Wallace Stegner's Unsettled Country: Ruin, Realism, and Possibility in the American West
DATE: Wednesday, April 10 2024
TIME: 12:15 pm - 1:30 pm MST
LOCATION: College of Law and Virtual Event
A Wallace Stegner Center Green Bag
EVENT DESCRIPTION:
Mark Fiege, Leisl Carr Childers, and Michael Lansing specialize in the history of the American West. Between them, they have decades of experience living and working in the region and writing about its past. Among other works, Mark is the author of Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West; Leisl is the author of The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin; and Michael is the author of Insurgent Democracy: The Nonpartisan League in North American Politics.
Great writers present us with gifts as well as dilemmas. In this unflinching set of essays by scholars and practitioners of inclusive western history, Wallace Stegner is presented as bearing both. From various angles and social positions the contributors in this enlightening collection examine Stegner’s ideas, texts, political commitments, blind spots, and legacies, revealing not only Stegner’s mixed impact on American literature and culture but also how his critical vision can spark hope in these troubled times.”
—Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, winner of the National Book Award
Reappraisal is the perpetual destiny of artists and writers, so revisiting the life and messages of Wallace Stegner, the quintessential literary voice of the American West, is inevitable. In a collection that transports Stegner into the twenty-first century, the gifts the famed writer bequeathed us—beautiful expression, insights that can shade into horror, and yet hope for the future—are on display from every contributor. For all who treasure Stegner’s prose, his promotion of the art of writing, and his immersion in epic environmental battles, this smart, cutting-edge anthology may be the best book about him yet.”
—Dan Flores, New York Times best-selling author of Coyote America and Wild New World
This event is sponsored by the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment, the University of Utah American West Center and the University of Utah Tanner of Humanities Center.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Mark Fiege, Wallace Stegner Chair in Western American Studies, Montana State University, Bozeman
Leisl Carr Childers, Associate Professor of History, Colorado State University, Fort Collins
Michael Lansing, Professor of History, Augsburg University, Minneapolis
The Stegner Center is pleased to be joined by our friends and local bookseller The King’s English Bookshop at this event.
For questions about this event email events@law.utah.edu.
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The S.J. Quinney College of Law is pleased to provide free CLE opportunities for attorneys. All donations welcome to support our programs.