Imminent Upcoming Events – The Somewhat Midwestish Edition!

Some Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa BLS stuff, and some conference action and school visits ... and a LIMITED TIME ONLY opportunity for a T-SHIRT!

Boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog! Aaniin! That is to say hello, all of my relatives! Welcome to another edition of An Irritable Métis. Later this week I will venture out onto Phase Four of my tour for Becoming Little Shell, which encompasses a few dates mostly in the vicinity of the Midwest. The Events page of my website remains largely up to date, even rolling into November. There are many more events floating around that are just shy of confirmed; once they are, they will be added. I’m also not including school visits and a couple bookclubs and etc. So, again, dig everything I’ve added by clicking HERE, if you’re into it. I’ll be adding flyers and stuff to my Instagram page as they appear. Tracking them down can be a challenge I struggle to find time for but I promise to do my best.

Finally, if you dig what you see here, or if you want to assist in keeping the Irritable roadshow on the road, please consider a paid subscription. It is very, very helpful.

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Looking south over the Missouri River at Fort Benton following a surprisingly robust turnout at the library there on a lovely September evening

Last week I spent a couple wonderful evenings with one of my favorite writers, Hanif Abdurraqib. Wednesday night I introduced him in the People’s House in Missoula, then the following night we actually had an “in conversation” presentation an hour south of Missoula in Hamilton. Both were excellent and I have to say I loved best the quality of what went down in Hamilton. It was an event that could have happened anywhere in any major metropolitan city in front of pretty much any big audience who were there out of interest in either of us¹ and it would have been great. I especially loved that it went down in an old grange hall in a rough-around-the-edges town like Hamilton though, and that everyone involved – Hanif and I, the bookstore people, the audience – delivered. I was keenly aware, and deeply embarrassed, driving down there of the general Bitterroot Valley vibe of extreme rightwing politics and gun stores and how it would land with a guy like Hanif, but once the gig got rolling, it was excellent.

Disappointingly, outside of the actual Q&A session in Hamilton I didn’t get much one-on-one time with Hanif. A little bit pre-gig in Missoula but not enough. I had questions I wanted to ask him about his writing life, impressions I’d have liked to bounce off him based on the observations I’ve made over the last couple years, and the last couple months especially. He’s a guy who has spent a lot of time on the road this year as well and I could have used some of his insights as my own efforts stretch forward unabated. I don’t have many full-time writer friends and I would have loved to hear some of his reflections.

My work is also my life. So worth/value is inevitably tied to what I do. How much someone pays me affects my own understanding of self at times.

– Fariha Róisín

Another writer I admire is Fariha Róisín. I’ve never met her or even corresponded with her. I’ve read her book Who Is Wellness For? and, most recently, her latest book of poetry called Survival Takes a Wild Imagination. Both are excellent. I mostly read her for the ferocity of love she shares via her newsletter, How to Cure a Ghost. She’s currently on book tour herself and wrote about it in a post called, “On Being a Writer.” There’s a lot of her experience I connected to deeply and thought I would share a couple excerpts here, starting with this one:

I thought this tour would be really fun, and in a lot of ways it has been, but it’s also been extremely difficult. It’s been emotionally and spiritually taxing for familial and ghost reasons (where I’m staying is haunted but it’s OK) — but above all, it’s been financially straining. I saved up for this tour because my publisher didn’t give me one for this book. It’s OK, the industry is in a weird place so I don’t begrudge them for that… it’s just hard out here for books. So I’ve self-financed everything and saved up for it for months, and it’s just been excruciatingly tiresome.

Fun as they are, when people ask me about my tour efforts I cringe a little, because inevitably they want to know how much my publisher is doing for me and when I say, outside of sharing schedules and organizing a couple of the actual gigs, not a whole lot, their dismay makes me feel kind of ashamed of myself. It’s like they think I’m being taken advantage of – even though I know I’m not and I’ve chosen to do what I do – and they look at me like I’m some kind of idiot. Most people don’t understand that the industry is indeed in a “weird place” and it is a hard time for books and don’t get how much and how relentlessly those of us even under contract with recognizable publishers still have to go it alone. For my book tour, like Fariha I have so far self-financed everything, and that isn’t going to change. Milkweed is putting me up in a hotel room for my time in Minneapolis (see below) but so far that’s it. More now from “On Being a Writer”:

I’m organizing for WAWOG full-time (which I feel deeply honored to do) but then I’m also working full-time because I have to pay for my life… and I need money and organizing doesn’t pay. So I keep working to ensure I can do all these other things to get my work out there, to sell books, to go on tour — because ultimately I really believe in my words, in my work, so I want to bet on myself… but I keep thinking, “When will this pay off? When will I actually be able to rest?” I don’t think I’ve had rest in years, maybe in my whole life?

