Vivien Savath: Three Questions, Three Answers

Vivien and son Boone enjoying a summer evening at Ecolibrium Farms in Redmond, WA

Credit: Barnaby Britton

Where did you grow up?

I'm from New York state originally. Poughkeepsie [puh-kip-see] is a small city on the mighty Hudson River about 90 miles north of the Big Apple. Depending on your proclivities, you might know it as the word character John Cage uses to control his stutter in Ally McBeal, from the sixteen times it's been an answer on Jeopardy, or as the location for the 2007 documentary-style horror movie The Poughkeepsie Tapes. 

Tell us about your pets.

We have a 3-year old Wheaten Terrier named Rambo. Unfortunately we did not have the foresight to name him Sweet-Calm-Child-Loving-Dog. His current priorities are adapting to life with a baby, sneaking into our bed when we're not home, and finding a nice cool spot on the floor. 

What book(s) have you read recently? 

I am part of an unsustainable number of book clubs, the BERK book club being one of them, but will never quit because I love adding to the list of things I want to read and then slowly catching up on them. I'm currently into The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, a book club pick from last year. It's a super rich story of survival in a time of extreme climate events, flaring racial tensions, natural resource scarcity, and massive economic inequality.  Sound familiar? This novel about the "dystopian future" kicks off in 2024, aka the year the Sound Transit Light Rail is expected to reach Lynnwood.