Summer Lecture Series: Melissa Sevigny, Author of “Brave the Wild River”

Melissa Sevigny, the author of the book “Brave the Wild River,” will visit the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) in northern Michigan to give a talk as part of the historic scientific field station’s 2024 Summer Lecture Series. The event on the Pellston campus is free and open to the public.

Sevigny’s book, which was published in 2023, is about Drs. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, U-M botanists who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon in 1938. The book includes both of their ties to UMBS, including Clover’s summer lectures about her grand adventures.

Sevigny is the science reporter at KNAU (Arizona Public Radio). She has worked as a science communicator in the fields of space exploration, water policy and sustainable agriculture. Her stories have been awarded regional Edward R. Murrow awards and featured nationally on “Science Friday.”

She is the author of three books, most recently “Brave the Wild River” in 2023, as well as “Mythical River” and “Under the Desert Skies.”

She has a bachelor of science in environmental science from the University of Arizona and an master of fine arts in creative writing from Iowa State University.

Founded in 1909, UMBS is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations.

Laboratories and cabins are tucked into more than 10,000 acres along Douglas Lake just south of the Mackinac Bridge to support long-term climate research and education.