Literary Adventure and the American West

Two renowned novelists, Karl Marlantes and William Kent Krueger, discuss their latest works, historical tales set in the early 20th century. Orphan children escaping on the Mississippi River and European immigrants in the Pacific Northwest search for new homes against the backdrops of the Great Depression, labor unionism, and a constantly changing America.

This event is part of The PEN America Immigration Track at the 2019 Decatur Book Festival. Free and open to the public, the annual Decatur Book Festival takes place in more than a dozen venues throughout downtown Decatur. To learn more, click here.

Karl Marlantes grew up in a logging town on the Oregon coast, commercial fishing with his grandfather. He graduated from Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, before serving as a Marine in Vietnam. He is the bestselling author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War. He lives in rural Washington.

William Kent Krueger is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Ordinary Grace, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel, as well as eighteen Cork O’Connor novels, including Desolation Mountain and Sulfur Springs. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family.