The Authors Speak Series will present Jack Loeffler Thursday, Oct. 17. Courtesy photo

MESA PUBLIC LIBRARY NEWS

Aural historian, environmentalist, writer, radio producer and sound-collage artist, Jack Loeffler, will talk about his work and read from his new memoir, Headed into the Wind at Mesa Public Library at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17 as part of the Library’s Authors Speak lecture series.

With the temperament of Santa Claus and the tenacity of a badger, Jack Loeffler reveals his compassion and concern for Southwestern traditional cultures and their respective habitats in their wake of Manifest Destiny. Working both as an individual and with comrades – including Edward Abbey and Gary Snyder – he was part of an early coterie of counterculturalists and environmentalists who fought to thwart the plunder of natural resources in the Southwest. Loeffler, a former jazz musician, fire lookout, museum curator, bioregionalist, and self-taught aural historian, shares his humor and imagination, his adventures, observations, reflections, and meditations along the trail in his retelling of a life well lived. In his honest memoir he advises each and every one of us to go skinny-dipping joyfully in the flow of Nature to better understand where we’re headed. 

Loeffler has authored or co-authored many books including Thinking Like a Watershed: Voices from the West, Survival Along the Continental Divide: An Anthology of Interviews, Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey, and Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest. He has produced over four hundred documentary radio programs and published numerous essays. 

The Authors Speak Series features local and regional authors speaking about their writing on a variety of subjects such as local and state history, travel, outdoor activities, fiction, Native American history and culture, poetry and more. The series is funded by the Friends of the Los Alamos County Library System. The talks are free and are followed by the opportunity to meet the authors and enjoy refreshments.