{"id":68030,"date":"2023-01-30T16:04:37","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T23:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=68030"},"modified":"2023-01-30T16:45:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T23:45:54","slug":"humans-of-flagstaff-peter-friederici","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/humans-of-flagstaff-peter-friederici\/","title":{"rendered":"Humans of Flagstaff: Peter Friederici"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though he grew up in the Chicago suburbs, Peter Friederici<\/strong> called the Grand Canyon State home almost as soon as he got here. Friederici, professor and director of NAU\u2019s Sustainable Communities master\u2019s program, began his career as a journalist specializing in science and environmental stories. Still writing about science, nature and the environment he aimed to do more in his latest book, \u201cBeyond Climate Breakdown: Envisioning New Stories of Radical Hope.\u201d Inspired by the Greek myths that, through storytelling, imparted a moral, a lesson and wisdom, Friederici is aiming to do just that. He talks life, love of nature and the relative ease of writing his latest book\u2014the muses were with him!<\/p>\n

What drove you to the field of journalism and specializing in environmental topics? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenges of calculus and organic chemistry in my freshman year as an undergraduate! I\u2019d hoped to be a biology major but was intimidated by those requirements. So, I changed majors dramatically, to comparative literature. It wasn\u2019t until after graduation, when I was working as a brand-new journalist in Chicago, that I realized that I could still follow my passion for science\u2014but by writing about it rather than by doing it.<\/p>\n

Why did you start writing books, and how did your most recent book-writing experience differ from past experiences?\"Peter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I worked as a journalist for about 10 years before my first book was published\u2014The Suburban Wild<\/em>, which is about my experiences growing up as a nature-loving kid and young man in the Chicago suburbs. Even though that book grew out of my journalism, it was very freeing, and creative, to escape the boundaries of journalism, such as word count limits and news hooks, and to think of the large-scale structural decisions that tie an entire book together. Beyond Climate Breakdown<\/em> is a different sort of book because, unlike my others, it\u2019s not based on primary reporting; rather, it\u2019s an extended essay that critiques large-scale societal narratives about climate breakdown. But writing it involved many of the same sorts of structural issues and revision. Lots of revision.<\/p>\n

What brought you to NAU?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I moved to Tucson after I got my graduate degree, simply because I was attracted to the landscape and the open space. I was working as a freelance journalist and seasonally as a field ornithologist. I love the desert, but after a few years I realized that I won\u2019t ever love hot weather\u2014so I moved to Flagstaff. It\u2019s been home ever since.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite aspect of the work you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s really the back-and-forth between teaching, which is intensely social, and writing, which for me is an intensely solitary experience. Sometimes it feels a bit schizophrenic to love both, and sometimes it\u2019s hard to transition from one of those experiences to the other. But each informs the other in really important ways.<\/p>\n

Tell me about a significant childhood memory, and how it has impacted your life today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll go back to second grade for that. That year I had a wonderful teacher who took our class out into the woods for lessons and who had a classroom subscription to Ranger Rick<\/em> magazine. I was hooked\u2014on the magazine, for one, but more broadly on the idea that a respectable adult found the little patch of woods by the school a worthwhile site for teaching. Somehow that linked school and learning with the affinity I already felt for nature.<\/p>\n

What did you want to be when you grew up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once I was old enough to think about actual jobs, I probably thought most about being a wildlife biologist\u2014the kind who would live in the woods near a wolf pack for months to figure out what they do, or maybe study seabirds on some remote Southern Ocean Island. That never happened. But thanks to journalism assignments, I\u2019ve been able to spend time with biologists in place where they\u2019re<\/em> doing work like that, on projects like studying thick-billed parrots high in Mexico\u2019s Sierra Madre or shorebirds in the Netherlands. That\u2019s been a treat.<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>What have you been most proud of recently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certainly, raising a 17-year-old ranks high on the list. But so does the way in which Beyond Climate Breakdown<\/em> came together. The writing process was intense and fairly quick. And it wasn\u2019t a book that I had a detailed outline for when I began. Much of the argument in the book developed as I was writing. To me, that\u2019s a gold standard in writing\u2014the process itself helps develop the content. When that happens, writing isn\u2019t a chore anymore, but a truly creative process.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite way to spend a day off?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I came to Arizona because of the landscape. I love the open space and the amazing topographic and ecological diversity. And many years later that hasn\u2019t changed. If I have a few hours off, you can probably find me hiking up Mt. Elden or on some other steep trail near Flagstaff. If I have a whole day, I might be hiking into Grand Canyon, and out again. The mix of physical challenge and ecological diversity never fails to present a new experience, even when I\u2019ve been on the same trail many times. And there\u2019s no better community than people I meet on the trail.<\/p>\n

What are three things on your bucket list?<\/strong><\/p>\n