2017 South Dakota Festival of Books Guide by South Dakota Humanities Council

CONTENTS 4 6 7 8

Mayor’s Welcome SD Humanities Council Welcome Event Locations and Parking A Tribute to Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Sponsored by United Way, John T. Vucurevich Foundation, Northern Hills Federal Credit Union and First Bank & Trust

9 A Tribute to Fiction

Sponsored by South Dakota Arts Council

13 A Tribute to History and Tribal Writing

Sponsored by Home Slice Media and City of Deadwood

14 Presenters 24 Schedule of Events 30 Exhibitors’ Hall Who Was Nicholas Black Elk? Black Elk, or Heȟáka Sápa (1863-1950), was an Oglala Lakota vision-

ary and healer whose messages about the unity of humanity and Earth were conveyed by John G. Neihardt in the book Black Elk Speaks. At age 9, Black Elk had his Great Vision on Black Elk Peak (then called Harney Peak), the highest natural point in South Dakota and the Black Hills, which many Lakota consider to be the center of the world. The cover photograph was taken by Neihardt in 1931 when Black Elk returned to the peak to pray. Photo courtesy of the John G. Neihardt Trust.

For more information visit sdbookfestival.com or call (605) 688-6113. Times and presenters listed are subject to change. Changes will be announced on sdbookfestival.com, twitter.com/sdhumanities, facebook.com/sdhumanities and included in the Festival Survivor’s Guide, a handout available at the Exhibitors’ Hall information desk in the Deadwood Mountain Grand Event Center. The South Dakota Festival of Books guide is a publication of

410 E. Third St. • Yankton, SD 57078 800-456-5117 • www.SouthDakotaMagazine.com 3

WELCOME... Festival of Books Visitors:

have the privilege as mayor of the city of Deadwood to welcome you to our community for the 15th Annual South Dakota Festival of Books. Since the inception of this event in 2003, Deadwood has been the host city each odd-numbered year. The City of Deadwood, Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission and Deadwood City Library are pleased to partner with the South Dakota Humanities Council to present this book festival. The list of presenters is long and impressive. Book lovers will have an opportunity to listen to a diverse group of authors from across the country. There are many historical and cultural sites to visit throughout the City of Deadwood, including the Days of ’76 Museum, the Adams House and Museum, Mt. Moriah, the Broken Boot Gold Mine and our new Welcome Center. We encourage you to visit each and every one. We look forward to having you join us for this exciting event and hope you get a chance to explore Deadwood in its 55th anniversary of being designated a National Historic Landmark. If there is anything I can do to make your visit more pleasant, please contact me. Sincerely,

Charles Turbiville, Mayor City of Deadwood

ADVERTISING DIRECTORY Arts South Dakota ..................................16 Candlewick Press....................................17 Center for Western Studies.....................17 Children’s Museum of SD........................14 Deadwood Chamber of Commerce.......25 Deadwood History..................................15 Deadwood Mountain Grand..................25 Ex Machina Publishing..............................6 Little Leaf Copy Editing............................21 Mitzi’s Books/Prairie Edge..........................4 Mount Rushmore Society..........................3 Prairie Pages Bookseller.............................6 4 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Sioux Falls Area Community Fndtn..........21 Sturgis Big Read......................................19 SD Agricultural Heritage Museum...........23 SD Art Museum......................................23 SD Community Foundation...................... 5 SD Historical Society Press.........................2 SD Humanities Council...............15, 20, 25 SD Public Broadcasting............................31 SD State Library.......................................24 Thunder Hawk Books..............................24 University of Nebraska Press....................18

LEAVE US A STORY We are in challenging times! We need your help.

HAT WOULD THE SOUTH DAKOTA literary landscape look like without the Festival of Books? I’ve been involved with the festival since its inception in 2003, so it is difficult to think of autumn without a flurry of preparations. It is difficult to imagine the Deadwood Mountain Grand without literary-related exhibits, the excitement of scores of people in line waiting for author signatures and chats, reporters interviewing famous or infamous authors, or children wildly waving their arms to answer the questions posed by an author. I can also imagine a cultural void in the state without the stories and bonds created in communities hosting programs with NEH grant funds or One Book South Dakota authors like William Kent Krueger and J. Ryan Stradal. Recent funding uncertainties due to the announcement of administrative budgets to shut down NEH, NEA and many other organizations that lift our culture force us to ponder “Why the Humanities?” To respond, we reached out for guest essays from SDHC leaders, festival presenters, grantees, newspaper reporters, attorneys, scholars — people who were at some point touched by the spark of a story or the joy in a child’s eyes. Book festival author Linda Hasselstrom opened her essay, “Change the World: With the Humanities and the Arts,” by quoting Malala Yousafzai, an education advocate from Pakistan — “One child, one book, one teacher, one pen can change the world.” In his essay, former board member Steve Sanford said, “The humanities are fully half our human existence,” which leads me to encourage you to ponder life without SDHC’s humanities stories. The “Why the Humanities” blog series is available on our website, www.sdhumanities.org. Please make your voice heard in Washington, D.C. “To cut funding is not only a denial of the essence of our species, but it erases our voice from the future,” says festival author Patrick Hicks in his essay, “Hardwired for Story.” The festival leaves us stories and provides voices for our future. Help us “leave a story” by getting involved through investing and telling your story. It’s not too early to start making plans for the September 2018 festival in Brookings and Sioux Falls. We will be there.

Sherry DeBoer Executive Director South Dakota Humanities Council 6 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

FESTIVAL OF BOOKS EVENT LOCATIONS

To Rapid City

DEADWOOD A. ADAMS MUSEUM (54 Sherman St.) B. DEADWOOD CITY HALL (108 Sherman St.) C. DEADWOOD MOUNTAIN GRAND (1906 Deadwood Mountain Dr.) • Event Center • Prospector Room • Hotel Conference Room • Bill’s Backstage Bar D. DEADWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY (435 Williams St.) • Downstairs • Main Floor E. DEADWOOD WELCOME CENTER (501 Main St.) F. FRANKLIN HOTEL (700 Main St.) • Emerald Room – 2nd floor G. HOMESTAKE ADAMS RESEARCH & CULTURAL CENTER (HARCC) (150 Sherman St.) • Mary Adams Lecture Hall – 2nd floor H. MARTIN & MASON HOTEL (33 Deadwood St.) • 1898 Ballroom – 3rd floor

I. MASONIC TEMPLE (715 Main St.) • Main floor J. TATANKA – Story of the bison (100 Tatanka Dr.)

LEAD – Take Hwy. 14A south to Lead.

K. HISTORIC HOMESTAKE OPERA HOUSE (313 W. Main St.) L. SANFORD LAB HOMESTAKE VISITOR CENTER (160 W. Main St.)

RAPID CITY – Take Hwy. 14A north to I90 to Rapid City. M. DAHL ARTS CENTER (713 7th St.) N. RACING MAGPIE & SEED THEATER (406 5th St.) O. RAPID CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY (610 Quincy St.)

STAY CONNECTED

View changes to the schedule and other news at facebook.com/sdhumanities or at twitter.com/ sdhumanities and use #sdbookfest when commenting or to view others’ comments.

FESTIVAL GUIDELINES

Please abide by the following guidelines to make this event enjoyable for all: no soliciting or distributing flyers, literature, etc., of any kind at any festival venue without prior consent. No videotaping or tape recording. Turn cell phones and pagers off during presentations. The Festival of Books, its sponsors and venues are not responsible for lost or stolen items. 7

CHILDREN’S/Y.A. OUTSIDE THE BOX Graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang thinks it’s important for kids to read outside their comfort zones. So when he promotes his platform “Reading Without Walls” as National Ambassador for Young People’s literature, Yang challenges kids to read about someone who doesn’t look or live like them, or choose a format or topic that they don’t normally read for fun. “I think sometimes readers — of all ages, really — tend to find a type of book we like and then we return to that type of book over and over again,” Yang says. While he doesn’t think that’s a bad thing, he believes we miss out if we stick to that home base too closely. Yang, who’s best known for his graphic novels and work on Avatar: The Last Airbender comics, says he grew up as a “standard-issue nerd.” “I was never good at any sports and I just never understood why people liked them so much,” he says. But he challenged himself to read about the basketball scene in San Francisco in 1940s Chinatown and started to come around. “I wasn’t just learning about this game, I was also learning about its role in American history and the intersection of sports and culture,” Yang says. “[Reading Without Walls] taught me to understand people that I otherwise had a hard time understanding.”

