Another Story Bookshop and McClelland & Stewart present the Toronto launch for

There, There by Tommy Orange

Monday, June 11th @7pm

Native Canadian Centre of Toronto

16 Spadina Rd (at Bloor)

Free - all welcome

Fully wheelchair accessible

Here is a story of several people, each of whom has private reasons for travelling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honour his uncle's memory.

Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and unspeakable loss.

Fierce, angry, funny, heartbreaking, There There is a relentlessly paced multi-generational story about violence and recovery, memory and identity, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. A glorious, unforgettable debut.

“There There is a triumph of contemporary storytelling. With honest and poignant prose, Tommy Orange deftly immerses the reader in the humour, heartbreak, and resilience of the urban Indigenous realm of Oakland, California. His vibrant and compelling characters live complicated and unique experiences that run parallel to each other and occasionally intertwine in powerful ways.

It’s an eye-opening glimpse into the complexities and challenges within Oakland’s Indigenous community, yet the genuine scenes and fascinating people Orange writes are so relatable they’re reminiscent of the urban Indigenous experience in Toronto, Winnipeg, or Regina. Everyone’s connected somehow, and Orange has crafted a stunning narrative that draws his characters together in a frenetic vortex of cultural reclamation, violence, loss, and hope. There There is crucial and mighty storytelling that firmly places itself in the canon of Indigenous literature for generations to come.” —Waubgeshig Rice, author of Legacy

Tommy Orange is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California, and currently lives in Angels Camp, California.