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Looking for a Set of Stories to Inhabit

the days are gods, a memoir by Liz Stephens

During this program, Liz Stephens talks with TWQ producer Chérie Newman about her move from L.A. to rural Utah, and reads from her memoir, the days are gods, which chronicles what she and her husband experienced during their time in Wellsville.

About the book:

Liz Stephens has come from Los Angeles to Utah for graduate school, and her brief stint working on a Taco Bell commercial is not much in the way of preparation for taking on the real West. In the days are gods Stephens chronicles a move that is far more than a shift in geographical coordinates. With husband and dogs in tow, she searches for an authentic connection to this new community, all the while knowing that as an outsider she will never really belong. And yet precisely as an outsider, Stephens has a unique perspective on belonging, one that colors her accounts of attending her first small-town rodeo, living in the thick of a thriving Latter Day Saints religious community, raising goats in her laundry room, and observing the town's racialized Founder's Day battle reenactments. In her frank and particular way, Stephens shows how the culture of memory, as our inheritance, offers a balance to our brief attention spans and our brief lives.

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Liz Stephen
Liz Stephens, author of 'the days are gods: a memoir"

Liz Stephens is a winner of the Western Literature Association's Frederick Manfred Award and a finalist for the Annie Dillard Creative Nonfiction Award, her work has been published in Fourth Genre , Brevity , Western American Literature , and South Dakota Review . She has a PhD in creative nonfiction. She lives in southern California.

Chérie Newman is a former arts and humanities producer and on-air host for Montana Public Radio, and a freelance writer. She founded and previously hosted a weekly literary program, The Write Question, which continues to air on several public radio stations; it is also available online at PRX.org and MTPR.org.
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