107 Capitol Way N Olympia Wa
Join us as we host an evening in dialogue with author Anthony McCann. His book Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff thoughtfully explores the multifaceted story of the Oregon Occupation that occurred in 2016. In his much anticipated book, McCann recounts the beginnings and aftermath of the highly publicized Right-Wing occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Alejandro de Acosta, local author and educator, will be present to engage Anthony in conversation about his book, releasing on July 2nd. This will be an educational and engaging evening of conversation between Anthony and Alejandro, with time for Q&A afterwards.
If you would like to pre-order a copy of Shadowlands you can do so here: https://www.browsersolympia.com/book/9781635571202
Book Description: In 2016, a group of armed, divinely inspired right-wing protestors led by Ammon Bundy occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the high desert of eastern Oregon. Encamped in the shadowlands of the republic, insisting that the Federal government had no right to own public land, the occupiers were seen by a divided country as either dangerous extremists dressed up as cowboys, or as heroes insisting on restoring the rule of the Constitution. From the Occupation’s beginnings, to the trials of the occupiers in federal court in downtown Portland and their tumultuous aftermaths, Shadowlands is the resonant, multifaceted story of one of the most dramatic flashpoints in the year that gave us Donald Trump.
Sharing the expansive stage with the occupiers are a host of others-Native American tribal leaders, public-lands ranchers, militia members, environmentalists, federal defense attorneys, and Black Lives Matter activists-each contending in their different ways with the meaning of the American promise of Liberty. Gathering into its vortex the realities of social media technology, history, religion, race, and the environment-this piercing work by Anthony McCann offers us a combination of beautiful writing and high-stakes analysis of our current cultural and political moment. Shadowlands is a clarifying, exhilarating story of a nation facing an uncertain future and a murky past in a time of great collective reckoning.
Anthony McCann is the author of the poetry collections Thing Music, I Heart Your Fate and Moongarden. He currently teaches creative writing at the California Institute of the Arts and in the Low-Residency MFA program of the University of California, Riverside. Born and raised in the Hudson Valley, McCann now lives in the Mojave Desert.
Alejandro de Acosta is a teacher, writer, and translator, in no particular order; he also works in publishing. In Austin, Texas he founded mufa::poema, a micropress that freely distributed a dozen poetry and prose chapbooks. His poetry translations include Micrograms by Jorge Carrera Andrade and Five Meters of Poems by Carlos Oquendo de Amat. He is currently working on a series of philosophy talks and a cycle of moral and gnomic sonnets.
