Author Pam Houston came to Whitworth for a reading of her work and to conduct writing workshops during the third week of February. Her reading titled “Loving the More Than Human World-An Evening with Pam Houston,” featured parts of her memoir Deep Creek and parts of a lyrical essay featured in the latest issue Vol. 40, No. 3 & 4 of Alaska Quarterly Review. She is an author of fiction, nonfiction and short essays as well as a teacher of writing.  

Houston opened the talk with an introduction of herself, her writing process and her specific focus on writing about animals. The sections from Deep Creek that she read were titled “Carving Rivers,” “Donkey Chasing” and “Almanac” and represented the shorter sections of her memoir that she referred to as her “interstitial” pieces. The memoir follows her life on her ranch in Colorado and features a vibrant cast of animal characters including a temperamental horse and mini donkeys.  

Her reading then shifted to the lyrical essay for Alaska Quarterly Review which features a range of African animals organized alphabetically. Reading from sections like B for Baboon, P for Puff Adder, C for Cheetah and W for White Lady Dancing Spider, Houston painted a portrait of her time in Africa and the animals and people she encountered.  

After her reading, Houston opened the floor for a Q&A. She answered questions around how she finds her stories and approaches the world for inspiration, places to give pause in writing with compassion readings and her relationship with how she writes animals. Houston reflected that her relationship with animals has “taught [her] how to die.” For her, writing about animals acts as a “soul-lifter” and in her encounters with animals her mindset is to “be open to whatever they are bringing me.” 

In an interview after the reading, Houston reflected further on why she became an author and her writing on animals. When speaking of her animals on the ranch, Houston said, “I feel like I’ve learned about the present moment from them. I’ve learned about patience from them. I received my first unconditional love from animals.” She spoke of allowing animals to teach her about “being unafraid.” These ideas then become heavily reflected in her writing.  

Houston said she is a writer because she believes that “the complicated beauty of the world is always presenting itself to me and I feel like I can’t bear witness enough to all of the beautiful, interesting, tragic, comic things that are swirling out there and [writing] feels like a good occupation to try to bear witness to it.”