Writing Westward Podcast

A conversation with James McGrath Morris about his new biography, Tony Hillerman: A Life (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021).   James McGrath Morris is a biographer and writer of narrative non-fiction. His biographies have been more than well-received, boasting a New York Times best-seller, winner of the Benjamin Hooks National Book Prize, and titles that the Wall Street Journal and Washington Po...

A conversation with Ryanne Pilgeram about her new book, Pushed Out: Contested Development and Rural Gentrification in the US West , published by the University of Washington Press in 2021.   Ryanne Pilgeram is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Idaho. ----more----  Podcast Notes: Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professo...

A conversation with Andrea Ross about her new book, Unnatural Selection: A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness (CavanKerry Press, 2021).   Andrea Ross is a writer who currently teaches in the University Writing Program at the University of California at Davis. Her writing has appeared in various popular outlets and has been supported by fellowships and awards from the California Arts Council, the Me...

A conversation with Erika Wolters and Brent Steel about their edited collection The Environmental Politics & Policy of Western Public Lands (Oregon State University Press, 2020).   Erika Allen Wolters (PhD, Oregon State University) is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Public Policy Undergraduate Program in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State Univ...

A conversation with historian Benjamin Hoy about his book A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada-United States Border across Indigenous Lands (Oxford University Press, 2021).   Benjamin Hoy is an Associate Professor of History and the director of the Historical GIS Lab at the University of Saskatchewan. He has published on a wide range of topic including Indigenous history, borderlands, gam...

A conversation with Steven L. Peck about his novel The Tragedy of King Leere, the Goatherd of the La Sals (By Common Consent Press, 2019).   Steven L. Peck is an evolutionary biologist and associate professor in the College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University. In addition to being a widely-published scholar in genomics, entomology, mathematical modeling, and other associated fields, Peck...

A conversation with author Tiffany Midge about her book, Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's (University of Nebraska Press, 2019)   Tiffany Midge is a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and was raised in the Pacific Northwest. She is a former columnist for Indian Country Today, has written for McSweeney's, Lit Hub, World Literature Today, and other publications, and taught writing and composi...

A conversation with Prof. Susan Lee Johnson about her new book, Writing Kit Carson: Fallen Heroes in a Changing West (University of North Carolina Press. 2020).   Dr. Susan Lee Johnson is the inaugural Harry Reid Endowed Chair for the History of the Intermountain West in the Department of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with faculty affiliations in Gender and Sexuality Studies and L...

A conversation with Dr. Janne Lahti about his book The American West and the World: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge: 2019)   Dr. Janne Lahti teaches history at the University of Helsinki, is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow, and the editor of the journal American Studies in Scandinavia . Today we talk about his 2019 book The American West and the World: Transnational and...

A conversation with Dr. James R. Skillen about his book This Land is My Land: Rebellion in the West (Oxford University Press, 2020).   James R. Skillen is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Calvin University. His new book,  This Land is My Land: Rebellion in the West was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. Skillen is also author  The Nation's Largest Landlord: The Bureau of...

A conversation with Dr. Bathsheba Demuth about her book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait (WW Norton, 2019).   Bathsheba Demuth is Assistant Professor of History at Brown University.  Popular and academic organizations have praised Floating Coast in rare fashion. Nature named it a Top 10 book for 2019, NPR, Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, and Kirkus Review named it...

A conversation with hiker and author Barney Scout Mann about his book Journey's North: The Pacific Crest Trail (Mountaineer Books, 2020).   Barney Mann , known on the trails as "Scout," is avid hiker, writer, and storyteller. Having completed the 2,650 mil Pacific Crest Trail, the 3,100 mile Continental Divide Trail, both of which span from Mexico to Canada, and the 2,190 mile Appalachian Trail wh...

A conversation with Sherry L. Smith about her book Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America (Hey Day Books, 2020). Explore more at www.sherrylsmith.com.   Sherry L. Smith is University Distinguished Professor of History (Emerita) at Southern Methodist University. In  Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America ( Hey Day Books , 2...

A conversation with Kenneth F. Dewey, Dan O'Brien, and Larkin Powell about their books in the University of Nebraska Press " Discover the Great Plains " series, Great Plains Weather (2019), Great Plains Bison (2017), and Great Plains Birds (2019).   Ken Dewey is professor emeritus of geography and climatology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. He maintains the Lincoln Weather and Climate web...

A conversation with sociologist Justin Farrell about his book, Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West (Princeton University Press, 2020).   Justin Farrell is associate professor of Sociology in the Yale School of the Environment . He is also the author of The Battle for Yellowstone: Morality and the Sacred Roots of Environmental Conflict , published by Prin...

A discussion about the late Jeff Metcalf 's book, Back Cast: Fly-Fishing and Other Such Matters (University of Utah Press, 2018), along with a handful of experiences from host Brenden Rensink.   Jeff Metcalf was assistant professor of English at the University of Utah. He was an award-winning essayist and playwright, and an avid fly-fisher. Sadly, he passed away the very week we were set to record...

A conversation with Professor Maurice Crandall about his book, These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1598-1912 (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).   Maurice Crandall is a member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation of Camp Verde Arizona and Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He holds a Ph. D. in History fr...

A conversation with historian Dr. Robert Lee about his High Country News article " landgrabu.org .   Dr. Robert Lee is a University Lecturer in American History at the University of Cambridge. He earned is Ph. D. in History from US Berkeley and has a long list of awards and honors to his name. At the end of March 2020, he and journalist Tristan Ahtone published an article with High Country News en...

A conversation with author Miroslava Chávez-García about her book, Migrant Longing: Letter Writing across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).   Miroslava Chavez-Garcia is a Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with affiliations in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Feminist Studies. She is an award winning scholar, widely pr...

A conversation with author Monica Muñoz Martinez about her book, The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas , published in 2018 by Harvard University Press.   Monica Munoz Martinez is the Stanley J. Bernstein Assistant Professor of American Studies at Brown University, an award winning author, and engaged public historian. She is the primary investigator for Mapping Violence ,...

A conversation with writer and historian Megan Kate Nelson about her new book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner Books, 2020).   Megan Kate Nelson is a writer and historian of the American Civil War, American West, popular culture, and the 19th century more broadly. Nelson's new book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Co...

A conversation with author Jack Nisbet about his dual-biography, The Dreamer and the Doctor: A Forest Lover and a Physician on the Edge of the Frontier , published in 2018 by Sasquatch Books.   Jack Nisbet lives and works with his wife Claire in Spokane. He has authored several collections of essays that explore the human and natural history of the Northwest, award-winning biographies of cartograp...

A conversation with Frank Bergon about his 2019 collection of essays, Two-Buck Chuck and the Marlboro Man: The New Old West (University of Nevada Press, 2019)   Frank Bergon is Professor Emeritus of English at Vassar College. He is a novelist, essayist, and critic of the American West, and member of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. His new collection of essays,  Two-Buck Chuck and the Marlboro Man...

A conversation with Prof. Manu Karuka about his 2019 book, Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad (University of California Press, 2019)   Manu Karuka is Assistant Professor of American Studies, and affiliated faculty with Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Barnard College. Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transc...

Conversation with Rebecca Robinson and Stephen E. Strom about their books, Voices from Bears Ears: Seeking Common Ground on Sacred Land (University of Arizona Press, 2018) and Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land (George F. Thompkins Publishing, 2018).   ----more----  Podcast Notes: Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professor of History at...