read from her essay collection, Ghosts of Distant Trees, followed by a conversation with the audience. Books, snacks and beverages will be available for purchase. "With her immersive, deeply considered essays, Erica Watson proves to be one of Alaska's finest contemporary writers. Ghosts of Distant Trees is place-based writing at its best, blending observation and memoir with philosophy and attitude." --Nancy Lord, former Alaska /writer Laureate and author of 'Fishcamp’ Erica Watson is an essayist, writing instructor, knitter, and occasional community organizer living on the boundary of Denali National Park, Alaska. Her experiences in conservation advocacy, tourism, and environmental education inform her writing, which has appeared in Terrain.org and About Place Journal, among others. She is a graduate of the UAA MFA program, and a recipient of an Alaska Literary Award. Hosted by Flying Souirrel Bakery Cafe - Talkeetna, Alaska www.flyingsquirrelcafe.com - 907-733-6887
No kings flier featuring ptarmigan for line design by David Robert Boxley. Healy sign, match 28, 1-2pm, Do not park at the Totem
Raised by Ferns, SOFAR, Something small of How to See a River, Continental Drift, The Future Lies in Our Bodies, Hackable Animal, with snow pouring southward past the window, Reservoir Bitches
Hardcover of Roy’s book, a red cloth cover with half paper image of the author as a younger woman smoking a cigarette, black and white except for a red spark at the end of the cigarette. The book is held up against the sky and spruce forest
4 people, 3 holding books
A pairing depicting 2 green and blue toy soldiers and a rudimentary American flag, and the words “even toy soldiers must be abolished. We must disarm the nursery.”
Promo image for Tucson festival of books featuring my headshot, a white woman with glasses and shortish brown hair, wearing a gold colored knit cowl
Writing Impermanence Friday, Mar 06, 2026 3:20 PM - 4:35 PM EST Location: Room 325, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center Description Writing about place at a time of rapid ecological and sociopolitical change can serve as archive, as elegy, and as resistance. Panelists will explore how forces and conditions including climate change, gentrification, and political upheaval reshape the places we write, informing the choices we make in writing them. We will examine impermanence as both subject and structural guide, and consider how our work allows a vanished past to gain permanence on the page.
GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES AT AWP BALTIMORE, MARCH 3-7 THUR. 3/5: SIGNING: PORPHYRY PRESS, BOOTH 1254, 11AM-1PM FRI. 3/6: SIGNING: PORPHYRY PRESS, BOOTH 1254, 10-11AM PANEL: WRITING IMPERMANENCE (MODERATOR), 3:20-4:35PM, RM 325 LEVEL 300 W/ MONICA MACANSANTOS, BATHSHEBA DEMUTH, SEAN ENFIELD, & ANNA CABE OFFSITE: NORTHERN EXPOSURE: A SALON a HOTEL MONACO, 2 N CHARLES ST, 7-9PM SAT. 3/7: SIGNING: TERRAIN.ORG, BOOTH 751, 10-11AM
A bundled person tossing boiling water from a saucepan into -50° air. It evaporates into steam. The person’s body language is sort of like “I don’t know what to do now I hate videos.” A black dog looks around for something on the ground, but nothing is there because it’s steam
Snow snow snow falling against spruce trees
screenshot: DuckDuckGo search can a can a man get pregnant can a president serve 3 terms can a uti go away on its own
An outdoor/indoor thermometer reading -38.9°F outdoor, 54.1°F indoor
GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES AT AWP BALTIMORE, MARCH 3-7 THUR. 3/5: SIGNING: PORPHYRY PRESS, BOOTH 1254, 11AM-1PM FRI. 3/6: SIGNING: PORPHYRY PRESS, BOOTH 1254, 10-11AM PANEL: WRITING IMPERMANENCE (MODERATOR), 3:20-4:35PM, RM 325 LEVEL 300 W/ MONICA MACANSANTOS, BATHSHEBA DEMUTH, SEAN ENFIELD, & ANNA CABE OFFSITE: NORTHERN EXPOSURE: A SALON a HOTEL MONACO, 2 N CHARLES ST, 7-9PM SAT. 3/7: SIGNING: TERRAIN.ORG, BOOTH 751, 10-11AM
screenshot of a facebook post from Washington Post Opinions, with the header "I left Alaska for opportunity. Trump gives me hope I can go home."
A cybertruck parked (poorly) next to a groomer in a snowy parking lot. A black dog looking suspicious
Selfie of a white woman wearing a red and teal striped scarf/shawl. Its ends drape on each side
A small group of people gathered in a visitor center. An articulated wolf skeleton is in the middle of the room.
Graphic advertising book signing with Erica Watson, author of Ghosts of Distant Trees, at Fireside Books, Palmer, Alaska, Saturday February 14, 1-4pm
A black dog barks at a raven perched on top of a dead spruce tree. Eventually the raven flies away. The dog chases at full speed down a snowy road. It could work.
2 sourdough loaves that rose a little too long but have nice ears and color
Huge green auroras!
Log house w too many lights on, it’s for plants, green aurora wave in the sky, black dog in the foreground
A well housing pipe with a tall tower of snow on it which has slumped over and looks like…well, maybe just like a limp tower of snow I don’t know