Deborah Taffa and Claire Vaye Watkins have each carved out unsparing and myth-shattering portrayals of the American West. Claire’s canon, including recently released novel Yellow Pine, draws on her upbringing in the Mojave Desert to reveal fictional landscapes that contain both ecological beauty and collapse, reflected equally in her deeply personal reckonings. Conversely, Deborah’s memoir Whiskey Tender, finalist for the Nationalist Book Award, chronicles her formative years moving between the Quechan reservation in California and Navajo territory in New Mexico, chasing and then revising the amorphous concept of the American dream.
Join us for onstage readings of Claire and Deborah’s work, followed by a moderated conversation between the two as they discuss the parallels and divergences between their unflinching contemporary accounts of the West.
Afterwards, you can listen to Claire and others discuss what inspires their work at our exclusive offsite reception, Bright Ideas—On Wrangling the Muse.
This event is a part of West Fest, a celebration of writing in and about the American West, the weekend of November 7–8. To learn more and explore passes, which include discounted registrations to this event, click here.
This is the in-person registration for this event. To register for the livestream, click here.
