Rescheduled: 2020 Seattle Reads "There There" by Tommy Orange Will Happen Oct. 17-18
release date: May 6, 2020
Seattle Reads, the “one book, one city” program started by The Seattle Public Library in 1998, has rescheduled its 2020 discussion of “There There” by Tommy Orange. Orange will visit Seattle from Oct. 17-18, 2020, and will speak at four public Seattle Reads events. Look for more details on the programs later this year at spl.org/seattlereads.
The award-winning novel is the first Seattle Reads pick by an indigenous author. “This book does a beautiful job centering the stories of urban Native people,” said Stesha Brandon, Literature & Humanities Program Manager for The Seattle Public Library.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Tommy Orange's novel, which Colm Tóibín described in The New York Times as “an ambitious meditation on identity and its broken alternatives," follows 12 characters from Native communities, all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, who are all connected to each other in ways they don’t yet realize. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American — grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.
“There There” was one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year, winner of both the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and the Pen/Hemingway Award. “There There” was also longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Orange graduated from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and was a 2014 MacDowell Fellow and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California.
FIND A COPY
Copies are available in e-book and e-audiobook formats at spl.overdrive.com
PROGRAM INFORMATION
In 1998, The Seattle Public Library launched Seattle Reads, a program to encourage Seattleites to read and discuss the same book. The "one book, one city" program is now an annual event held in cities, states and countries around the world.
Seattle Reads is made possible by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and The Wallace Foundation, with support from media sponsor The Seattle Times and partner the Seattle City of Literature.