8 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Adventures in Illustrating

HRIS VAN DUSEN credits his mom for fostering his artistic capabilities. “I’m the second youngest of five boys and we all like to draw,” Van Dusen says. “I think my mother suggested drawing because otherwise, like on a rainy day in the summer, when you have five boys running around the house it can get a little crazy. I remember coming up to her and saying, ‘What can we do? There’s nothing to do.’ She’d grab a bunch of paper, put us around the dining room table and we’d sit there and just draw.” Van Dusen spent over 10 years as an editorial illustrator, drawing for advertising, magazines, games and toys. “But the work that I really enjoyed the most were kids’ magazines or illustrations geared towards kids,” he says. Then one day, while working on an illustration for a magazine, an image of a guy with a boat stuck in a tree popped into his head. “So I grabbed a little scrap of paper, sketched it out quickly, set it aside and went back to work. I kept looking at that little sketch and thinking it would be really fun to paint that,” Van Dusen remembers. “I sort of built a story around that. How did this guy get in this tree? How did he get stuck there? How is he going to get out? I just developed a story over time.” From that tiny sketch came Van Dusen’s first book, Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, published in 2000. “That started my book career and I loved it so much I just kept going,” he says. Van Dusen’s retro, bold and bright style lends well to the wholesome stories. He sketches initial ideas in pencil, but finished results are painted. “A lot of people think they’re done with a computer, especially kids,” he says. “I guess they’re so used to having things produced digitally that they’re sort of

astounded that someone actually still paints pictures like this.” When planning his own books, he thinks about illustration possibilities as he’s formulating the story. He’s written eight stories of his own and illustrated books written by Mac Barnett and Kate DiCamillo. And though his books have done well, he’s never thought of himself as a writer. “I still to this day sort of consider myself an illustrator who sometimes writes as opposed to a writer who illustrates, because the art thing was always there for me and the writing came much later,” he explains. Van Dusen illustrated the 2017 Young Readers One Book South Dakota, Adventures on Deckawoo Drive: Volumes 1-3, a special edition bind-in of three books in a series written by Kate DiCamillo. The South Dakota Humanities Council distributed more than 3,000 copies to South Dakota third-graders. Along with his appearance at the festival, he’ll visit schools, which he finds rewarding because he meets kids who want to be illustrators, too. “It’s really cute. They come up and they say, ‘I want to do what you do,’” Van Dusen says. “I hope someday I live long enough where I meet someone and they say, ‘I was at one of your school visits once and now this is what I do for a living.’ I think that would be the most rewarding thing of all.”

FICTION War and Storytelling

T’S EASY TO read Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and take it as a deeply personal account of his experiences fighting in Vietnam. Take the chapter called “On the Rainy River,” for example. O’Brien writes about receiving his draft notice and the inner debate that tore him apart — fight or flee. One day he simply walks away from his job and drives north to the Canadian border. He spends six days at a fishing resort managed by 81-yearold Elroy Berdahl, who becomes a Yoda of sorts. Berdahl takes O’Brien fishing on the Rainy River, which separates the U.S. from Canada. There, in a little boat 20 yards from freedom, O’Brien breaks down and decides he’s not courageous enough to run. He’ll return home to Worthington, and from there he’ll go to the jungles of Vietnam, to kill or be killed. It’s a powerful story. Thousands of veterans can no doubt relate. But there’s a catch. None of it is true. No fishing lodge. No Elroy Berdahl. O’Brien has heard all of this before. Despite being billed as a work of fiction since it was published in 1990, reviewers sometimes refer to The Things They Carried as semiautobiographical, assuming that because O’Brien did indeed serve in Vietnam that its essays must be based in fact. “I understand why that’s done,” O’Brien says. “I wanted to write a book of fiction that made the reader wonder if it was real, and I used certain devices. I dedicated the book to its characters, which are fictional. The declaration at the beginning of the book is ignored. In a way, I succeeded too well, and I’ve had to live

with it for 30 years.” O’Brien appears at the Festival of Books in Deadwood and in Sturgis, where an NEA Big Read grant has supported programming on The Things They Carried. Robert Olen Butler, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Vietnam veteran, and Veterans Writing Project founder Ron Capps return to the Festival this year, as well. In addition, the South Dakota Humanities Council will award its second annual Veterans Writing Prize. Despite its firmly entrenched place in the world of fiction, O’Brien’s book has found its way into the hands of active-duty soldiers around the world, an unexpected fruit of his creative labors. “I certainly did not intend the book to be used as a source of therapy, even for myself,” O’Brien says. “The intent was artistic, to try to write a compelling, complex group of stories about the feel of warfare, maybe even the feel of guerilla or civil war, where there are so many uncertainties. Who do you kill? Who do you not kill? The feel of treacherous ground under your feet, both morally and physically. The terrain seemed to be killing people, with mines and booby traps, an unseen enemy lurking everywhere. “The intent of the book was not to intellectually talk about this stuff, but to dramatize all of these uncertainties and the feel of moral ground shifting under your feet. On the other hand, I’m delighted if the book is helping people, especially current vets. I get letters from Afghanistan and Iraq, so I know it’s being carried around, and I’m glad if it helps.”

FOOD CONNECTS US J. Ryan Stradal’s novel Kitchens of the Great Midwest follows the evolution of Eva Thorvald, a young celebrity chef born and raised in the heartland. And while Stradal’s not a chef himself, he’s always had an interest in food. Stradal was born in Hastings, Minnesota in 1975, raised on Hamburger Helper, Jell-O salads, hot dishes and gooey bars. His parents descended from farmers and emphasized eating local crops. “I remember the sweet corn, and when rhubarb came into season there would be pies around. I felt like that was fun,” Stradal says. In Kitchens, Thorvald values local ingredients, too. She grows scorching hot peppers in her bedroom at age 11. But as she matures, her palate does, too. Meals crafted with fresh caught walleye, heirloom tomatoes, farm fresh eggs and venison are woven throughout a rich cast of characters. Each chapter is told through the perspective of a different one. Stradal, who now lives in Los Angeles, hopes the book shows how food connects people and signifies class, taste and geographical location. “I wanted to talk about how the food in the Midwest has evolved for me. I go back there up to a dozen times a year now, and I just see how people’s habits and practices have changed as it relates to their relationship with food. I was interested in telling that story,” he explains. “I hope that the readers in the Midwest think about how that story might relate to them as well.” 9

POETRY HERE AND NOW Right now, you’re reading a story about Brookings writers Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby Wilson, and their new anthology called Poetry of Presence. But sooner or later, a sight, sound or smell might distract you. In a few seconds you’ll come back, but what if, in that moment, you hadn’t strayed, and instead devoted yourself fully to the act of reading? That concept is called mindfulness, or keeping our heads and hearts where our bodies are. It’s the theme of Poetry of Presence, a collection of more than 150 mindfulness poems by contemporary poets. C ole-Dai has practiced mindfulness meditation for decades, and along the way collected several poems that she considered mindful. Then she started a daily poetry blog, which grew so rapidly that eventually she invited Wilson to help manage it. After three years online, they decided an anthology was the next logical step. “The two of us had the absolute joy of reading mountains of great poetry and identifying poems we would like to anthologize,” ColeDai says. “Then we got to shape all those wonderful poems into a unified collection. That process was very intuitive, very mindful. It required lots of coffee, hair pulling, laughter and long walks. It taught us even more than we knew about the relationship between mindfulness and poetry.” “We are fellow writers and great friends, and we knew we would enjoy working together,” Wilson adds. “We were united by our firm conviction that poetry — mindfulness poetry especially — has the power to unify us and transform our world.” 10 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

