Publisher's Synopsis
A Place Called Home: Quilting a Life of Joy on the Colorado Plateau is a place-based creative non-fiction memoir at its heart. It is a collection of stories about how finding my "place" was essential to finding my happiness. It is a template for others to find their own happiness within natural and human communities, inspired by a love of a place that calls them home.
"In Janet Ross's memoir, you'll find plenty of adventure, decades of environmental history, insights into place-based educational philosophy, and warm portraits of a lifetime of encounters with the people of the West. But her goal here is personal-celebrating the panels in her life's quilt, a life richly rooted in the redrock canyons of the Colorado Plateau.Her quilting mentor taught her, 'perspective is every-thing.' In this book, Ross does her mentor proud. By 'pressing the seams of this place into her life, ' she found the perspective she has been seeking for a lifetime." - Stephen Trimble, editor of Red Rock Stories: Three Generations of Writers Speak on Behalf of Utah's Public Lands and The Capitol Reef Reader "Janet Ross has a crucial story to tell about what it means to create not only a sense of place in the rural Southwest, but embody and foster an ethic of place. Through the metaphor of quilting, she shows how one creates a meaningful life by piecing together what appear to be disparate fabrics into a cohesive whole. Janet Ross's story belongs to the tradition of western women from Mary Austin to Maureen Whipple to Ellen Meloy. What this woman knows about independence and interdependence in the name of community and social change, we need to hear." - Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place "A Place Called Home is a warm, cuddly quilt to wrap yourself inside of. It's also a rip-roaring account of remarkable life experiences. Hard to believe that one woman has managed to pack this many adventures into one life. From deep in the city to deep in the wilderness, Janet has woven all these experiences into a life of commitment to home on the Colorado Plateau and to the important role sense of place plays in finding happiness." - David Sobel, Professor Emeritus, Education Department, Antioch University New England and author of Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities "If our lives are patchwork quilts, how many panels represent home? Janet Ross spent her life seeking and finding her home place, loving and listening to the Colorado Plateau, creating outdoor experiences that taught countless diverse students how to appreciate, understand, and love the land. It's a life well lived, and Janet has sewn together a place-based memoir well worth reading." - Toby McLeod, Director, Sacred Land Film Project "I loved reading about Emma's Happiness Museum and Janet's descriptions made it come alive, as well as her pleasure in knowing an exceptional woman. The sustained metaphor of quilting really works; since I quilt it really spoke to me, and on other levels as well - growing up, family, her view of the world. This is a quality piece of work of which the author can be proud." - Ann Zwinger (in memoriam), author of Wind in the Rock: The Canyonlands of Southeastern Utah "As a metaphor and organizing principle, the quilt works well...Janet carries it throughout in a way that makes sense and holds the book together." - Ellen Meloy (in memoriam), author of The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky
