THP: One of the most important things that we do at Torrey House Press has been cultivating an audience that shares our passion about beautiful writing and about the environment. So, along those lines, what do you hope readers are going to come away with after reading The Wild Dark?

 

Craig: Well, I want them to look up.

 

That's really the purpose of this book. That’s why I did it: to get myself to look up, not just glance up, but really look and get a sense of what a night sky is at all levels, even at the Las Vegas Strip, where you can only spot two or three stars or a couple planets if you're lucky. When you’re reading The Wild Dark, look at the night sky and see where you are. The night sky puts everyone’s life into new contexts. I want the reader to be aware of the context that you can grasp just by looking up at night to orient yourself to stars and planets and not just geographically or locationally, but in a sense of time and movement of stars and how our views of the sky have changed over thousands of years. I want readers to think about the worlds that we interact with beyond what is just down here on the ground. The world on the ground is deeply beautiful and dynamic and right in front of us. And then above us there is this infinity, this immensity in the night sky. I don’t think you can see a full night full of stars and ever be the same again. Maybe for those who don’t have the opportunity to see the full night sky where they live, The Wild Dark is a way to get a view of it. It is a reminder of it. 

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THP: That’s so beautiful, thank you Craig. I grew up in Durango in the San Juan National Forest, and it wasn’t until I left to go to college in New York City that I realized how important the night sky was to me. Now when I go back, I try to just bathe in the stars.

 

Craig: Do you remember the night sky in New York?

 

THP: There were a couple of times when the northern lights were bright enough that we saw green skies in New York. Mostly though, we made the classic mistakes of labeling helicopters as bright stars, or didn’t even think to look up. The moon in New York behaved very strangely though, I remember that so clearly. 

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Craig: It’s funny how in New York the moon just shows up randomly. You don’t see it for nights and nights, and then you look up between buildings and there it is. I can see why people are confused by the movement of the moon because it is so complicated and strange. But then especially in a city where you’re just like, whoa, there’s the moon. Where did that come from? I like that feeling of like, oh, there’s a drunk moon stumbling through as opposed to this very orderly moon that you find in dark places.

 

THP: I mean, yeah, the moon in New York has got its own errands to run. It’s taking the subway, it’s busy, it’s going out dancing.

 

Craig: It’s just one of the people that you randomly run into.

 

THP: Absolutely. So, we talked a lot about people who you were hoping that the book is going to inspire to form a relationship with the night sky and people who already have a relationship with the night sky, maybe reaffirming or reappreciating or rediscovering that with The Wild Dark. If you could put a copy of The Wild Dark into the hands of anybody in the world, who would it be and why?

 

Craig: I want to give this book to people who keep a lot of lights on. That’s actually what I envisioned for this book! If there’s somebody who has really bright lights and they’re not paying attention, or you’ve gone to them and said, hey! Your lights are really shining! Just hand them The Wild Dark. I want this book to get into the hands of people who don’t think about how our light changes the sky: urban, rural, wherever. So, it’s not a specific person, but I’ve imagined getting a copy and walking it over to someone’s house and going here is my book. We've got this beautiful dark sky here, and this book supports it. If you read this book, you will consider how your lights obscure the night sky.

 

I was talking to one person who is working on the master plan of Salt Lake City from a lighting perspective, but I didn’t have time to include that interview in the book. That person was tackling a huge challenge. I think a lot of us assume that big cities like Salt Lake can’t do anything from a dark skies perspective. We assume that they’ve already blotted out the sky, but there’s actually a lot that you can do. Both individuals and governing bodies can change the experiences of light and dark. So, I want to get The Wild Dark into the hands of people who don’t think about the night sky. I don’t think readers are going to come away from this book thinking, ok, everything is fine. I’m going to leave the lights on, and I’m not going to pay attention to this. I think readers will come away and think, wow, this really does matter, and I am missing out on something. We are obliterating an incredible world that is actually very easy to bring back into view. 

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THP: Last weekend I was at the Utah Valley University Field Station in Capitol Reef National Park. The field station is super remote, but the station manager kept reiterating how important it was to close our blinds and curtains at night if we had any light on because even a small amount of light pollution would obstruct animals’ abilities to see the stars and navigate. I kept thinking about that concern, and about how even in places as dark as Capitol Reef we can’t take the night sky for granted. I felt kind of guilty for not thinking about light pollution at home in my own apartment. Basically, I really appreciate what you just said. I hadn’t consciously thought about the possibility of the night sky in Salt Lake City. 

 

Craig: Absolutely, in places as dark as Capitol Reef, it doesn’t take much light to change the night sky. There is something to that that speaks to how profound darkness is actually very bright; the sky has its own light and that’s something that is rare and worth preserving. Of course, preserving the night sky in Salt Lake is possible too, because there are plenty of places you can go where you can get quite a few stars. I don’t think that the deepest dark is, to me, the “best” night sky. There are so many different ways to see the sky at all levels of light pollution. 

 

THP: So, on that note of varying light levels, do you have different stars or celestial objects that you like to find to orient yourself in different places? In that vein, do you have a favorite celestial object or formation or constellation?

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Craig: There are a lot of objects or constellations that I look for. Orion is the main one. It travels across the sky from August to May and then disappears over the summer. Watching it move is a real centerpiece for me because it aligns with the seasons. Orion is just starting to dip below the horizon; it’s got a couple more months of prominence, but it’ll be out of view soon. Just a week ago I saw Scorpius on the southern horizon, which is what you see in the summer: the big Scorpion standing on its tail in the south. Scorpius takes the place of Orion for me. I love waking up early, as early as four in the morning, seeing Scorpius and saying oh hi, I haven’t seen you for a while. Of course, the north star (Polaris) and Cassiopeia, and the Big Dipper rotating around Polaris, creates this whole northern anchor that you can use to tell the time just by seeing the positions of the constellations. Just at a glance, you can look up and go there you are! Thank you. 

 

THP: I’m a huge fan of the Big Dipper. I really appreciate its work.

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Craig: In different places where I’ve lived, the stars have anchored me in different ways. I lived in a place where we had this several hundred foot rock tower right in front of our window. In February around two in the morning, the Big Dipper would rest perfectly atop the rock tower. It fit perfectly there. I’ve found places like that everywhere that I’ve spent time. I always ask myself, ok, what do these stars do? What does the sun do at different times of the year? I try to align myself with the sky. 

 

THP: I haven’t really had the chance to get to know the constellations very well, and that’s a goal of mine. I think that that’s one of the goals of The Wild Dark—to encourage people to form a relationship with the night sky. Of course, that message can be broadcast in a lot of different ways! At Torrey House Press, we believe that writing is such a powerful tool for advocacy. I’m really curious to hear about your relationship to writing, and your relationship with writing as advocacy. 

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Craig: I’m definitely advocating for something in every book. And I think overall, I’m advocating for ongoing relationships with the natural world. In The Wild Dark, I’m definitely advocating for the darkness of our sky, for preserving it, and examining how we can accomplish this through local groups, government agencies, and personal actions wherever you live. I try not to be heavy handed about it either! One person who I interviewed for this book who is a mayor of a small town said he would oppose any kind of light ordinances, and that he didn’t care about the dark sky. He said, this is a waste of our time. I want to write to him as an advocate, I want him to read the book and say, oh, I get it. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t be struck by the beauty of the night sky. I’m not trying to turn those people away by saying hey, you’re bad for not wanting dark skies. I’m more saying, maybe, you don’t know what a dark sky is really about. Let me offer stories that may seem familiar to you. I’m trying to reach away from the choir who we all know sings the praises of the night sky and go to somebody else who may not consider its importance. 

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THP: That's beautifully said. You've talked about interviewing a couple of people throughout this interview, and I’m curious if you could say a little bit about the process of writing this book, what that looked like, if you were in any specific place, or if you were trying to travel quite a bit.

 

Craig: This book was unusual for me in that it was centered around one journey: I did a bike trek from Las Vegas to the darkest part of Nevada (which is the core of the book). Then, I came home and did some interviews. I also reached out to a professor at the University of Nevada at Reno who is doing some incredible work on light pollution and animals. A big focus of hers is light and night skies. I read one of her pieces in Scientific American about the value of the night sky, and I picked that up and thought that she would be perfect to include in The Wild Dark. 

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She had a story about growing up in China where she was in a major city and hadn’t seen any dark skies at all. Then, she ended up as a grad student in Joshua Tree National Park at night and saw the Milky Way for the first time. Hearing a scientist talk about that and talk about crying at her first sight of the Milky Way poses such different questions than scientific ones do. I wanted my interviews to capture how people’s lives were changed by the night sky or ask how people are personally affected by the night sky. The interviews that ended up in The Wild Dark were often the ones that drifted from hard or rigorous questions to stories that made me think, cry, and wonder. 

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THP: I feel like filling in what’s left out by science, or emotionless interviews, is so important, especially when it comes to places like the night sky, which is so meaningful to so many people. That’s one of my favorite parts about the book, just seeing the complexity and fullness of humanity that it’s immersed in. So, the last question that I have for you is, if you could ask every reader to do one thing after reading The Wild Dark, what would you ask them?

 

Craig: Oh, I’d ask them to go sit outside at night, wherever they are. Any place. Just go outside at night and take some time. Look up for more than ten minutes, even if it’s in New York, or Los Angeles. Find a good chunk of sky and count the stars. Orient yourself. Look up and explore what there is to see. 

 

THP: Well, I’ll probably take that advice and do that tonight. Thank you so much Craig, I can’t wait for everyone to read The Wild Dark.