New perspectives on the stories and characters that have shaped and are still definiing the American West. Jake Skeets’s debut poetry collection, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, is an unflinching portrait of the actual West, and a fierce reclamation of a living place—full of beauty as well as brutality. A landscaped scarred by violence, but startlingly lush. An unforgettable human drama set against the rough-knuckled frontier, David Wolman and Julian Smith’s Aloha Rodeo unspools the fascinating and little-known true story of the Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo, whose 1908 adventure upended the conventional history of the American West. Moderated by Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun.
