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IN THE PRESS
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BOOK REVIEWS
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By Susan Lee Roberts
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"Far from cute, this book takes a serious look at the value of love, the impossibility of permanence, and the ways in which humans leave the world. For anyone wondering about the outcome, Watts closes the work’s first paragraph with the reminder that “there is no happiness. Only serenity lasts.” An ingenious and satisfying tale about a single live oak. "
KIRKUS REVIEWS
"Ultimately, the tree and the various organisms it holds dear — ranch owner María Marta, modern third-grader Enzo, the grass, a horse — find that their connection is more about emotion than scientific transaction. While Watts finds inspiration in the science, she doesn’t limit herself to it. No science suggests rocks are alive, yet Tree is guided most by a stony companion whose advice ripples through the book’s plot: “All things are alive,” the ancient rock intones. “Nothing lasts forever. Love what you have while you have it.”"
ELIZABETH JARDINA,
ALTA ONLINE
"If trees have standing before the law, as many argue, then they might very well also have standing in historical fiction as Melina Sempill Watts demonstrates in this intriguing new novel ... Blending environmentalism, magical realism, social history, and arboreal science, Tree challenges ... readers to regard the natural world with new respect."
DR. KEVIN STARR,
ADVANCE REVIEW
AWARDS
Authors' League Fund 2020
Book Excellence Award, Finalist Environmental Category 2020
Gold Prize, Environmental Category, ELit Book Award 2020
Best New Fiction, Beverly Hills Book Awards 2019
Finalist, Indie Award 2018
Da Vince Book Cover Award, Eric Hoffer Award 2018
Panelist, Los Angeles Times Book Festival 2017
Bes
BIO
Melina Sempill Watts is the author of Tree. Watts' writing has appeared in Sierra Magazine, the New York Times motherlode blog, Earth Island Journal and Sunset Magazine, conservation venues like the National Association of Conservation Districts blog, in local venues such as Urban Coast: Journal of the Center for the Study of the Santa Monica Bay, the Heal the Bay blog and Malibu Times, Malibu Surfside News, Topanga Messenger and Argonaut News.
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Watts began her career in Hollywood as a development executive, writing consultant and story analyst working for such luminaries Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Peter Horton and at Dreamworks. She has worked as a watershed coordinator, run a stable, shelved books at a library and created and ran Starfish Catering. Watts graduated from UCLA with a degree in history She is a media and environmental consultant in California.
- Time is TBDBe-coming Tree, "Tree" by Watts + WritersTime is TBDBe-coming Tree, "Tree" by Watts + Writers"Be-coming Tree is a grassroots showcase platform, a collective global live-streamed Art event and community of artists " Be-coming Tree is creating its first ever writers' event with novel "Tree" by Melina Sempill Watts and other writers. Based in the UK and Slovenia, participants are international
- Fri, Apr 23School event, students and teachers only.Apr 23, 2021, 10:45 AM PDTSchool event, students and teachers only.Students only. Event will include California native plants grown at Matilija Nursery for students to adopt and grow.
- Tue, Apr 20California Book Club, Palo Alto AdjacentApr 20, 2021, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM PDTCalifornia Book Club, Palo Alto AdjacentNorthern California Book Club has selected "Tree" for its upcoming meeting. Contact Change the World Books if you want to do a book club event too.
- Thu, Apr 15Eagle Valley Land Trust Book Club + "Tree"Apr 15, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM MDTEagle Valley Land Trust Book Club + "Tree"The ecological and cultural history of Topanga, California is the foundation of novel "Tree," which tells the story of 229 years in the life of California live oak from the point of ... the tree. RSVP here: https://www.givergy.us/evlt21/?con
- Fri, Mar 26https://www.csuchico.edu/twts/index.shtmlMar 26, 2021, 10:10 AM – 2:10 PM PDThttps://www.csuchico.edu/twts/index.shtmlCultural Impacts on Ecosystem Transitions: the Rise of the Anthropocene in Novel "Tree" by Ms. Melina Sempill Watts Novel Tree by Melina Sempill Watts is the story of 229 years in the life of a California live oak from the point of view of ... the tree. The book uses ecological history as a lens to
- Sun, Jan 24OnlineJan 24, 2021, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PMOnlineStory-telling and poetry in Malibu, California, this month explores what happens at wits' end, or in author Melina Sempill Watts' case at a place beyond that.
- Tue, Dec 15Radio InterviewDec 15, 2020, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM PSTRadio InterviewLocal thought-leaders Susan and Stephen Tchudi host Ecotopia on KZFR 90.1 Chico, Tuesdays, 5-6 pm.