Terry Tempest Williams’s unconventional, beloved memoir Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place paid homage to Williams’s mother, who developed cancer as a result of nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. Her mother told her, “I am leaving you all my journals. But you must promise me that you will not look at them until after I am gone.” Williams easily found the three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound diaries, but she soon discovered that all the books were blank. A stirring meditation on the messages conveyed in those seemingly empty pages, When Women Were Birds explores the shaping of a life through fifty-four precisely honed chapters, each with its own unique wisdom. Through evocative scenes, captured in lyrical words, Williams has created a work that startles and illuminates.

The discussion topics that follow are designed to enhance your reading group’s experience of When Women Were Birds. We hope they will enrich your journey.