The crowd quieted as the clock turned to 7:30. Professor Chris Fink took the stage, and recounted the storied history of the Mackey Chair, which was established in the late 1980s by Willard Mackey ’47 in honor of his wife, Lois ’45. He then introduced Rick Bass. Bass, the Mackey Chair’s resident author in 1992, is one of only three writers who are what Professor Fink dubbed a “re-Mackey,” one who has returned a second time as part of the program.

Then Rick Bass, environmental activist, and author of more than 30 novels, stepped up to speak. The atmosphere was electric; every person in the audience was at rapt attention. He began by showing the audience a short video about his efforts to protect the biodiverse Yaak Valley in northern Montana from deforestation. Since moving to the Yaak, he has — alongside other environmentalists — continued to campaign against the logging industry’s attempts to strip the region of its natural resources. One such effort involved the construction of a one-of-a-kind instrument: a guitar made from the wood of a centuries-old fallen tree from the valley.

And that guitar was on campus for the event, bringing a part of the Yaak to Beloit College. The goal of the guitar is to allow a small part of the valley to break free of its geographical constraints, a physical representation of its unique and irreplaceable legacy. In that spirit, Nick Dimassis, guitarist and Director of Beloit Public Library, played the guitar and sang an original song he wrote, based on one of Chris Fink’s short stories.

Finally, Bass read an excerpt from his 2018 book The Traveling Feast, a memoir about his travels cooking homemade meals for his literary heroes. The scenes he read were hilarious and heartwarming. After describing a harrowing account of traveling through airport security with a bag of thawing elk meat dripping blood from his luggage, he told the tale of a dinner he made, featuring elk meat, for the writer David Sedaris at his home in England.

To cap off the night, Bass answered the questions of students and faculty in the crowd. He gave advice on the writing process, encouraging aspiring writers to dedicate time to their craft without obsessing over quality. After the reading, Rick Bass remained to talk with attendees and to sign copies of his books. 

Past Mackey Chairs have included Ursula K. Le Guin, Peter Matthiessen, and Lynda Barry.