Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 7d

Photos from yesterday's unveiling of an Indigenous (Navajo/Hopi) mural at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. Beautiful artwork by Nanibah Chacon and Gerald Dawavendewa celebrating Indigenous ways of knowing the night sky. 🧪🔭

Two Navajo dancers in traditional dress address an unseen crowd beneath projections of Indigenous artwork.

A vertical mural fills a space alongside a staircase, showing Navajo constellations and Hopi symbols.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 11d

Someone asked me recently what we do about #science stories that are lost or destroyed or buried. I was lucky to have diaries to reconstruct this story; what if we don't? I said art - fiction, plays, poems - have a lot of power to take fragments and show how things might have been, or could be.

David Daniel @daviddaniel.bsky.social · 11d

Thank you, @melissasevigny.bsky.social, for introducing me to Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter. As you noted, their story matters, for so many reasons.

My wife and I both devoured BRAVE THE WILD RIVER, and have recommended it to our daughter, an environmental science major.

Book cover of Brave The Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of The Grand Canyon, by Melissa L. Sevigny. The title and author are listed in white type against a green background in the middle of the cover. Above it is a black-and-white photo of the book’s subjects, Lois Jotter and Elzada Clover; below is a painting of trees on either side of the Grand Canyon rim.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 11d

I'm so glad you enjoyed my book! Thanks so much for suggesting it to your daughter, that makes all the difference to authors.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 13d

TONIGHT! Come join me! #WomeninSTEM

Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 20d

For those of you in Flagstaff, I'm really excited about this #womeninstem event a week from today -- which will include a portion of my book adapted into a play (!) by the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival. I mean, how cool is that?!? 👩‍🔬 It's free! It's #science and #art! Come join us!

A flyer advertising Women in Science Night on Thursday Sept 25 at the Coconino Center for the Arts. Free. 5:30 networking, 7:30 staged reading of Brave the Wild River.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 16d

Check out this beautiful interview in @terrainorg.bsky.social with #author Elspeth Hay about #farming, #food, and the future: "we need a new economic system to regenerate life instead of gambling with it." www.terrain.org/2025/intervi...

There Is No Line: An Interview with Elspeth Hay - Terrain.org

There Is No Line: Cara Benson interviews Elspeth Hay, author of Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food.

www.terrain.org

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 19d

a man is saying cast it into the fire

Alt: an elf is saying cast it into the fire

media.tenor.com

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 20d

For those of you in Flagstaff, I'm really excited about this #womeninstem event a week from today -- which will include a portion of my book adapted into a play (!) by the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival. I mean, how cool is that?!? 👩‍🔬 It's free! It's #science and #art! Come join us!

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 20d

Gandalf and the Vine in a moment if harmony.

A small gray cat sits on a windowsill surrounded by ivy vines in the sunlight.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 28d

First year I've gotten so many!

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 28d

Hello, canyon. I've missed you!

A view of the grand canyon from the south rim under a blue sky.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 28d

Usually, but not this year because it's been so dry. Just barely started getting the summer rains.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 28d

Right off the vine!

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 29d

In other exciting news: the blackberries are ripe!

A cluster of blackberries hanging from a vine, some black, some red.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · 29d

My review of Rob Dunn's new book THE CALL OF THE HONEYGUIDE, which explores relationships known as "mutualisms" between human and nonhuman species - from cats to yeasts to birds to whales. It joins a growing literature that focuses on nature's cooperative side. 🌎💙📚🧪 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/b...

Birds Who Help Humans, and Other Tales of Inter-Species Cooperation

www.nytimes.com

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Aug 29

Oh yes. Run away! Or at least carry some iron and salt.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Aug 29

Were you asked to do any sorting of the gravel pile? Always a warning sign.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Aug 19

Glad you found me! Happy reading.

Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Aug 18

Thanks for sharing! My publisher is running an e-book promotion right now, so you can get it for $2.99 (or apparently a bit less!) anywhere you normally buy books. 💙📚👩‍🔬Happy reading!

Tom Marcinko @tommarcinko.bsky.social · Aug 18

Looks like @melissasevigny.bsky.social 's "Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon" is on sale for a mere $2.69 on Kobo today.

I'm grabbing mine.

www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/...

Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon ebook by Melissa L. Sevigny - Rakuten Kobo

Read "Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon" by Melissa L. Sevigny available from Rakuten Kobo. **Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award for ...

www.kobo.com

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Aug 15

I recently got to take a fabulous poetry class with Todd Davis. Thanks for being a fan!

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Aug 15

There is a nice biography of her, called No Woman Tenderfoot. 😊

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Jul 30

Taking a pause from social media for a while. Here's a zen moment at a beaver dam in the meanwhile.

A creek surrounded by greenery with pine trees in the distance under a blue sky.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Jul 22

For your weekend reading, this beautiful interview with artist and chef Anne Flash about the shift in her work from pastoral beachscapes into what she calls "full tilt into the storm and imbalance." 🌎 #art #climatechange @terrainorg.bsky.social www.terrain.org/2025/intervi...

The Primacy of Water: An Interview with Anne Flash - Terrain.org

The Primacy of Water: Jim Ross interviews Cape Cod acclaimed artist and chef Anne Flash.

www.terrain.org

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Jul 21

Attempting to show what a beautiful job Arizona Highways did on the layout of my article about Florence Merriam Bailey, but the cat has other ideas.

A magazine lies open on a desk with a small gray cat sitting on top of it looking imploringly at the camera.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Jul 17

I imagine the stone foundation is still there, though I haven't seen pictures yet. It burned once before in the 1930s and the stone foundation was salvaged. I certainly hope we rebuild it.

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Melissa Sevigny @melissasevigny.bsky.social · Jul 16

I went looking for a photo of the Grand Canyon Lodge from my last visit, but apparently I didn't take one. Of course it wouldn't have occurred to me I'd never have another chance. This is the picture I snapped from the veranda at sunset. 💔

The Grand Canyon with rosy pink layers under a hazy sunset sky surrounded by conifer trees.

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