I’ve been pretty crafty at sprinkling in speaking engagements and such that pay with the standard show-up-at-a-bookstore-and-read-and-sign events that don’t pay to balance the occasional stretch out a little bit, which helps. Most of those paid gigs pay after the event though, and while I’ve not had to struggle to actually get paid² it still comes slow, especially with checks un-deposited and expenses un-submitted until I find enough time at my desk to deal with them. I sent out $4K in invoices that had piled up over the last week just a couple days ago and I am months behind in expense submissions. It’s just hard to find the time given everything else that is happening simultaneously. Like trying to live an occasionally peaceful life with attention beyond being a ghost³ to the people I care most about.

I know I sound like I’m complaining. I’m not. It’s funny though. Several years ago an elder writer I admire mentioned he has an assistant handle all of his email and appointments and at the time I thought he came off as rather pretentious as a result. I mean, how busy could he be? Well, come to find out, really really busy! I could sure use an assistant for a lot of this stuff I just don’t make enough money to pay one.

Fariha one more time:

Sometimes it’s so insulting how little people really think of writers. I think people assume we are making it up when we plead for your financial support and I’m usually astounded when someone doesn’t think of paying me… it just leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. Yesterday a publication that I admired reached out to see if I would write something for them, IN PRINT, for 1000 words. When I asked them the rate they said it was 250 euros. I sometimes wonder how people expect writers to eat, think and write all that for something you pay your therapist for an hour. The hours it takes to write anything… the lack of concern that people who want or even like your work have for your livelihood is strange. It’s made me pause in my connections with people, it’s made me feel a little suspicious of people. Maybe in a good way…

I almost never pitch stories to anyone else, let alone write them, for the reasons Fariha notes there when it comes to payment. If a friend asks me to submit to an anthology or something I’m inclined to do so, paid or not, because I want to. But even those are rare. A good newsletter can generate far more income than most magazines, even the big ones, pay. Combined with how much this newsletter and the support of other newsletters has contributed to the success of my events and the sales of my book⁴, it feels like a cosmic shift in how readers interact with writers and traditional publishing seems way behind the curve.

Me and AHP, who surprised me by showing up for my gig in Bellingham a few weeks ago.

My pal Anne Helen Petersen discussed “theories of resiliance” via her Culture Study newsletter last week. She opened with the following, which hit me right in the face:

I was talking to a friend about what it felt like to come through a stressful set of weeks. They’d made it to the end of their most intense obligations, but found themselves flummoxed by the smallest annoyances: the dog wanting to go out at a time that wasn’t normal, a slight delay from road construction, Starbucks running out of Spinach-Feta Wraps. “I just have no resilience,” they said.

I thought that was a really effective way of framing the feeling of hitting the wall and being forced to still keep climbing. Or, to use another metaphor, of draining the tank. You know you can’t just collapse, so you have to run on fumes until you gradually refill yourself. When you’re out of resilience, it’s so much easier to get sick, to mess-up small details, to miss things, to say the wrong thing. When people say that bad things happen in threes, my secret theory is that it’s because the first thing drains all of your resilience, and then you’re more susceptible to all manner of catastrophe.

Let me point out again that I’ve brought everything I’m in the middle of on myself, and it’s no different than anyone else who does any kind of work, even if they love it. But man, what a mirror to look into! I’m behind on invoicing and expenses, as I’ve mentioned. My correspondences are weeks and weeks behind including failures of such that I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve cost me friendships. I’ve been sick in different ways twice, and that only happened when I found myself with a few days between outings. I could go on and on with my failings but you get the idea. You’re probably feeling the same way, especially under the burden of friggin’ election fatigue.

