Join us at Grass Roots on June 7 at 7:00pm for a reading and book signing by Eric Wagner.

In Penguins in the Desert, Eric Wagner chronicles one season in the remarkable lives of Magellanic penguins of Punta Tombo, Argentina, and the scientists who track their every move. As he spends more time in the field, pressing questions come to mind. What is it like to be beaten by a penguin? Or bitten by one? How can a person be so dirty for so many months on end? In a tale that is as much about life in the field as it is about one of the most charasmatic creatures on earth, Wagner brings humor, warmth, and hard-won insight as he tries to find the answer to what turns out to be the most pressing question of all: What does it mean to know an animal and to grapple with the consequences of that knowing?

Eric Wagner’s essays and journalism have appeared in Orion, Audubon, Smithsonian, and High Country News, among other publications. He earned a PhD in biology from the University of Washington for his work on the Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo, Argentina.