Laura Read
Laura Read explores conundrums, improbabilities, mysteries, ironies, twists of fate, impossible dreams, unfathomable passions, and honest Abes. In 15 years as a writer and photographer, she has won awards for investigative journalism, spot news, and life & leisure stories. She has written hundreds of newspaper articles, more than 100 destination travel pieces for newspapers, and more than 100 magazine stories for publications such as Sunset Magazine, Nevada Magazine, Prime Fitness & Health, Walking, ForeWord Magazine, the San Jose Mercury News, and the San Francisco Examiner. She is a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and a contributing editor at the Tahoe Quarterly magazine.
Having been a generalist for much of her freelance life, Read recently has delved deeply into issues evolving in Northeast India and in northern New Mexico. The subject closest to her heart remains her home territory, the northern Sierra Nevada, which has produced numerous stories about the environment, the whacky adventures to be had up high, the lives of quirky people and animals, and the pitfalls of mountain politics.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE MAGAZINE ARTICLES
Placer County – Back in the Pink: How one woman helped to revive profitability on the family farm
The nectarine’s skin wrinkled into folds, releasing the sweet-tangy flesh underneath. Before the juice could dribble, I sucked it into the pockets of my cheeks and savored its goodness. I ate another. Afterward, I telephoned Twin Peaks Orchard, near Newcastle in Placer County, 75 miles away from my home in north Lake Tahoe. “I need a case of these,” I said. more
Polar Bear Country: The tundra buggy charms of Churchill, Manitoba
Sometime in the night our bunkhouse shuddered. Then something roared. I looked out the barred window, which separated the inky night into disjunctive frames. Earlier, eight bears had been milling around outside. Now I was just able to discern their milky forms moving about like Martha Graham dancers on a ghostly set. … more
Cultural Emissary: A break from modernity among the Naga in India
The air smelled faintly metallic and echoed with thuds. In the courtyard, five Angami men crouched around bloody mounds of raw meat, each wielding a fin-like blade with a wooden handle. At first, I resisted watching the slaughter, but then remembered that observing this kind of ritual — a neighborhood group preparing communally raised pigs for a feast — was precisely why I had come to visit the hill people of Nagaland. As I moved closer, the sounds and scents intensified. In a flash, the panoply of muscled action, the whacking and splitting, the movement of blood and sinew, transcended my original repulsion and became — well — symphonic. … more
Knocking for a Medal: Can young Matt Gelso break the spell on the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team’s dismal Olympic record?
Last year’s fall in North Tahoe produced a few weeks of blazing foliage followed by intense bouts of rain. During the downpours most people finished puzzles or played Clue or Scrabble. Not 17-year-old Matt Gelso. Bad weather rarely shuts him in. Through the gray days and heavy skies, the flame-haired teen continued to bicycle, rock climb and roller ski. He wasn’t overdoing his sports, just preparing in his own serious fashion for the 2006 cross-country ski season. He had big dreams. … more