Sonoran Desert Bestiary: An Evening with Gary Paul Nabhan & Robert J. Long
About this Event
Date: October 11th, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Location: Bright Side Bookshop, 18 N. San Francisco St.
Join us for an author event with the author (Gary Paul Nabhan) and illustrator (Robert J. Long) of Sonoran Desert Bestiary. The event will begin at 6:00 PM with a reading, followed by a Q&A and book signing at 7:00 PM.
Books will be available for purchase at the event.
This event is free and open to the public! RSVP is encouraged but not required!
About the Book: This richly illustrated book of essays highlights the marvelous and memorable animals of the Sonoran Desert, focusing on those that have emerged from the imaginations and observations of local communities. At the dynamic intersection of folklore and natural history, the book reflects on the reasons why human imaginations over the ages have reached into this realm of seldom seen but often intuited animals.
The Sonoran Desert has many marvelous and well-known creatures such as the javelina and the coyote, often found on postcards and lawn ornaments. But what about the lesser-known creatures—the ones that are underfoot yet unseen, that lurk only in the shadows and in our imaginations? In this collection of essays, prose poems, and illustrations, naturalist Gary Paul Nabhan and artist Robert J. Long team up to celebrate these unsung beings of the Sonoran Desert.
This desert bestiary includes creatures whose existence lies largely in traditional story and belief, as well as creatures whose life cycles are so cryptic they seem mythic, such as the walking catfish and the carbunco. Positioned at the dynamic intersection of folklore and natural history, the book reflects on the reasons why human imaginations over the ages have reached into this realm of seldom seen but often intuited animals. Focusing on small animals and charismatic mini-fauna, Nabhan expands our understanding of the natural world by delightfully describing the interactions between animals and plants.
This more-than-natural history is for anyone who finds joy in the marvels of the natural world.
About the Author:
Gary Paul Nabhan (author)
Gary Paul Nabhan an Arab American writer, desert food artisan, and garden designer. He is the founder of the Sacred Plant Recovery Initiative, which works to safeguard, restore, and “rematriate” sacred and ceremonial plants that are at risk due to climate change, overharvesting, and conflict. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Agave Spirits, Jesus for Farmers and Fishes, The Nature of Desert Nature, Gathering the Desert, Ethnobiology for the Future, Last Water on the Devil’s Highway, The Desert Smells Like Rain, Arab/American, and Counting Sheep. Nabhan is the recipient of such awards as a MacArthur Genius Award and a Lannan Literary Fellowship.
Robert L. Long (illustrator)
Robert J. Long is an associate teaching professor of visual communication at Northern Arizona University. He earned his MFA in studio art at the University of Arizona in 2013. His visual art, made under the pen name NearsightGraphite, has been published through Frontiers in Microbiology, Manifest Press, the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, and Edible Baja Arizona magazine, among others. His award-winning work has been shown in juried gallery exhibitions in the United States and abroad since 2008. His art installations include Undersea Discovery (2023–present) and Wild World of Bugs (2021–present) in the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium at the University of Arizona. In 2013, Long became Arizona’s first finalist in the internationally juried Adobe Design Achievement Awards.
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