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CORVALLIS, Ore. – Twenty-eight years after a massive volcanic eruption reshaped Washington’s Mount St. Helens, a new book is being published that examines the effect the event had on the landscape – and the people who lived there.

Published by the Oregon State University Press, “In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mount St. Helens” is a collection of essays and poetry by noted authors, scientists, poets and others. It was edited by Charles Goodrich and Kathleen Dean Moore of OSU, and Frederick J. Swanson of the U.S. Forest Service.

A tour featuring the editors and some of the contributing writers will begin on Friday, May 16, at OSU in the Valley Library rotunda. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Additional readings are listed below.

“Blast Zone” explores the mountain’s devastation and renewal, posing the question of what a radically altered landscape can reveal about nature and how to live our lives. Contributing writers include noted Oregon author Ursula K. LeGuin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder, Northwest Writing Institute founder Kim Stafford, aquatic scientist Jim Sedell, Oregon poet and writer John Daniel, photographer Gary Braasch and others.

Their diversity of experiences and perspectives with Mount St. Helens – and sometimes with the eruption itself – bring a multi-layered look at one of the most significant natural events to strike the Pacific Northwest in modern times.

Jerry Franklin, a contributing writer, facilitated numerous research projects in the Mount St. Helens blast zone following the eruption and still studies the ecosystem’s recovery. Another essayist, Robin Kimmerer, is a member of the Citizen Band Potawatomi who writes about traditional knowledge of the area’s ecology and how it contributed to the restoration efforts.

The editors also offer personal perspectives.

Swanson, long fascinated with volcano science, previously co-edited a scientific review, “Ecological Responses to the 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens.” Goodrich, the program director for OSU’s Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word, was backpacking 12 miles southeast of St. Helens when it erupted on May 18, 1980. Moore, who directs the Spring Creek project and serves as OSU’s first Writer Laureate, moved into her Corvallis home the day of the eruption and still has a small bottle of ash scraped from the hood of her car.

In the book’s foreword, Scott Slovic writes: “One comes away from reading this book with a powerfully transformed view of Mount St. Helens and volcanoes in general, carrying in one’s imagination ideas of green moss and blue butterflies, birdsong and wind, ideas that have now begun to complicate the image of St. Helens as a stark post-eruption moonscape…”

The paperback retails for $15.95 and is available in book stores, by calling 1-800-426-3797, or by going online to http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press/i-j/IntheBlastZone.html

Stops on the reading tour include:

• Corvallis: Friday, May 16, Oregon State University’s Valley Library rotunda, 7:30 p.m.

• Portland: Sunday, May 18, Powell’s Books, 4 p.m. (Ursula LeGuin, Kim Stafford and others will join the editors).

• Eugene: Wednesday, May 21, University of Oregon Bookstore, 7 p.m.

• Bellingham, Wash.: Tuesday, May 27, Village Books, 7 p.m.

• Olympia, Wash.: Wednesday, May 28, Orca Books, 7 p.m.

• Seattle, Wash.: Thursday, May 29, University Bookstore, 7 p.m.