Becher, Anne 1963–

views updated

Becher, Anne 1963–

PERSONAL: Surname is pronounced Beck-er; born December 19, 1963, in Denver, CO; daughter of Harold T. (a psychiatrist) and Ingrid (an indexer; maiden name, Haymaker) Becher; married Joseph J. Richey, August 16, 1987; children: Jacob Swan, Flora Sol. Ethnicity: "European-American." Education: Carleton College, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1987; University of Colorado, M.A., 1992. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, yoga, music.

ADDRESSES: Home—2737 Kalmia Ave., Boulder, CO 80304. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Colorado, Boulder, instructor in Spanish, 1989, 1990–92, 1996–.

MEMBER: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, American Council of Foreign Language Teachers, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Watson Fellow, T.J. Watson Foundation, 1987.

WRITINGS:

(With Beatrice Blake) The New Key to Costa Rica, Ulysses Press, 1986, 14th edition, 1999.

Biodiversity: A Reference Handbook, American Bibliographical Center-Clio Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 1998.

(With Kyle McClure, Rachel White Scheuering, and Julia Willis) American Environmental Leaders: From Colonials Times to the Present, American Bibliographical Center-Clio Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 2000.

Coeditor and copublisher of the literary magazine Underground Forest/La Selva Subterranea, 1986–.

SIDELIGHTS: Anne Becher once told CA: "Having been concerned about the environment and social justice for as long as I can remember, I try to write on these topics or to integrate these issues into whatever I am writing. In The New Key to Costa Rica, Beatrice Blake and I cover all types of tourism, but our hearts are really in ecotourism and community-based tourism. We wrote and carried an extensive 'sustainable tourism' survey, in order to recognize lodges that were devoted to conservation, providing good jobs to local people, and sustaining Costa Rica's fragile culture. The lodges that scored high in these three areas were given a star in our book. Our hope is that, by steering our readers to those places, conservation and sustainable development will be given an extra boost.

"I have also written reference books for the American Bibliographical Center-Clio Press. Biodiversity: A Reference Handbook came out in 1998. It's a book in the 'Contemporary World Issues' series and follows the format of the series: chapters provide an overview, a chronology, biographical sketches, statistics and important documents, a directory of organizations, and print and non-print resources and reviews. I also wrote a biographical dictionary of American environmental leaders.

"My master's degree is in Hispanic languages, and I currently teach Spanish. It's much less solitary than writing! It also provides me with a more dependable income. I have enjoyed the diversity of devoting my work-time to both writing and teaching, but it has been hard to do both, in addition to raising my two kids and working with my husband to maintain our home. I also teach writing courses in Spanish, which is a good combination of my interests."