Blue Desert

Charles Bowden was for three years a reporter for the Tucson Citizen, an afternoon daily newspaper. His stories covered everything from murder to copper strikes to interviews with Santa Claus and politicians. He became acquainted with the scientific floor of desert understanding and the political tumult of desert development while a researcher at the Office of Arid Lands Studies at the University of Arizona. He now lives in Tucson as a freelance writer, a pastime he describes as "practically a free ticket to the asylum." Nevertheless, he is author of Killing the Hidden Waters, Street Signs Chicago: Neighborhood and Other Illusions of Big-City Life with Lewis Kreinberg, and Frog Mountain Blues (with photographs by Jack W. Dykinga).