Reading "The Botsworth Dossier" – A Novel on the Rise of White Nationalism

Hear author John Yewell read from his unique broadsheet novel, which follows Carol, a freelance journalist, across a 30-year investigation into the rise of White nationalism in modern America.

At the story’s dark center is William Botsworth, a charismatic white supremacist demagogue whose charm, as one character puts it, lies in making the secret desires of his racist supporters appear acceptable. Sound familiar?

Perhaps the most gripping feature of this book, beyond the strikingly apt parallels to Donald Trump's America, is the medium through which it is printed. Both eye-catching and nostalgia-inducing, it is printed as a broadsheet newspaper novel on 35 lb. newsprint, 22′′ × 14′′. And each copy is wonderfully inexpensive ($10) and accessible. We'll have a bunch on-site to purchase!

Author John Yewell will join us for a reading and to share with us his learnings of the rise of white nationalism in America. Come ready to sit back, listen, and enjoy.

John Yewell is a fourth-generation Californian, born and raised in Ventura County, and holds an MFA from San Francisco State University. He has been writing, editing and teaching professionally for 35 years, including three decades in journalism at alternative weeklies, small dailies, and as a freelancer — experience that saturates the novel’s journalistic world. Since 2013 he has co-run Writeaways, a program of writing workshops and retreats in the U.S. and Europe, with his partner, novelist Mimi Herman (The Kudzu Queen), to whom the book is dedicated. He is also the founder and publisher of City Desk Press.

Yewell is a seasoned, engaging presenter — comfortable reading, taking questions, and talking shop about journalism, publishing, and why he bet on newsprint. His guiding line for writers doubles as the book’s epigraph-in-spirit: “Find words to match your mountains.”

For more, see https://www.johnyewell.com

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