We are all running ragged, every single one of us, aren’t we? I really lament the plight of folks in the arts community though. Between streaming services robbing the work of musicians, AI stealing work from writers, it seems like a giant sucking machine just slurping up every opportunity to be a creative person. Art and expression is everything, which is why the following response that a friend of mine received from Clearwater Credit Union in Missoula in regards to a funding request for a community arts project makes me want to eat glass:

Thank you for sending us your request for support. We talked it over in our philanthropy committee and it was decided not to fund your event.  Here at Clearwater, we have a board-approved philanthropy strategy that calls for us to donate 5% of our net income to organizations working for lasting change in the areas of protecting the environment, building inclusive economies, and empowering people. The arts have always been a bit on the fringe of this strategy, and we are working to stay true to our strategy.  All of which is to say that we very much appreciate the work that your organization is doing and wish you the best!

The arts are in no way “on the fringe” of any of this! Building inclusive economies (especially considering this event is a celebration of Indigenous art and entrepreneurs)? EMPOWERING PEOPLE?! I am filled with such rage over this response that I don’t think I’m done talking about it. Not the denial of funding but the reason for it. It is so clueless and out of touch that I want to yank all of my money out of Clearwater and stuff it under my mattress where it belongs. Or what’s left of my money at the moment, anyway.

Attitudes like that can be disheartening, to say the least.

All I can say is I recognize this might be the only chance I ever have in my life to take a shot at this. I’m not getting any younger. So I intend to be out there telling this story I’ve been lucky enough to gain the support to tell as long as I possibly can. There is literally nothing else I can do with my life right now. I’m all in.

I keep thinking, “When will this pay off? When will I actually be able to rest?” I don’t think I’ve had rest in years, maybe in my whole life?

– Fariha Róisín

MIDWEST-ISH TOUR

Here’s the lowdown on everywhere I’ll be in October,⁵ all times local, and I sure hope to see some of you. That’s been a real highlight.

Also, if you know people in the vicinity of these barnburners, will you please help spread the word? That helps more than you might realize!

• Thurs, Oct. 10 – Elk River Books, Livingston, MT – 7:00pm – Details

• Fri, Oct. 11 – Somewhere in Great Falls at some time for Western Native Voice and Montana Conservation Voters⁶

• Weds, Oct. 16 – TMC⁷ Language Conference, Belcourt, ND – 8:30am - 3:30pm

• Thurs, Oct. 17 – TMC Language Conference, Belcourt, ND – 8:30am - 1:30pm

• Mon, Oct. 21 – Stories from the Trail event at Moon Palace Books, Minneapolis, MN – 6:30pm – Details

• Thurs, Oct. 24 – Book Lovers Ball with Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN – 6:00pm – Details

• Fri, Oct. 25 – Mill City Museum with Milkweed Editions and Birchbark Books, Minneapolis, MN – with James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw⁸ – 7:00pm – Details

• Sat, Oct. 26 – Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa City, IA – 3:00pm – Details

• Mon, Oct. 28 – Otium Brewing with the Miles City Public Library, Miles City, MT – 5:30pm

• Tues, Oct. 29 – Schoolhouse History and Art Center, Colstrip, MT – 6:30pm

I’m running out of gas (and time) to make flyers for these events myself, but here are some others have made for a couple of these things….⁹

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Pre-Order your BECOMING LITTLE SHELL: TURTLE ISLAND TOUR 2024 Shirt Now!

Friends, this is only going to happen one time. So between now and October 15, get your order in via Fact & Fiction HERE or forever regret it. All the info is at THAT LINK. Don’t bother asking about a color, it’s only available in the color that matters: BLACK. You’ll be able to choose your size. All the usual stuff.

Front

Back (some dates to be added)

This bad mofo was designed by Mara Panich.

Get one NOW. Once October 16 rolls around, your chances to get one are over.

Forever.

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1. I’m well aware the vast majority of the excellent turnout were there for Hanif though, and for damn good reason.

2. Probably because I haven’t done anything lately for a university or state institution because money comes hard from their grasping hands.

3. Or ogre.

4. Presumably, I have no idea how BLS is doing outside of what Fact & Fiction has sold, which have been excellent but not enough to make the book a sales success overall, and given the crickets from the mothership I’m assuming the worst.

5. Arguably and occasionally more info to be found via my Events page.

6. I really don’t know what this is yet but I’m having a meeting this week to learn the details. I just know I’ve been asked to emcee the thing and I said yes. It will be pro-voting and worth checking out if you’re around. Details likely to come via Instagram.

7. TMC = Turtle Mountain College, the official college of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

8. If you are in the area, my friends, this is not to be missed.

9. And holy moly, am I grateful to the people who help promote this stuff. I do what I can, but I’m telling you….