How can fiction help us know the natural world? Barbara Crane uses photographs, old sketches, and maps to tell how research for her historical novel When Water Was Everywhere shows us what the Los Angeles River watershed looked like less than 200 years ago. Through the eyes of an American immigrant, a Tongva/Gabrieleno Indian and a Spanish padre, you’ll see the Los Angeles River and basin; Long Beach’s first water source; and Rancho Los Cerritos when California was part of Mexico.

Crane is a novelist, journalist and teacher. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sun magazine and other publications. Her first novel, The Oldest Things in the World, won the Silver Medal award for Fiction from ForeWord magazine. She covered the Aquarium as a writer for the Long Beach Business Journal.

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