Fall and Rise, American Style: Eight International Writers Between Gettysburg and the Gulf

An international group of well-established writers have been brought together by the exchange program Writers in Motion: Fall and Recovery to reflect on America’s still open wounds from unresolved crises and vast troubling legacies. For ten days the visiting writers, all of whom had written on large-scale disasters in other contexts, were steeped in ongoing American problems and wrote on topics stretching from the Civil War to the BP oil spill, the Civil Rights movement to Hurricane Katrina. The results have been gathered together in this collection which will take readers into those same wounds through the calm eyes of engaged, concerned guests. Thought provoking experiences are shared that suggest that there is a greater strength, an inspiring strength, in admitting that the U.S must persevere through social tensions.

Natasa Durovicová is the editor for the international writing program at the University of Iowa and its online publication 91st Meridian. She is the coeditor of How to Write an Earthquake, Transnational Perspectives, and World Cinemas. Hugh Ferrer is the associate director for the international writing program, the senior editor at The Iowa Review, and a teacher at the Iowa summer writing festival. They live in Iowa City, Iowa.