Iris Graville - Writer in a Life Vest: Essays from the Salish Sea

Writer in a Life Vest is a unique and utterly enchanting look at life in Washington states San Juan Islandsa love letter to a specific area from a writer who clearly has a deep sense of place for her chosen home. A pleasure to read and hard to put down.

Deborah Giles, PhD , Science and Research Director, Wild Orca

Graville is so much more than a self-named storytelling lover of the Salish Sea. This collection is an intimate investigation not from a dreamy-minded tourist, visiting journalist, or research scientist, but a writer-in-residenceby which I mean not just her brief writing residency on the Washington State Ferries system, but her decades-long residency on her island home, a writer deeply rooted in multiple dimensions of her ecosystem: above, below, and on the Salish Sea.

Heather Durham , author of Wolf Tree and Going Feral

Part personal reflection, part insightful commentary, all beautifully written Gravilles essays foster a sense of place filled with wonder and hopekey ingredients for taking better care of the Salish Sea and all of us who depend on it.

Joseph K. Gaydos , Co-Author of the The Salish Sea:Jewel of the Pacific Northwest

Witty, creative, insightful, and evocative, Writer in a Life Vest is passionate paean to the Salish Sea, ferry riding, and the creatures and people that inhabit this beautiful body of water. As the states first writer-in-residence on a ferry, Iris Graville opens our eyes and hearts to the importance of caring for, paying attention to, and protecting the places we love.

David B. Williams, author of Homewaters:A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound

The Salish Sea comes alive in this inspired collection of essays written by Iris Graville, who takes us on her journey through the San Juan Islands. Creatively woven together, we learn from these essays about the petition for a name change for the Salish Sea, and we discover the plight and the profound beauty of the Southern Resident Orcas. Most importantly, through Gravilles poetry and narrative rhythm, we hear the alarm bell for each of us to take immediate action in todays climate crisis.

Kip Robinson Greenthal , author of Shoal Water

When a landscape makes a truth-claim on a human, blessed is s/he who hears, and heeds, it. In Iris Graville, the Salish Sea found a good and faithful servant who devoted her time and talent to becoming the eyes, ears, and voice of the sea and its inhabitants. Through her imagination and writing skills, Graville succeeds in sharing both information and inspiration while bravely bearing witness on behalf of a beloved landscape. And we readers are the richer, and wiser, for it.

Gail Collins-Ranadive, author of Dinosaur Dreaming: Our Climate Moment

Mariners know the importance of safety at sea. We equip our vessels with emergency gear and watch our ships instruments for hazards to navigation. In Writer in a Life Vest, Iris Graville alerts us to the dangers that threaten the safety of the sea itself. Every essay deepens our knowledge and love of these inland waters. Her words sound out a Mayday call to immediately begin a rescue of the Salish Sea.

Migael Scherer, author A Cruising Guide to Puget Sound

Graville writes through prose and poetry specifically of the Southern Resident orcas of the Salish Sea of Washington and British Columbia, but more generally of the climate crisis and how our actions today will affect all beings well into the future. Writer in a Life Vest is filled with wonder, tolerance, and sometimes brutal honesty, and peopled with the likes of Sylvia Earl, Greta Thunberg, and Rachel Carson. It stands as an ode on a ferry; a love song for the Salish Sea and all its inhabitants; and a carefully researched, heartfelt, deftly-written, and convincing plea to change what we can while we can.

Gene Helfman, author of Beyond the Human Realm

Iris Graville

Homebound Publications

Berkshire Mountains, MASS

Homebound Publications

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2022 text by Iris Graville

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The author has tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from her memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in some instances she has changed the names of individuals and places, she may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence.

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Published in 2022 by Homebound Publications

Cover Design by Leslie M. Browning

Interior Design by Jason Kirkey

Cover Image Steve Horn

Map of the Salish Sea & Surrounding Basin, Stefan Freelan, wwu , 2009

isbn 978-1-953340-48-1 First Edition Trade Paperback

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