Grant Hier, John Brantingham

California Continuum, Volume 1

Migrations and Amalgamations

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

California Continuum, Volume 1: Migrations and Amalgamations is a nonlinear look at little discussed aspects of the history of California. Hier and Brantingham look as far back as California's geologic past, fast forwarding to the age of the mastodons, then to the time when only Native Americans inhabited this land and finally to the present age. Rather than following a direct narrative, they explore themes that have run through California. One theme is the violence that is endemic to the state. For example, they write about various workers who helped to construct the brick that struck Reginald Denny. In another, they dramatize the California Water War that William Mulholland helped to ignite. They write about a number of the riots and civil uprisings in the state's history including the Zoot Suit Riots and the Rodney King Uprising. Another theme is migration. California is a multicultural state whose history has been shaped by people following sometimes unrealistic dreams. They write about people who want to break into the movies, people fleeing war and terror, people looking for economic security, and people who are looking for freedom from racism. In still another theme, they look at the way that the natural world has affected the people who have lived in the state. California's deserts, waterways, and forests have shaped and in many ways predetermined the way that the people of this area live, but that's not the whole story. There have been at least two competing edenic visions of California. The first is characterized by John Muir who saw the state as being perfect when it is untouched. He believed it was a kind of natural paradise and so do many of the characters of this collection. Another vision can be characterized by the way William Mulholland saw the state. He saw it as a paradise to be created where the potential for agriculture was unlimited, and that agriculture could create wealth and beauty. Other characters live inside this dream of the state. Grant Hier and John Brantingham come to no hard conclusions about the history of California. They believe that conclusions negate the complexity of the state and exclude some of the more important aspects of any culture or period of time. When someone defines history, important details and people are inevitably left out. Of course, they are not able to capture all of the history of the state either; no one will ever be able to do so, which is why this is the first volume in what they hope will be a long series of books with many writers that extends beyond them. There is no way to completely capture California, but they hope a diversity of voices will be able to give a richer sense of the place.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Pelekinesis
• Seitenzahl: 258
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. März 2019
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 15mm
• Gewicht: 369g
• ISBN-13: 9781938349812
• ISBN-10: 1938349814
• Artikelnr.: 55296271

Autorenporträt

Grant Hier was appointed as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Anaheim in 2018. His long poem, Untended Garden: Histories and Reinhabitation in Suburbia, was awarded Prize Americana in 2014, published as a book by Poetry Press the following year, and subsequently nominated for both an American Book Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. His poetry collection The Difference Between was published in April of 2018, to which Similitude is a companion collection. A book of historical flash fiction, California Continuum: Migrations and Amalgamations, which was co-written with the Poet Laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks, John Brantingham, is forthcoming in February, 2019. Grant has previously been awarded the Nancy Dew Taylor Prize for Literary Excellence in Poetry and the Kick Prize for poetry. His writing has been anthologized in such books as Only Light Can Do That (Rattling Wall/PEN Center USA), Monster Verse-Human and Inhuman Poems (Knopf/Everyman), Orange County: A Literary Field Guide (Heyday), LA Fiction Anthology (Red Hen), and John Fante: A Critical Gathering (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press). In addition to writing, he is a musical artist, visual artist, and former graphic designer and art director. As a voice actor, he contributed to the audio book of George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2018 Audie Award for Audiobook of the year. Grant is a Full Professor at Laguna College of Art and Design where he teaches a variety of Liberal Arts classes, including creative writing. More at www.granthier.com