Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place

Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place - Paperback

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Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place
  • Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place
Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place - Paperback

Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place - Paperback

by Rilla Askew
$21.55
$21.55

Book Overview

by Rilla Askew (Author), Susan Kates (Foreword by)

2018 PEN America Literary Award Finalist!

In her first nonfiction collection, award-winning novelist Rilla Askew casts an unflinching eye on American history, both past and present. As she traverses a line between memoir and social commentary, Askew places herself--and indeed all Americans--in the role of witness to uncomfortable truths about who we are.

Through nine linked essays, Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place evokes a vivid impression of the United States: police violence and gun culture, ethnic cleansing and denied history, spellbinding landscapes and brutal weather. To render these conditions in the particulars of place, Askew spotlights the complex history of her home state. From the Trail of Tears to the Tulsa Race Riot to the Murrah Federal Building bombing, Oklahoma appears as a microcosm of our national saga. Yet no matter our location, Askew argues, we must own our contradictory selves--our violence and prejudices, as well as our hard work and generosity--so the wounds of division in our society can heal.

In these writings, Askew traces a personal journey that begins with her early years as an idealistic teenager mired in what she calls "the presumption of whiteness." Later she emerges as a writer humble enough to see her own story as part of a larger historical and cultural narrative. With grace and authority she speaks honestly about the failures of the dominant culture in which she grew up, even as she expresses a sense of love for its people.

In the wake of increasing gun violence and heightened national debate about race relations and social inequality, Askew's reflections could not be more relevant. With a novelist's gift for storytelling, she paints a compelling portrait of a place and its people: resilient and ruthless, decent but self-deceiving, generous yet filled with prejudice--both the best and the worst of what it means to be American.

Author Biography

Rilla Askew, born and raised in eastern Oklahoma, is the award-winning author of four novels, The Mercy Seat, Fire in Beulah, Harpsong, and Kind of Kin, and a collection of linked stories, Strange Business. She teaches creative writing at the University of Oklahoma. Susan Kates is Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma and author of Red Dirt Women: At Home on the Oklahoma Plains.

Number of Pages: 176
Dimensions: 0.6 x 8.4 x 5.4 IN
Illustrated: Yes
Publication Date: June 08, 2017
ISBN9780806157177
Author Rilla Askew
PublisherUniversity of Oklahoma Press
GenreBiography and History
FormatPaperback
PublishedJune 2017
LanguageENG- English
Pages176
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography History Nonfiction

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About Rilla Askew

Rilla Askew is the author of Strange Business, a collection of stories, and of the novel The Mercy Seat, nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association Award and winner of the Western Heritage Award and the Oklahoma Book Award. Her novel about the Tulsa Race Massacre, Fire in Beulah, received the American Book Award in 2002 and was chosen for Oklahoma's statewide reading program in 2007. Other titles include the novels Harpsong and Kind of Kin and a collection of creative nonfiction, Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place. Askew's essays and short fiction have appeared in AGNI, Tin House, World Literature Today, Nimrod, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and elsewhere. In 2009 Askew received the Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She teaches creative writing at the University of Oklahoma.

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