An Evening with Two Writers from the Dakotas, a literary event featuring Karen Van Fossan, author of Fire at the Center, and John Nelson, author of Bootjack, reading from and discussing their respective books, will take place on August 1 at Thollehaug Commons (302 Maple St.) in Sisseton, beginning at 7pm. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served (including vegan and vegetarian options). More information about the visiting authors...
Karen Van Fossan is a former defendant in the Line 3 pipeline resistance and an abolitionist minister. Her memoir, A Fire at the Center: Solidarity, Whiteness, and Becoming a Water Protector, has been featured in Publisher’s Weekly and Sojourners and just received the Nautilus Award. An Archibald Bush Artist Fellow, she has had plays produced in New York, Chicago, Standing Rock, the Twin Cities, and across North Dakota. Her writing has been featured in Northern Narratives, On Second Thought, We’Moon Anthology, Arts Dakota Exhibition, and elsewhere. Beloved matriarch to a rambunctious chosen family, she lives in Fargo, North Dakota, on the traditional lands of Anishinaabe, Dakota, and many Indigenous peoples.
John S. Nelson, a native of Fort Pierre, SD, has published poetry and other work in journals, magazines, and newspapers. Recent publications include poems in Montana Mouthful, Pasque Petals, Briar Cliff Review, South Dakota Magazine, Poetry Motel, and Delmar. He is a retired professor of English for New Media at Dakota State University in Madison, SD. His chapbook, West River, won the 2019 SD State Poetry Society competition, and his poetry collection, Bootjack (2023), won the Will Rogers Medallion award. He and his wife live in Madison and they love to travel in the US and the world.