A patchwork of agricultural lands, booming border towns, and fast-growing cities line the United State-Mexico border. Teams of border patrol agents cruise the landscape in white and green jeeps, hoping to stem the tide of illegal immigrants seeking to cross into the United States. Against this backdrop, Peg Bowden, a retired nurse, volunteers at a migrant shelter in the Arizona borderlands, a sort of third country, with one foot in Mexico and the other in the United States. Bowden has stories. She gathered them into a series of true stories and personal reflections: A Land of Hard Edges: Serving the Front Lines of the Border. Hear her stories.

AUTHOR PEG BOWDEN: "A LAND OF HARD EDGES," 7 p.m., Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 901 N. J St., Tacoma, free admission 253.627.8371