More than Words

ON’T BE FOOLED by tion of a visual work of art — is anHeid Erdrich’s new col- other example of her extraordinary collaborative reach. “What drew me lection of poetry. There’s a lot more going on than to this ekphrasis technique was my just words on a page. work as a visual arts curator,” she says. “The longer I work with visual That’s because Erdrich is artists, the more I realize they do not not simply an author, playwright and teacher in the MFA Creative Writing really want to be written about in the program at Augsburg College in St. manner they often are by critics and scholars. They do seem Paul, Minnesota. She is to appreciate response also a collaborative artand collaboration. My ist. Erdrich has curated curatorial act is to write several art exhibits and creatively and collaboworked with musicians, rate with artists who apfilmmakers and dancers. peal to me. It is a kind That’s what makes of extended ekphrasis.” her new book so unique. Finally, the language. Curator of Ephemera Erdrich grew up in at the New Museum for Wahpeton, North DakoArchaic Art is indeed a ta, and is an Ojibwe enpoetry book. But readrolled at Turtle Mouners will find QR codes that direct them to short films that tain. Several poems begin with lines accompany certain works. Other po- that Erdrich has written in English. ems include visual art with Erdrich’s They are then translated into the Anwords, and still others are windows ishinaabe language by poet and laninto Native American languages that guage teacher Margaret Noodin, who then retranslates them into English. In are quickly disappearing. First the films. Readers with smart- the book, Erdrich explains that readers are following along as Noodin phones can scan QR codes at the end of four poems that direct them teaches her the literal translation of to short videos, or “poemeos,” that her indigenous language and its poetic return to English, which helps she has produced in collaboration with Jonathan Thunder. “I have al- both of them understand the nuances. ways thought of certain of my poems “It is a way to revitalize the language and something I do because I promas little films,” Erdrich says. “I see them in movement, in drawing, with ised my Ojibwe language teachers certain sounds and words from other I would do creative things with the authors in my mind. The first poem- language, to the extent I am able,” films I saw were made on a poet’s Erdrich says. “That’s not much, so I work, not by a poet. I wanted to be work with Margaret to create these totally involved and explored the me- works bilingually.” Readers may disagree. Through her dium without studying it first. It was poetry, Erdrich does much to explore liberating and thrilling.” the traditions and current issues facThen there’s the art. Illustrations from Andrea Carlson are found ing indigenous people, and her unique collaborations allow readers to follow throughout the work, but many of the poems are inspired by other pieces of along in ways that other poetry colart, both real and imaginary. Erdrich’s lections cannot offer. use of ekphrasis — a verbal descrip-

NON-FICTION Understanding Middle Eastern Tumult fostered her intense interest in the Middle East and led to her career as a journalist. She works today for several research institutions, but as a foreign correspondent for The Guardian, she witnessed how this centuries-old division still permeates life. “The Shi’a every year mark Hussein’s death in Karbala during several days of mourning and commemoration,” Abdo says. “The tradition is to try to suffer and relive this massacre of the Imam Hussein the way it happened so many centuries ago. They flagellate themselves, they hit themselves with chains, they bleed. The whole idea is to remember and mark the suffering of the Shi’a at that time, and it very much shapes how the Shi’a have always perceived themselves.” So even though the Arab Spring began as an effort to depose dictators, it quickly evolved into something else. “By the time the Arab Uprisings happened, religious identity became much more important because the Arab Uprisings dismantled the nation-state in some countries as it had existed for many decades, since colonial powers carved up the Middle East,” Abdo says. “In the beginning, the goal was not religiously based. It was, ‘We want to get rid of these dictators.’ The religious factors only became important later.” Unfortunately, Abdo believes conflicts in places like Iraq and Syria will continue. “When the war in Syria began to be defined more along religious lines, then ISIS entered, and that created a new dimension of complexity,” she says “Syria and Iraq are mostly partitioned countries right now. The Kurds live in one area, there are Shi’a pockets in Iraq. I think what we’re looking at for the future is not an official partition of these countries, but certainly a de facto partition.” Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

HEN THE ARAB Spring erupted in the Middle East in early 2011, many in the Western world saw it as an opportunity for citizens living under oppressive regimes to exert more control over their governments and daily lives. But those closer to the situation knew it could stoke fires that have burned between two Islamic factions for centuries. In her new book The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and the Rebirth of the Shi’a-Sunni Divide, Geneive Abdo argues that religion is at the heart of it all, despite the fact that in the West, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East are often portrayed as battles over land use, political power and access to education. Shi’a and Sunni are the two major denominations of Islam, and the schism between the two dates back to the death of the prophet Muhammad in the year 632 and the debate over who should succeed him as leader of their faith. Those who became Sunni believed the successor should come from Muhammad’s close friends and advisors, while those who became Shi’a argued that the person should come from the prophet’s direct bloodline. The disagreement culminated in the Battle of Karbala, in which Sunni forces massacred the Shi’a religious leader Hussein ibn Ali and his household. “This narrative from the battle came to define how the Shi’a viewed themselves,” Abdo says. “That began the martyrdom narrative that exists, and how they view the Sunni. They considered them to have murdered Hussein, and that narrative of oppression is still relevant.” Abdo grew up in Texas, but her parents came from Lebanon. That connection

DREAM LIST Rob Fleder is among the most fortunate of men, for he earns his daily bread doing what he loves. A lifelong sports fan, he grew up to be “a curator of sports stories” as an editor with Sports Illustrated for 20 years, the last five in its book division. Since setting out on his own, he and fellow SI alumnus Steve Hoffman have collaborated to produce The Sports Bucket List: 101 Sights Every Fan Has to See Before the Clock Runs Out, which was released earlier this year. “This book has been brewing for as long as I’ve been interested in sports, which is to say, as far back as I can remember,” said Fleder. “I have witnessed many, but not all, of the things covered in our book. In that sense, the list is not just historical, but aspirational. “My hope is that everyone who looks at the book, sports fan or not, will get a glimpse of a variety of people and places and events that they’ve never seen before. That, by the way, is part of what I think of as the essential appeal of sports, what binds them together, if you will. Sports promise, and often deliver, a chance to see amazing, unforgettable achievements, things that you will probably never see again.”

WRITERS’ SUPPORT WRITING REGARDLESS Linda Hasselstrom describes herself as “a perpetual student” of American western history, culture and ecology. That restless curiosity is the root of 15 books, countless articles, essays and blog posts; everything else required for a writing career, as either a job or an avocation, is covered in her workshop, “Writing Through Seven Decades: No Matter What Happens,” on the importance of keeping at your craft through the deaths of loved ones, deadend jobs, divorce, depression and interludes of scant inspiration. Hasselstrom has guided and encouraged other writers throughout her career. “I have an MA in American Literature, and while I didn’t really care to work for an institution, I am a teacher,” she said. In 1996 she began to follow that vocation in a unique way by establishing Windbreak House Writing Retreats on her Hermosa ranch. “It seemed logical, since I had a spare house after my parents died, to create a writing retreat and teach at home,” she said. Windbreak House retreats are structured to fit the participants’ needs, with written appraisals and suggestions for revisions, as well as further reading. “I love to be alone when I write, but every single time I work with someone on their writing, I find some glimmer of inspiration for my own,” said Hasselstrom. “I am a fellow writer to those who come here. We share our insights and problems, and both of us benefit.”

12 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Denise Kiernan

Karen Abbott

Historians, Friends and Mentors

enise Kiernan and Karen had the basis for an immediate connecAbbott have always been in- tion. It helps that she is a truly fabulous, terested in history, particu- warm-hearted, hilarious and sassy human being. I’m sure the attendees at the larly women’s roles. “It’s astonishing and a bit trag- Festival of Books will agree with me,” says Abbott. ic to me that some of these Kiernan and Abbott will present names have been lost,” Abbott says. a workshop on generating ideas and “I’m intrigued by what the ‘bad’ and ‘defiant’ women were doing — women then pitching, researching and writing a narrative book. They know that the who were not afraid to challenge and upend the mores and expectations of process can be mystifying and frustheir times, and who often used sub- trating, so they hope to break it down, step-by-step. “Other people helped me versive means for doing so. Also, at my core, I’m jealous of my characters when I was coming along, whether by and their bold and brazen lives. I wish taking the time to give me a good edI could have lived them myself. Writing ucational edit or just by offering the right encouragement at the right time. about them is the next best thing.” Abbott’s most recent book, Liar, I now enjoy doing the same for others,” Temptress, Soldier, Spy, is about four Kiernan says. “It can be a lonely busiwomen who worked undercover dur- ness, and it’s important to be reminded ing the Civil War, while Kiernan’s The that every writer started somewhere, Girls of Atomic City recounts the expe- somehow, trying hard just to get that riences of the young women who made first book out there in the world.” Their session will be conversationfuel for the first atomic bomb. “I love al, with lots of time for questions. And sinking into other worlds, cultures and time periods,” Kiernan says. “It’s all though Kiernan and Abbott are primarily nonfiction authors, the disfascinating to me.” cussion will apply to other genres. “I The authors became fast friends when a mutual acquaintance intro- think all writing presents challenges. duced them. “He thought we’d hit it off Whether you’re writing history, memand, boy oh boy, was he right. I think oir or fiction, I think it all boils down to, Karen is the bee’s knees, and it was ‘Tell me a story.’ I often think of how I, like bestie love at first sight,” Kiernan as a reader, would want to be brought says. “There are so few women writing into the narrative and work from there,” historical narrative nonfiction, so we Kiernan says.

