THE Ring of Fire is a geologic path or belt that circles the Pacific Ocean where active volcanoes and earth-quakes continually occur. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I learned early on that 75 percent of all earthquakes on our planet are located along the Ring of Fire, as are 90 percent of our volcanoes. The Ring of Fire’s activity is caused by several different tectonic plates in motion at the boundaries of subduction zones. When I was a kid I thought about the Ring of Fire a lot. Sometimes I felt afraid of the stories I heard about the Ring of Fire, like that Washington State was going to drop off the map or crack in two. Other times I looked closer at my fear of the Ring of Fire and I saw something else: a story or song of Earth that has existed for more than 35 million years, a story of transformation.
You could say I’ve spent my entire creative career writing into the mouth of fire.
What Igrotesque power and wealth imbalances. Some people read novels. Some people don’t. I keep writing them. One reason I love novels is that they still open a space where anything is possible. I also think art and literature are living organisms that bend time and space.
