Tommy Orange, "There, There"

Tommy Orange discusses his book, "There, There" at Politics and Prose at the Wharf on 6/25/18.

Orange’s eagerly anticipated debut novel introduces both a powerfully original literary voice and tells a story that’s long been overshadowed, distorted, and outright erased. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, Orange explores the complicated reality of urban Native Americans through the lives of twelve different characters of different ages, genders, and Native heritages. In a series of tour-de-force linked vignettes, Orange shows us people grappling with addiction and violence, people who struggle to remember and those who yearn to forget, people in mourning and people ready to fight. All are heading for the Big Oakland Powwow, an event that promises to be nothing like what anyone expects.

TOMMY ORANGE is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is 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, and currently lives in Angels Camp, California.

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Produced by Tom Warren