HISTORY/TRIBAL WRITING Weaving Science with Tradition

OBIN WALL KIMMERER and animals are our oldest teachers. “I wanted readers to understand that grew up playing in the lush countryside of upstate New indigenous knowledge and Western York. She’s an enrolled mem- science are both powerful ways of ber of the Citizen Potawatomi knowing, and that by using them toNation, but because she lived gether we can imagine a more just and joyful relationship with away from the Potawathe Earth,” Kimmerer tomi people, the fields explains. She hopes and forests were her that the perspectives connection to her culshe shares help to heal ture. “As a young person a broken relationship I was intensely interested with the land in this in nature, understandtime of environmening plants as a source tal crisis. “It is also of beauty and endless important to me to be fascination, as deeply a voice for the other creative beings, and also non-human persons respecting them as imwith whom we share portant teachers of many the planet. I hope that life lessons,” Kimmerer in reading Braiding remembers. “When I began studying botany at the university, the Sweetgrass people will be reminded materialist, reductionist nature of West- that the plants shower us with gifts ern science left little room for thinking of every day, from oxygen to food and medicines, soil to life lessons. We plants in this way.” Even so, Kimmerer devoured all should be asking ourselves, ‘How do that plant science taught her, earning we reciprocate the gifts of the plants? bachelor’s and master’s degrees and How might we live so that the plants are grateful for our presence?’” a Ph.D. in botany. Indigenous ideas Kimmerer says her book’s most urwere absent from her professors’ classes, but learning the mechanisms, phys- gent teaching is the story of the Windigo, a legendary monster of the Aniology, genetics and ecology deepened her respect for the living world. “Now ishinaabe people. The tale is a warning against greed and unrestrained condecades later, I am deeply gratified that indigenous knowledge is increas- sumption, which she says threatens ingly valued as a vital partner to West- our very existence. “Our political and economic systems tend to reward ern science in devising ways to care the destructive exploitation of the for people and planet,” she says. Kimmerer has spent much of her ca- Earth. They support Windigo behavior, reer opening the door for that partner- which jeopardizes the future of life as we love it today,” Kimmerer says. ship. She teaches at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forest- “Braiding Sweetgrass helps us to reimagine a different way forward, based ry in Syracuse, New York, and is the founding Director of the Center for on The Honorable Harvest, an indigNative Peoples and the Environment. enous-inspired guide which grounds The poetic prose of Kimmerer’s book our necessary consumption in gratiBraiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wis- tude, humility, respect and reciprocity so that we all might live.” dom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants shows that plants

BLACK ELK STILL SPEAKS Lakota scholar and author Vine Deloria, Jr., often referred to the book Black Elk Speaks as a sort of “bible of all tribes.” His son, Philip Deloria, a historian at the University of Michigan, has penned an introduction to the University of Nebraska’s newest edition of the classic called Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition. The book has had incredible staying power since it first appeared in 1932. It’s written beautifully by John Neihardt, and helps readers longing to learn about literature, ethnography, religion and history. But Deloria believes there’s more to its appeal. “I think that Black Elk Speaks functions as both a statement and a puzzle,” Deloria says. “You walk away from it with a certain kind of clarity about the reality of a complicated world you don’t fully understand. For a lot of thoughtful readers, Black Elk Speaks stays with you; it requires additional mental and emotional work. That’s what the best writing does, and I think that helps explain why it has remained an important book.” Deloria has also used the book in college courses. “It opens you up to the history of American colonialism, the mystery of spirituality, the challenges of oral history, transcription, and as-told-to narratives, the experience of Indian modernity in a global world, the materiality of objects in museums, the question of religious syncretism, the performance of Indian identities and many other things. From it, you can build all kinds of bridges and connections to any number of other issues, questions and themes. It’s a kind of gateway into thinking more, and more seriously, about American Indian lives and histories.” 13

PRESENTERS KAREN ABBOTT is the

MIKE ARTELL is an author, illustrator,

author of Sin in the Second City, American Rose and, most recently, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, recently optioned by Sony for a miniseries. A native of Philadelphia, she now lives in New York City, where she’s at work on a book about murder, bootlegging and justice in the Jazz Age.

musician and professional speaker. In addition to writing and illustrating more than 40 books, he has also created greeting cards and cartoons and hosted a children’s Saturday morning TV show in New Orleans. Artell shares Cajun-influenced music and innovative techniques for thinking, writing and drawing with more creativity and humor.

GENEIVE ABDO is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East in Washington, D.C., and a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. She has written four books, most recently The New Sectarianism. A specialist in political Islam, Abdo has served as the liaison officer for the United Nations’ Alliance of Civilizations and as a foreign correspondent focused on the Middle East and the Muslim world.

DAVID AZERRAD de-

14 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

votes his time and research to increasing public understanding of America’s founding principles. As director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics and AWC Family Foundation fellow at The Heritage Foundation, he teaches policymakers, politicians and the public about the American political tradition, connecting its tenets to the thorny questions of the day.

Rapid City freelance writer and marketing consultant MOLLY BARARI holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. She has presented life writing workshops to groups such as Community Education of the Black Hills, On Common Ground, Rapid City Society for Genealogical Research and Black Hills Retired School Personnel. Such workshops inspired her first book, Dakota Heirlooms, a collection of true stories from senior citizens. Barari loves doing yoga, walking, reading and watching Alfred Hitchcock movies.

ANN BAUSUM writes about history for readers of all ages from her home in southern Wisconsin. Her works often focus on under-told stories, and she frequently explores issues of social justice, as in her most recent title: The March Against Fear. Bausum’s previous works for young readers

have explored the World War I adventures of a dog named Stubby, the Civil Rights Movement, voting rights, gay rights, immigration and free speech.

JOSEPH BOTTUM is a professor of cyber-ethics and director of the CLASSICS Institute at Dakota State University. The former literary editor of the Weekly Standard and former editor in chief of the journal First Things, he holds a Ph.D. in medieval philosophy. His books include the South Dakota memoir The Christmas Plains and the sociological study An Anxious Age. Author of the heart-pounding Liv Bergen mystery series, SANDRA BRANNAN writes about the mining world she’s known her entire life and about the FBI she’s grown to love through her best friend. Brannan enjoys working with relatives in the mining business; living in the Black Hills with her husband, Joel; smiling with pride over the journeys taken by her four sons; and doting on her three grandchildren.

CHRIS BROWNE is a born cartoonist. His father, Dik Browne, created the comic strips Hi and Lois and Hägar the Horrible. Chris Browne contributed to Hägar from its beginning in 1972 and took it over upon his father’s death. Browne coauthored Hägar the Horrible’s Very Nearly Complete Viking Handbook. He has also contributed cartoons to National Lampoon, Playboy, Esquire and The New Yorker. His first children’s book, The Monster Who Ate the State, came out in 2014. As a writer and traditional storyteller, JOSEPH BRUCHAC often draws on his Native American (Abenaki) ancestry and his home area, the Adirondack Region of northern New York. Author of more than 130 books for young readers and adults, his experiences include running a college program in a maximum security prison and teaching in Ghana. His most recent novel, Talking Leaves, is about Sequoyah’s creation of the Cherokee alphabet.

A native of Australia,

GREGORY BRYAN

teaches at the University of Manitoba, specializing in children’s literature. He has published six books, most recently a biography of South Dakota artist Paul Goble. While Goble is Bryan’s favorite illustrator, his favorite writer is the Australian Henry Lawson. In 2011 and 2012, Bryan became the first person to recreate Lawson’s 1890s walks in the Outback. He is a father, husband, sports nut, speaker, reader, birder and traveler.

