Jill D. Swenson - "The Land of Everlasting Sky" - MT Cozzola
Jill Swenson will discuss 'The Everlasting Sky: A Memoir of Loss and Legacy on Lake of the Woods.' She will be joined in conversation by MT Cozzola. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.
About the book: When Jill Swenson returns to her mother’s hometown after her funeral, she finds a new Seven Clans Casino under construction in Warroad, Minnesota, on Lake of the Woods. There, she learns, Red Lake Nation has recently dispossessed descendants of Ojibway spiritual leader Kakaygeesick from their land—land where the family has lived for the last two centuries—and has also denied them tribal membership.
In searching for answers, Jill meets the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick. Over weeks, months, and years, a friendship forms between them, and Jill gradually discovers what allotments, blood quantum, and the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have to do with her, the great-granddaughter of immigrants who homesteaded on reservation land. Estranged from her father, still mourning the suicide of her husband and the loss of their farm in upstate New York, and now grieving her mother’s death, Jill has spent decades trying to put the past behind her—but discovers the only path forward is to reckon with history. Clear-eyed and yet deeply personal, 'The Land of Everlasting Sky' is a compelling exploration of the history we inherit and our relationships to land and each other.
About the author: Jill D. Swenson grew up in the Twin Cities and moved to Wisconsin in high school. She graduated from Lawrence University and earned an MA and PhD from The University of Chicago before going on to teach journalism and media studies at the University of Georgia-Athens and earn tenure at Ithaca College. For a decade she lived off the grid on a small-scale sustainable farm in upstate New York; now she lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she works as an editor and literary consultant, belongs to a curling club and a poetry group, and enjoys walking her dog.
About the interlocutor: MT Cozzola is a Chicago playwright and storyteller whose work has been produced at Piven Theatre, Breckenridge Theater, Mudlark, and elsewhere, and published by Original Works, Hippocampus Magazine (Pushcart nomination), Chicago Story Press, and others. She has taught playwriting and storytelling for The Second City, Chicago Dramatists, and Carthage College, and received awards from the Illinois Arts Council, Women in Theatre, and Heartland Theater, as well as residencies from Ragdale, Hawthornden Castle, Playa, Space to Write, and VCCA.
About the book: When Jill Swenson returns to her mother’s hometown after her funeral, she finds a new Seven Clans Casino under construction in Warroad, Minnesota, on Lake of the Woods. There, she learns, Red Lake Nation has recently dispossessed descendants of Ojibway spiritual leader Kakaygeesick from their land—land where the family has lived for the last two centuries—and has also denied them tribal membership.
In searching for answers, Jill meets the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick. Over weeks, months, and years, a friendship forms between them, and Jill gradually discovers what allotments, blood quantum, and the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have to do with her, the great-granddaughter of immigrants who homesteaded on reservation land. Estranged from her father, still mourning the suicide of her husband and the loss of their farm in upstate New York, and now grieving her mother’s death, Jill has spent decades trying to put the past behind her—but discovers the only path forward is to reckon with history. Clear-eyed and yet deeply personal, 'The Land of Everlasting Sky' is a compelling exploration of the history we inherit and our relationships to land and each other.
About the author: Jill D. Swenson grew up in the Twin Cities and moved to Wisconsin in high school. She graduated from Lawrence University and earned an MA and PhD from The University of Chicago before going on to teach journalism and media studies at the University of Georgia-Athens and earn tenure at Ithaca College. For a decade she lived off the grid on a small-scale sustainable farm in upstate New York; now she lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she works as an editor and literary consultant, belongs to a curling club and a poetry group, and enjoys walking her dog.
About the interlocutor: MT Cozzola is a Chicago playwright and storyteller whose work has been produced at Piven Theatre, Breckenridge Theater, Mudlark, and elsewhere, and published by Original Works, Hippocampus Magazine (Pushcart nomination), Chicago Story Press, and others. She has taught playwriting and storytelling for The Second City, Chicago Dramatists, and Carthage College, and received awards from the Illinois Arts Council, Women in Theatre, and Heartland Theater, as well as residencies from Ragdale, Hawthornden Castle, Playa, Space to Write, and VCCA.
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