Join the Idaho Center for the Book from 6 – 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 9 at Boise State University’s Albertsons Library for a discussion and book signing with author Beth Piatote. She will discuss and read selections from her acclaimed mixed-genre short story collection, “The Beadworkers: Stories”. The book explores contemporary Native American life in Idaho and the Northwest.
CMarie Fuhrman (Idaho Writer in Residence, Idaho Commission on the Arts, 2021-2023) will host a question and answer session after the reading. Piatote will also sign copies of her book, available for purchase at the event from Rediscovered Books. The campus community can borrow the book from the library and listen to an audio version through the library’s catalog.
The Idaho Center for the Book chose “The Beadworkers” to represent Idaho at the 2023 National Book Festival as part of the Great Reads from Great Places initiative. Piatote also participated in a recorded conversation with other Great Reads authors as part of the festival. Her book was long-listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, and short-listed for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance Golden Poppy Prize for Fiction. The book has been featured on National Public Radio and selected as the “one read” for multiple university and community programs.
About the author
Piatote grew up on a farm in Idaho. She is an associate professor at University of California, Berkeley where she teaches English and comparative literature. Piatote holds a PhD from Stanford University, is the author of numerous scholarly essays and creative works, and is the recipient of multiple awards and fellowships.
Piatote also chairs the graduate group in Indigenous Language Revitalization at UC Berkeley. She also serves as the director of the Arts Research Center where she established the Indigenous Poetics Lab to support artistic expression as a means of language revitalization. Piatote is Nez Perce and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.