ROBERT OLEN BUTLER is the author of 16 novels, including A Small Hotel, Hell and the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. He has also written a book on the creative process and six short story collections, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. He has twice won a National Magazine Award for Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. Butler teaches creative writing at Florida State University. RON CAPPS is the founder and director of the Veterans Writing Project, a nonprofit that provides no-cost writing seminars for veterans and their adult family members. Having served for 25 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, Capps is also a retired Foreign Service officer for the Department of State. His memoir, Seriously Not All Right, documents his service and details his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. RICHARD CARR was born in Valentine, Nebraska, at the end of the Great Depression and grew up on ranches on and around the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Except for a short hiatus to earn an engineering degree and start a family, he spent much of his life working cattle. His research into the experiences of his grandfather, John E. Carr, led to The World’s Largest Roundup, 1902. Carr lives in Phoenix with his wife, Mary. 15

PRESENTERS ANN CHARLES writes award-winning mysteries splashed with humor, adventure, supernatural suspense, romance and whatever else sounds fun. A member of Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America, Charles writes three current, on-going series: Deadwood Mysteries, Jackrabbit Junction Mysteries and Dig Site Mysteries.

PHYLLIS COLE-DAI lives in Brookings with her husband and teenage son. Poetry of Presence is her seventh book and her only volume of poetry. She has also created four music albums and is in demand as a public speaker. Cole-Dai is driven by a profound desire to help create a more humane world.

PHILIP J. DELORIA is the Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan, where he teaches courses ranging from environmental history to songwriting. His research focuses on the social, cultural and political histories of the relations between American Indians and the United States, resulting in books such as Playing Indian, Indians in Unexpected Places and American Studies: A User’s Guide. Winner of the 1988 National Book Award for his novel Paris Trout, PETE DEXTER began his working life at a U.S. Post office in New Orleans. He went on to write for newspapers and compiled many of his columns into the book Paper Trails. Dexter now splits his time between Washington state and a house in the Arizona desert so remote that there is no postal service.

LAWRENCE DIGGS has produced documentaries, written books and made presentations around the world. He founded The International Vinegar Museum in South Dakota, helped plan and build a Buddhist temple in San Francisco and designed and created a national emergency medical 16 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

system in Burkina Faso. Diggs also teaches poetry in the state’s prisons, which led to the publication of Prose and Cons. Born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation, VIRGINIA DRIVING HAWK SNEVE has both Sioux and Ponca heritage. Her books for all ages include The Trickster and the Troll, Completing the Circle and Standing Bear of the Ponca, and she has also published numerous shorter pieces. Her most recent book is Sioux Women: Traditionally Sacred. Poet, writer and filmmaker HEID E. ERDRICH has written five books of poetry, most recently Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media, as well as Original Local: Indigenous Foods, Stories, and Recipes from the Upper Midwest. She lives in Minnesota with her husband, kids and a feisty Jack Russell terrier. After 36 years as a teacher and administrator at Flandreau Indian School, MARY

REECY FITZGERALD

earned a master’s degree in History of Textiles/Quilt Studies from the University of Nebraska and began a quilt documentation project in South Dakota. In addition to her new book, South Dakota Quilts and Quiltmakers, she has published in Uncoverings and Blanket Statements, both publications of the American Quilt Study Group. During his 20 years at Time, Inc., ROB FLEDER was executive editor of Sports Illustrated and editor of Sports Illustrated Books. His latest book, co-written with Steven Hoffman, is The Sports Bucket List. Fleder has also edited Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World’s Most Loved (and Hated) Team and Paper Trails, a collection of Pete Dexter’s journalism. He lives in the Hudson River Valley with his wife, Marilyn Johnson, and his dog, Homer.

MARTIN JOHN GARHART, author of Learning to Draw – Drawing to Learn, has worked as an artist – teaching, making and

PRESENTERS showing his images – for 40 years. A Professor Emeritus of Art at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, Garhart splits time between his cabin/studio in the Black Hills and his home/studio in Powell, Wyoming.

MARILYN JOHNSON is the author

Born and raised in Saskatchewan, KATHLEEN GRISSOM is now happily rooted in Southside Virginia, where she and her husband live in the plantation tavern they renovated. The author of historical fiction such as The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything, Grissom is now researching Crow Mary, a Native woman who carried a Colt revolver on her studded belt and wasn’t afraid to use it.

of three non-fiction books: Lives in Ruins (about archaeologists), This Book Is Overdue! (about librarians) and The Dead Beat (about obituary writers). She and her husband, writer/editor Rob Fleder, are long-time friends of the South Dakota Festival of Books. She speaks frequently about libraries, books and the craft of writing, and is currently working on a memoir.

HEATHER GUDENKAUF is the author of The Weight of Silence and Not a Sound. Born in Wagner, South Dakota, she lived on the Rosebud Reservation until age 3, when her family moved to Iowa. Living with a profound unilateral hearing loss, Gudenkauf often retreated into books. Her voracious reading planted the seed that blossomed into her writing career.

LINDA M. HASSELSTROM is a South Dakota rancher and full-time resident writer at Windbreak House Writing Retreats. She has published 16 books, most recently Gathering from the Grassland, and has contributed poetry and nonfiction to dozens of anthologies and magazines.

PATRICK HICKS is the author of 10 books of poetry and fiction, including The Collector of Names and Adoptable, and the novel The Commandant of Lubizec. A dual citizen of Ireland and America, Hicks is the Writer-in-Residence at Augustana University, as well as a faculty member at the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.

PAUL HIGBEE is the author of South Dakota’s Cowboy Governor, Tom Berry, about the colorful man who led the state through the worst of the Depression. His previous books have explored Bear Butte, Spearfish Canyon and Mount Rushmore’s Hall of Re18 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

cords. Higbee writes Black Hills features and columns for South Dakota Magazine from his home base in Spearfish.

South Carolina native and Texas resident

VARIAN JOHNSON is an engineer and

the author of six novels, including the Jackson Greene middle-grade series. The first book in the series, The Great Greene Heist, was an ALA Notable Children’s Book Selection and a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and has been named to more than 25 state reading and best-of lists. His books for older readers include My Life as a Rhombus and Saving Maddie. In more than 20 years as a writer, DENISE KIERNAN has been published in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Village Voice and more. She also worked as head writer for ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during its first season. Her books include The Girls of Atomic City and this fall’s The Last Castle.

ROBIN WALL KIMMERER is a mother, scientist and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her books include Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss, which won the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. Kimmerer lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and founder-director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER is the au-

thor of the Cork O’Connor mystery series, set in the great Northwoods of Minnesota, and the 2015 One Book South Dakota, Ordinary Grace. He lives in St. Paul, does his creative writing in funky local coffee shops and attributes his success as a writer to all the wonderful stories he read as a child.

JON K. LAUCK is the author of seven books, including From Warm Center to Ragged Edge, and the co-author and coeditor of two volumes of The Plains Political Tradition. He serves as adjunct professor of history and political science at the University of South Dakota, associate editor and book review editor of Middle West Review, series editor of Studies in Midwestern History and host of the “Heartland History” podcast.

ALISON MCGHEE writes for all ages in

have featured award-winning and best-selling authors, including Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman. Murano is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and a co-recipient of the HWA’s 2014 Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service.

JERRY NELSON and his wife, Julie, live in Volga, on the farm that Jerry’s great-grandfather homesteaded in the 1880s. Daily life on that farm provided fodder for a long-running weekly newspaper column, “Dear County Agent Guy,” which became a book of the same name. In addition to his column, Nelson’s writing has appeared in the nation’s top agricultural magazines.

all forms. Her Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel, Shadow Baby, was a Today Show Book Club pick, and her picture book for adults, Someday, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. A professor of creative writing at Metropolitan State University, McGhee has three grown children and lives a semi-nomadic life in Minneapolis, Vermont and California.

An enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, S.D. NELSON has written and illustrated numerous children’s books, including Black Elk’s Vision, Sitting Bull and Red Cloud. A resident of Flagstaff, Arizona, Nelson uses acrylic paint, which he brushes, sponges, splatters and sprays to create a contemporary interpretation of traditional Lakota images.

JIM MCLAIRD taught history at Dakota

DAN O’BRIEN has written 14 books,

Wesleyan University for 37 years. A specialist in the history of South Dakota and the American West, he has published numerous articles on topics such as East River/ West River differences and the legend of the “White Mandan” Indians. McLaird’s latest book is Hugh Glass: Grizzly Survivor.

mostly about the contemporary American West and the environment, including his latest, Great Plains Bison. He has also taught writing and environmental studies at various universities. The founding owner of Wild Idea Buffalo Company in Rapid City, O’Brien lives on the Cheyenne River Ranch east of the Black Hills.

