The University of Arizona Press

When: Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 p.m., AZT
Where: Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center, 734 W. Alameda Dr, Tempe, AZ

Julie Stromberg, Emeritus Professor, Arizona State University and former President of the Arizona Riparian Council will discuss her new book, Bringing Home the Wild: A Riparian Garden in a Southwest City.  Space is limited, so please RSVP to cindy.zisner@asu.edu.

Gardeners, botanists, and ecologists have powerful roles to play in implementing nature-based solutions to critical environmental issues. Many of us are concerned about the rapidly changing climate and the ongoing threats to food security, declines in pollinators and birds, and loss of connection between humans and nature. Many want to act. Backyard gardens are a good place to start.

About the book:

When living in a large sprawling city, one may feel disconnected and adrift. Finding ways to belong and have positive effects is challenging. In Bringing Home the Wild, botanist Juliet C. Stromberg demonstrates how ecologically guided gardening develops a sense of place, restores connections to nature, and brings joy and meaning to our lives.

This book follows a two-decade journey in ecologically guided gardening on a four-acre irrigated parcel in Phoenix, Arizona, from the perspective of a retired botanist and her science historian partner. Through humor and playful use of language, Bringing Home the Wild not only introduces the plants who are feeding them, buffering the climate, and elevating their moods but also acknowledges the animals and fungi who are pollinating the plants and recycling the waste.

Date: Wednesday, September 27

Time: 6 p.m. CDT Reception, 7 p.m. CDT Presentation

Where: Blumberg Auditorium, University Library, 1900 Wiggins Way, University of Texas, El Paso

Professor Robert Magee is a former Border Patrol agent and now professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who uses All They Will Call You by Tim Z. Hernandez, in his classes. Magee teaches undergraduate students whose dreams are to become future Border Patrol agents. Award-winning author and hall of fame journalist, Alfredo Corchado will be part of the panel discussion with Robert Magee and Tim Hernandez. 

Hernandez helped design the curriculum using his book, and recommended, “Because a large number of agents are Latinx, have them start by interviewing their own families.” Hernandez later attended presentations and coordinated exhibits created by future Border Patrol agents who had interviewed their families in relation to the plane crash at Los Gatos, California.  All They Will Call You is now a core text of their curriculum at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

All They Will Call You is the harrowing account of “the worst airplane disaster in California’s history.”  Outraged that media reports omitted only the names of the Mexican passengers, American folk icon Woody Guthrie penned a poem that went on to become one of the most important protest songs of the twentieth century, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).”

Date: Wednesday, September 20

Time: 5:30 – 7:00 p.m., CDT

Where: José Cisneros Cielo Vista Branch Library, 1300 Hawkins Blvd, El Paso, TX

All They Will Call You by Tim Z. Hernandez, is the August selection for El Paso Matters’ book club. Click here to join El Paso Matters’ bimonthly book club, a community of more than 800 readers who love El Paso.  After reading the book this month, club members can join the in-person discussion at the José Cisneros Cielo Vista Branch Library on September 20. El Paso’s Literarity Book Shop is selling the book, and all profits will go to El Paso Matters.

All They Will Call You is the harrowing account of “the worst airplane disaster in California’s history.”  Outraged that media reports omitted only the names of the Mexican passengers, American folk icon Woody Guthrie penned a poem that went on to become one of the most important protest songs of the twentieth century, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).”

In this book, Hernandez combines years of painstaking investigative research and masterful storytelling. The author weaves a captivating narrative from testimony, historical records, and eyewitness accounts, reconstructing the incident and the lives behind the legendary song. is much more than a story about a plane crash. It gives the 28 Mexican citizens, identified in the cemetery catalog as Mexican nationals 1 to 28, a name, a life and a purpose, according to testimonials about the novel.

Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Time: 7 p.m., PST

Where: Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, Seattle, WA

Alma García will be in conversation with author Kristen Millares Young at Elliott Bay Book Company. García will talk about her debut novel, All That Rises. The event is free and open to the public.

About the book:

All That Rises is a story of families and conflict in El Paso, Texas. In this novel, mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made.

Date: Friday, August 11, 2023

Time: 6 – 8 p.m., MDT

Where: Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Avenue, Durango, CO

Andrew Curley will talk with readers and sign his book, Carbon Sovereignty, at “Authors in the Parklet” in front of Maria’s Bookshop in Durango. This summer evening tradition brings readers and authors together to celebrate great books.

Carbon Sovereignty offers a deep dive into the complex inner workings of energy shift in the Navajo Nation. Geographer Andrew Curley, a member of the Navajo Nation, examines the history of coal development within the Navajo Nation, including why some Diné supported coal and the consequences of doing so. He explains the Navajo Nation’s strategic choices to use the coal industry to support its sovereignty as a path forward in the face of ongoing colonialism. Carbon Sovereignty demonstrates the mechanism of capitalism through colonialism and the construction of resource sovereignty, in both the Navajo Nation’s embrace and its rejection of a coal economy.