Introduction

When American explorers crossed the Texas Panhandle, they dubbed it part of the "Great American Desert." A "sea of grass," the llano appeared empty, flat, and barely habitable. Contemporary developments--cell phone towers, oil rigs, and wind turbines--have only added to this stereotype.

Yet, as Armitage walks the thirty meandering miles from her family farm to the Canadian River, the llano's wonders persist: dynamic mesas and canyons, vast flora and fauna, rich histories, Armitage discovers the voices of ancient, Native, and Hispano peoples, their stories interwoven with her own: her father's legacy, her mother's decline, a brother's love. The llano holds not only the beauty of ecological surprises but a renewed realization of kinship in a world ever changing.

Reminiscent of the work of memoirists Terry Tempest Williams and John McPhee, Walking the Llano is both a celebration of an overlooked region and a soaring testimony to the power of landscape to draw us into greater understanding of ourselves and others by experiencing a deeper connection with the places we inhabit.

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Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE: DRAWS
Ed could as well have been whittling away on a spare twig as running the snake down the hole at the side of my house: the gesture was the same. His daddy, slim pocket knife in hand, had shaped an after lunch tooth pick from a tree limb along with stories in front of Swanson’s grocery—a regular. His son shucks the black line into the sewer. He says: ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. How does the book explore the connections between family history, prehistory, flora and fauna and what is the effect of this interweaving?

2. The book is about a little known area of the llano estacado which covers part of New Mexico and Texas. Are the themes and ideas applicable to your life or where you live--that is, to people and environments outside of the book's setting?

3. How may we experience a deeper connection with the places we inhabit as inspired by this book?

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