DONALD F. MONTILEAUX is a master ledger artist and storyteller. Following in the footsteps of his forefathers and mentors like Oscar Howe and Herman Red Elk, he creates books with striking images that capture the Lakota way of life. His Tasunka, featuring both English and Lakota, won four national awards.

DOUG MURANO is co-editor of the horror anthologies Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories and Shadows Over Main Street. His first solo editing effort, Behold! Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders, was released in July 2017. His anthologies

Minnesota native and U.S. Army veteran

TIM O’BRIEN may be best known for The Things They Carried, a collection of interrelated short stories inspired by his experiences in the Vietnam War. His honors include the 1979 National Book Award for the novel Going After Cacciato, a Guggenheim fellowship, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. O’Brien teaches creative writing at Texas State University. 19

PRESENTERS JEAN L.S. PATRICK is the author of several nonfiction picture books for children, including her latest, Longarmed Ludy and the First Women’s Olympics. Besides writing and researching, Patrick loves giving presentations and teaching writing to all age levels, from preschoolers to senior citizens. Patrick lives near Mitchell with her husband and more animals than she can count.

kota School of Law faculty since 1984,

FRANK POMMERSHEIM writes extensively in the field of Indian law and serves on several tribal appellate courts, including those on the Cheyenne River and Rosebud reservations. Those experiences led to his most recent book, Tribal Justice: 25 Years as a Tribal Appellate Justice. Pommersheim is also a poet; his latest chapbook is Local Memory and Karma (The Buddha Correspondence, Vol. 2).

is the only four-time recipient of the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Favorite Book of the Year Award. Often called the “Queen of Romantic Comedy,” Phillips is a hiker, lazy gardener, horrible singer, passable cook, passionate reader, wife, mother of two grown sons and grandmother.

Castlewood native CHUCK RAASCH earned a journalism degree from South Dakota State University in 1976. He worked at the Huron Plainsman and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader before becoming one of five original cover story writers for USA TODAY, as well as a national correspondent and political columnist for Gannett. He is now Washington correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A member of the University of South Da-

JIM REESE is associate professor of Eng-

The creator of the sports romance, SUSAN

ELIZABETH PHILLIPS

20 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

lish and director of the Great Plains Writers’ Tour at Mount Marty College in Yankton, and editor-in-chief of 4 PM Count. He is one of six artists-in-residence with the National Endowment for the Arts’ interagency initiative with the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Prisons. South Dakota State Poet Laureate LEE ANN RORIPAUGH is the author of four volumes of poetry, including Dandarians and On the Cusp of a Dangerous Year. She is a Professor of English at the University of South Dakota, where she serves as Director of Creative Writing and Editor-in-Chief of South Dakota Review. As Archivist and Collections Manager for the City of Deadwood and the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission, MICHAEL RUNGE has worked on numerous projects that embody the city’s constant vigilance in preserving its cultural heritage. His book, Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cem-

etery, is the first attempt to provide a pictorial narrative of the cemetery’s development.

J. RYAN STRADAL is the author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest, the 2017 One Book South Dakota. A Minnesota native, Stradal lives in Los Angeles, where he is an editor-at-large at Unnamed Press, fiction editor at The Nervous Breakdown and co-producer and host of the literary/culinary series Hot Dish.

FAITH SULLIVAN is the author of eight novels including Gardenias, The Cape Ann, What a Woman Must Do, and, most recently, Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse. A demon gardener, flea marketer and feeder of birds, she is also an indefatigable champion of literary culture and her fellow writers, and has visited with hundreds of book clubs. Born and raised in southern Minnesota, Sullivan lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Dan. Denver resident J.G. “JERRY” SWEDLUND was born and raised in South Dakota, not far from where his book, Rustler on the Rosebud, is set. He experienced cowboy life at his grandfather’s ranch near the White River. As an adult, Swedlund traveled the world, serving in Vietnam and Germany as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army and working for 30 years in Europe as a program manager focused on information technology. Lexington, Kentucky native WHITNEE THORP lives in Box Elder and teaches at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. Her chapbook Cicurate won the South Dakota Poetry Society’s annual chapbook contest, and her chapbook Kintsukuroi was published in July 2017.

SETH TUPPER , author of Calvin Coolidge in the Black Hills, grew up in Wessington Springs and Kimball and earned a

bachelor’s degree in journalism from South Dakota State University in Brookings. He has worked for newspapers in Worthington, Minnesota and Mitchell, and is now an enterprise reporter for the Rapid City Journal. He lives in Rapid City with his wife, Shelly, and their children, Kaylie and Lincoln. Author/illustrator CHRIS VAN DUSEN brings humor, adventure, lively language and colorful, kinetic illustrations to all of his children’s books. Along with drawing Kate DiCamillo’s Mercy Watson and others, he has created several unforgettable literary characters, including Mr. Magee (and his trusty dog, Dee) and King Hugo (the royal with the big ego). He lives in Maine with his wife, two sons and, naturally, a dog.

JERRY WILSON was born west of the Cimarron River in Oklahoma, near the homesteads two of his great-grandfathers claimed in the 1892 Run into Cheyenne Arapaho land, an event featured in Across the Cimarron. He has worked as a farmhand, gas station attendant, carpenter, preacher, teacher, journalist and managing editor of South Dakota Magazine. He and his wife, Norma, live in a geo-solar house on a Missouri River bluff near Vermillion.

RUBY R. WILSON, co-editor of Poetry of Presence, has published three chapbooks. Her work has been featured in invitational exhibits such as P3 (Painters, Poets & Pavilion) and included in anthologies including Crazy Woman Creek. An archivist for South Dakota State University Archives & Special Collections, she lives on an acreage in rural Brookings County with her husband. GENE LUEN YANG is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. He has written and drawn many graphic novels, including American Born Chinese. His graphic novel set Boxers and Saints won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has also written for the hit comics Avatar: The Last Airbender and Superman. 21

YOUNG READERS FESTIVAL

For general inquiries about the Young Readers Festival, call Jennifer Widman, Director of the South Dakota Center for the Book, (605) 688-5715.

CHALLENGE GRANT

Young Readers One Book This year, SDHC will give away more than 3,000 copies of the 2017 Young Readers One Book, Adventures on Deckawoo Drive: Volumes 1-3 by Kate DiCamillo, to students in 14 school districts across the state. At the Young Readers Festival, illustrator Chris Van Dusen, will present drawing demonstrations and discuss his work with third-graders who received the book. At least 10 other children’s and YA authors and illustrators will also speak to students and fans of all ages in Rapid City and the Deadwood area Sept. 21-23, 2017. Our collaborators — First Bank & Trust, United Way of the Black Hills, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Rapid City Area Schools, John T. Vucurevich Foundation and Northern Hills Federal Credit Union — are helping us provide children’s books, student resources and author presentations.

22 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

THE SOUTH DAKOTA HUMANITIES COUNCIL has been awarded a $100,000 federal matching grant to advance a Young Readers Initiative that has already provided more than 12,000 books to elementary students around the state. SDHC’s dedication to extending outreach to underserved communities played a significant role in the selection of its Young Readers Initiative Expansion project for the highly competitive National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Humanities Access grant. SDHC exceeded its first fundraising goal, raising more than $50,000 and receiving the NEH match for $50,000. We are now working to meet our second goal of raising another $50,000 by May 1, 2018. To assist with that effort, please visit sdhumanities.org.

HOW WILL YOUR GIFT IMPACT OUR STUDENTS?

• With NEH matching funds at 1:1, your gift will have TWICE the impact • We’ll have $200,000 to fund the Young Readers program for three years • We will use the funds to continue the program and expand it to elementary students on all nine South Dakota American Indian reservations and to Spanish-speaking English Language Learners • We’ll diversify our students’ experiences by choosing a tribal author for the 2019 One Book • We will bring more authors — and experiences — to South Dakota students

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 20 Dahl Arts Center

Racing Magpie & Seed Theater

Rapid City

Rapid City One Book SD Author Tour Event - J. Ryan Stradal - TICKET REQUIRED (Contact info@sdhumanities.org or 605688-6113)

5–7 pm 7–9 pm

Women Behaving Badly: Then & Now - Karen Abbott & Susan Elizabeth Phillips TICKET REQUIRED - purchase at the Dahl ($10 in advance or $15 at the door)

THURSDAY, Sept. 21 Deadwood Welcome Center

Historic Homestake Opera House

Rapid City Public Library

Deadwood

Lead

Rapid City

10 – 10:45 am

Cartooning for Kids of All Ages - Mike Artell

11 – 11:45 am

Native American Stories & NOTE: Young Readers Songs - Joseph Bruchac authors and illustrators will visit schools in Rapid City all day Thursday.

