Leslie Marmon Silko’s first novel, Ceremony, sold a million copies. In The Turqoise Ledge, she turned to nonfiction to capture her world. “I thought if I didn’t write about the way things were when I was a girl that no one would ever know there had been this different way of being,” she said. Silko stopped by Zócalo’s offices to chat about her book, the encroachments on the land she calls home, and how even urbanites can find ways to appreciate the nature around them.

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*Photo courtesy Ken Bosma.