Brian Laidlaw is a poet, musician, climber, and essayist whose work lives at the intersection of language and the living world. His debut nonfiction book, Erratica: On Climbing, Language, and Touching Stone, is an exhilarating meditation on what happens when a human body meets the earth with full attention. After summiting El Capitan in Yosemite, Laidlaw found himself unable to answer the question every climber faces afterward: So, what was it like up there? That deceptively simple question sends him on a lyrical quest — tracing routes up Indian Creek’s moon-washed faces, bouldering in Joe’s Valley, free-soloing in Colorado, and eventually returning to the Sierra Nevada of his childhood to write and revise routes of his own. Along the way, he draws us into a climbing community bound as much by story as by rope, where any passing stranger might become the best coach you’ve ever had.

Laidlaw is also the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, The Stuntman and The Mirrormaker, each released alongside a companion album of original music — a testament to his belief that poetry and song are kin. A Stanford-trained poet with an MFA from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in English and Literary Arts from the University of Denver, his writing has appeared in Outside, Orion, Climbing, and Alpinist. He has worked as a songwriting consultant on Grammy-winning albums and co-founded Unrestricted Interest, an organization that provides creative writing mentorship to neurodivergent poets and lyricists.

Based in Moab, Utah, Laidlaw brings a rare sensibility to nature writing — one shaped by the red-rock landscapes of the American West and a deep conviction that the stories we carry up a mountain matter as much as the summit. Join us at the Salt Lake Book Festival for a conversation that promises to be as gripping as any climb.