12:30 – 1:15 pm

Long-armed Ludy and the First Women’s Olympics Jean Patrick

1:30 – 2:15 pm

Start with an Idea, Finish with a Book - Donald F. Montileaux

4:30 – 5:30 pm

Tales from Deckawoo Drive: Creating the 2017 Young Readers One Book - Chris Van Dusen

6:30 – 9 pm

5-6 pm - What Authors Look Forward to at the Festival - William Kent Krueger, Sandra Brannan, Pete Dexter, Karen Abbott & More Author Reception TICKET REQUIRED ($50)

Times and presenters subject to change. Check Festival Survivor’s Guide (available at Exhibitors’ Hall information booth or online at www.sdbookfestival.com) for updates. To purchase tickets for meals and workshops, please visit www.sdbookfestival.com. 24 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Deadwood Mountain Grand Event Center

Prospector Room

Deadwood Public Library

Hotel Conference Room

Bill’s Backstage Bar

(Workshop) Writing What You DON'T Know: Writing and Research Beyond the Desk - Patrick Hicks - TICKET REQUIRED ($20)

SDPB Live Broadcast - In the Moment Book Club with Festival Authors

Main Floor

Downstairs

9 – 10 am (Workshop) Researching and Pitching Narrative Nonfiction - Karen Abbott & Denise Kiernan - TICKET REQUIRED ($20)

10 – 11 am 11 am – 12 pm

(Workshop) Creative Writing Kickstart Alison McGhee TICKET REQUIRED ($20)

12 pm

1 pm EXHIBITORS' HALL OPENS Writing from Art 1:30 Toy Boxes, Libraries & and Family Stories Footbridges: An Au– 2:15 Heid Erdrich thor's Journey Heather pm

Why the Humanities: Its Role in Restoring Civility to Democracy - SDHC Board Members

Building Themed Anthologies from the Ground Up: From Ideation to Promotion - Doug Murano

2:30 What Does the Natural – 3:15 World Ask of Us? pm Robin Wall Kimmerer

Creating Poetry of Presence: A Conversation with the Editors - Phyllis Cole-Dai & Ruby R. Wilson

Words as Barriers to Communication - Lawrence Diggs

Gudenkauf

3:30 pm 4:30 – 5:15 pm

To Hell and High Water: Walking in the Footsteps of an Australian Literary Icon - Gregory Bryan

EARLY BIRD BOOK SIGNINGS (until 4:15) Tales from Deckawoo Drive: Creating the 2017 Young Readers One Book - Chris Van Dusen

5:30 5:30 - EXHIBITORS’ – 7:15 HALL CLOSES pm 7:30 Friday Night Fiction: – 8:15 Life's Too Short to Read pm Depressing Books - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

8:30 – 9:30 pm

Open Mic - sponsored by the South Dakota State Poetry Society

26 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

(Workshop) Heirlooms: Creative Life Writing Molly Barari - TICKET REQUIRED ($20)

Franklin Hotel

Martin Mason Hotel 1898 Ballroom

Emerald Room

Tatanka – Story of the Bison

9:30-10:45 Joseph Bruchac Author Talk & Tatanka Tour

(Workshop) Get Published Now - Jim Reese - TICKET REQUIRED ($20)

Lead Historic Homestake Opera House NOTE: Young Readers authors and illustrators will visit schools throughout the Northern Hills all day Friday.

Sturgis Community Center

9:15-10:00 - The Monster Who Ate the State - Chris Browne

10:30-11:15 - Tales from Deckawoo Drive - Chris Van Dusen speaks to third-graders

11-12:15 - S.D. Nelson Author Talk & Tatanka Tour

12:30-1:45 - Donald F. Montileaux Author Talk & Tatanka Tour

Lead Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center

11:00-11:45 - The Monster Who Ate the State - Chris Browne 12:30-1:15 - Tales from Deckawoo Drive - Chris Van Dusen speaks to third-graders

NOTE: To sign your students up for Friday field trips, contact Jennifer Widman, Director of the South Dakota Center for the Book, (605) 688-5715.

Authors, Appetizers & Apéritifs The Bill of Rights: Liberty through Limits - David Azerrad, Joseph Bottum, Frank Pommersheim, Chuck Raasch - TICKET REQUIRED ($35)

6:00 - Big Read Reception 7-8:30 - The Musicians of Brementown Melodrama Performance by Flower & Flame

7:00 - Reflections on The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

Deadwood Mountain Grand Event Center

9 – 9:45 am Understanding the Arab Uprising and the Rebirth of the Shi'a-Sunni Divide - Geneive Abdo

Deadwood Public Library

Prospector Room Hotel Conference Room The Thresher: A New Introduction to Herb Krause's Classic - Patrick Hicks

Conversations on Race & Ethnicity in South Dakota - SDHC Board Member Whitney Rencountre & SDHC Grantees Rosie Sprague, Rob Timm & Christine Van Ness

Main Floor

Downstairs Following James Meredith’s 1966 March Against Fear - Ann Bausum

10 – 10:45 am

Storytelling, Setting and Sulfur Springs - William Kent Krueger

Root Causes of Racism and a Proposal for Rooting It Out Lawrence Diggs

Why Do We Mythologize War? - Chuck Raasch

Dear County Agent Guy: A Farmer Becomes an Author Jerry Nelson

Growing Up Funny: My Life as a Cartoonist Chris Browne

11 – 11:45 am

Kitchens of the Great Midwest - J. Ryan Stradal

How a Structural Engineer Became an Author - Varian Johnson

Perfume River and Writing the Aftermath of War Robert Olen Butler

Around the World in 12 Events: A Dozen Items from the Sports Bucket List - Rob Fleder

Developing Kate DiCamillo's Mercy Watson Characters Through Illustrations - Chris Van Dusen

12 – 12:45 pm

We Need Diverse Books - Gene Luen Yang, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

The Girls of Atomic City: Life in a Secret City of the Manhattan Project - Denise Kiernan

Homecoming and Healing: Helping Veterans Write Their Way Home - Ron Capps

A Dumpster Full of Books: Loving Books and Disposing of Them Responsibly Marilyn Johnson

From Idea to Book: Bringing Stories to Life Don Montileaux

Recreating History through Fiction Jerry Wilson

The Festival of Books: A Cultural Icon for Humanities & Arts – SDHC Board Member Russell McKnight joined by SD arts & humanities leaders

Spreading the News: The Collector of How to Promote Your Names: Stories Book - Faith Sullivan from the Midwest - Patrick Hicks

Celebrating Poetry of Presence: A Reading - Phyllis Cole-Dai, Ruby Wilson, Linda Hasselstrom, Lydia Whirlwind Soldier & Others

Scoundrels and Rogues (In Fiction and Fact) - Pete Dexter & Rob Fleder

Connecting with the Criminal in Your Classroom: 10 Years in Prison and What Inmates Teach Me Jim Reese

1 – 1:45 pm BOOK SIGNINGS 2 – 2:45 pm Black Elk’s Legacy in South Dakota & Beyond - Philip Deloria, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve & S.D. Nelson

3 – 3:45 pm Readings by Winners of the Veterans Writing Prize (beginning with the presentation of the 2017 Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities Awards) - Robert Olen Butler

4 pm 5:30 – 6:45 pm

EXHIBITORS' HALL CLOSES Special Screening of the PBS Documentary The Vietnam War, followed by discussion with Ron Capps & Vietnam veterans Larry Mayes, Brad Morgan & Craig Tschetter

7 – 7:45 pm Timmy and Tad and Papa and I: Discussing Writing in General and Responding to Hemingway in Particular - Tim O'Brien 28 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

4 – 5:15 pm Deadwood Mountain Grand Bill’s Backstage Bar Happy Hour for Readers & Writers featuring Literary Loot!

Developing Ethics for a Cyber Society - Joseph Bottum & Chuck Raasch

4 – 5:30 pm Lead Historic Homestake Opera House The Magic of Mark Twain Melodrama Performance by Flower & Flame

8 – 9 pm Deadwood Mountain Grand Prospector Room Poetry Readings by Dakota Women Writers - sponsored by the South Dakota State Poetry Society

Masonic Temple

Franklin Hotel

Main Floor

Emerald Room

Deadwood City Hall

Martin Mason Hotel 1898 Ballroom

Homestake Adams Research & Cultural Center

Adams Museum

Time Management for Writers: or, Getting Your Butt in the Seat and Your Fingers on the Keyboard - Sandra Brannan

Kintsukuroi: A Reading - Whitnee Thorp

Nonfiction Writing for Magazines - Rob Fleder, Paul Higbee & Jerry Wilson

Sioux Women of South Dakota Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve

(Workshop) Writing Through Seven Decades: No Matter What Happens - Linda Hasselstrom - TICKET REQUIRED ($20) - A copy of the author's latest book is included in the ticket price.

After The Kitchen House: What Happens Next? Kathleen Grissom

Revisiting Gazing and Imagery: A Craft Talk - South Dakota State Poet Laureate Lee Ann Roripaugh

Writers' Groups: Optional or Essential? - Marilyn Johnson & Faith Sullivan

Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainability - Robin Wall Kimmerer

Pioneer Girl Perspectives: Con- The World's Largest Roundup, 1902 tinuing Laura's Story - Nancy Richard Carr Tystad Koupal, SD Historical Society Press

Hooked on Humor: Mike Artell

Poetry, Law & the Constitution - Frank Pommersheim

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer - Alison McGhee

The Life, Career and Influence of Paul Goble Gregory Bryan & S.D. Nelson

Writing In and About the Mid- Mount Moriah west - Joseph Bottum, Patrick Cemetery: DeadHicks & Jon Lauck wood's Boot Hill - Mike Runge

Great Plains Bison: History, Ecology and Symbolism - Dan O'Brien

Curator of Ephemera: A Reading and Poem Films - Heid Erdrich

Building a World, One Brothers of the Book at a Time - Ann Buffalo - Joseph Charles Bruchac

Living Vicariously through Crime Fiction: How Much Research Makes It Feel Real? - Sandra Brannan, Ann Charles & William Kent Krueger

Writing Ugly: How to Write Anywhere, Anytime and Under Any Circumstances Heather Gudenkauf

James Madison’s First Amendment: Its Origin and Meaning - David Azerrad

Getting Out of the Slush Pile: What Editors Are Looking For - Doug Murano

Screening & Discussion Patchwork on the Prairie - Mary Fitzgerald & Stephanie Rissler, SDPB

The Quips of Governor Tom Berry: Laughing through the Dust Bowl - Paul Higbee

Rustler on the Rosebud: Writing the Life of Jack Sully - Jerry Swedlund

Hugh Glass: History vs. Hype Jim McLaird

The Journal and the Sketchbook Martin Garhart

Calvin Coolidge in the Black Hills - Seth Tupper

Researching Amazing Women's History: Where Do You Go When Books and Google Come Up Short? - Jean Patrick

Deadwood Mountain Grand Event Center

Hotel Conference Room

9 – 9:45 am Book Lovers' Brunch - Ticket Required ($20) 10 – 10:45 am What's So Great About Grass? How Writing 11 – 11:45 am about the Grasslands Can Help to Protect Them - Dan O'Brien & Linda Hasselstrom

Rapid City Public Library Rapid City

Tips for Writers from Authors: In three onehour discussion sessions that highlight organizing, editing, and publishing, local authors and publishers will share insights about writing. Writing Without Walls - Gene Luen Yang, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

2 – 2:45 pm

EXHIBITORS’ HALL

Located in the Deadwood Mountain Grand Event Center and open from 1 to 5:30 pm on Friday and 9 am to 4 pm on Saturday.

AUTHORS

Kirby Anderson, Sturgis, SD

Terry Anderson, Spearfish, SD, tessalynnebook.com Kimberlee Ann Bastian & Julien Bradley, Winona, MN, kimberleebastian.wixsite. com/elementodysseys Phyllis Cole-Dai & Ruby R. Wilson, Bruce, SD, poetryofpresencebook.com Betsy DeLoache, Red Bird Studio, Pierre, SD, redbirdstudiosd.com Brenda Donelan, Pierre, SD, brendadonelan.com Nancy Todd Engler, Rapid City, SD, morethanpresidents.com

Bill Markley, Pierre, SD, billmarkley.com Shawn McGuire, Brown Bag Books, Parker, CO, shawn-mcguire.com James D. Patterson, Rapid City, SD, jdp199.wixsite.com/jdpatterson Bruce Roseland, Seneca, SD J.E. Terrall, Books by Terrall, Custer, SD Craig Tschetter, Brookings, SD, fifteenminutesago.com Christine Mager Wevik, Beresford, SD, itsonlyhairbook.com Jason Willis, Lura Publications, Mapleton, MN, lurapublications.com

BOOKSELLERS & PUBLISHERS

Ex Machina Publishing Company, Sioux Falls, SD, exmac.com Hidden Timber Books, Milwaukee, WI, hiddentimberbooks.com Pure Persona Publishing, Milton, IN, purepersonapublishing.co South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum Press, Brookings, SD, agmuseum.com South Dakota Historical Society Press, Pierre, SD, sdhspress.com University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, nebraskapress.unl.edu Usborne Books & More, Deadwood, SD

ORGANIZATIONS

Rebecca Fjelland Davis, Mankato, MN, rebeccafjellanddavis.com

Alternating Current Press, Louisville, CO, press.alternatingcurrentarts.com

Booth Society/D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery, Spearfish, SD, dcboothfishhatchery.org

George Gilland & Sharon Rasmussen, The Thunder Hawk Project, Timber Lake, SD

Bird Cage Book Store & Mercantile, Rapid City, SD, wordcarrier.com

Deadwood Historic Preservation, Deadwood, SD, www.cityofdeadwood.com

Nathan D. Gjovik, Rapid City, SD

Books 4 Kids Program, Hayti, SD, B4KProgram.org

Literacy Council of the Black Hills, Rapid City, SD, literacycouncilblackhills.org

Books-A-Million, Rapid City, SD, booksamillion.com

South Dakota Hall of Fame, Chamberlain, SD, sdexcellence.org

Michelle Lamphere, Rapid City, SD

Center for Western Studies, Sioux Falls, SD, augie.edu/cws

South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Vermillion, SD, sdpb.org

Lisa Lechowicz, Native American ABC, Omaha, NE, nativeamericanabc.com

Dakota West Books, Rapid City, SD, dakotawestbookseller.com

South Dakota State Poetry Society, sdpoetry.org

Jonas Lee, Rapid City, SD, jlfiction.com

Dakotafire Media & Prairiesummer Books, Frederick, SD, dakotafire.net

Western Writers of America, westernwriters.org

Dillon Haug, Spearfish, SD Joanna Jones, Jones Literature, Spearfish, SD, jonesliterature.com

Adrian Ludens, Rapid City, SD, adrianludens.com 30 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

CELEBRATING 15 YEARS! September 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;24, 2017 Rapid City & Deadwood www .sdbookfestival. com 605-688-6113

$20,000+ FESTIVAL PRESENTING PARTNERS

$75,000 ENDOWMENT LEGACY PARTNER

$10,000+ FESTIVAL PRESENTING PARTNERS $5,000+ TRIBUTE SPONSORS $1,000+ FESTIVAL & ENDOWMENT DONORS The Ament Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management | Black Hills Energy | Sandra Brannan Sherry & Tom DeBoer | Dan & Arlene Kirby | James & Kathy McMahon* | Steven & Kathy Sanford* Jerry & Gail Simmons | David Strain/Dakota West Books Orval Van Deest, in honor of Violet Van Deest | Margaret Cash Wegner* (* indicates endowment support)

$10,000+ YOUNG READERS 1:1 CHALLENGE MATCH $50,000

Gerry Berger Law

YOUNG READERS 1:1 CHALLENGE MATCH $5,000 $1,000+ Avera McKennan | Sheryl & Terry Baloun Pete & Jacqualyn Fuller | Mildred Hugghins | Dr. Han & Bang Kim Jason & Tatum McEntee | John & Kathy Miller

$5,000+ ENDOWMENT DONORS

A special thanks to all of the donors and volunteers who support South Dakota Humanities Council programs.

Dan & Arlene Kirby

SAVE THE DATE: 16TH ANNUAL SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS WEEKEND OF SEPTEMBER 15TH OR SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2018, SIOUX FALLS AND BROOKINGS

Judith & Mark Meierhenry Tom & Jean Nicholson