Harper’s Magazine and The Mark Twain House & Museum present LOST IN SUMMERLAND: Barrett Swanson in conversation with Rachel Poser

Harper’s Magazine and The Mark Twain House & Museum hit the road for a fun evening discussing a book that is Twainian in spirit! Similar to the travel writing where Twain chronicled America’s sights and characters in Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It, Lost in Summerland finds essayist Barrett Swanson crossing the United States to uncover what it means to be an American amid the swirl of our post-truth climate.

A trip with his brother to a New York psychic community becomes a rollicking tour through the world of American spiritualism. At a wilderness retreat in Ohio, men seek a cure for toxic masculinity, while in the hinterlands of Wisconsin, antiwar veterans turn to farming when they cannot sustain the heroic myth of service. And when his best friend’s body washes up on the shores of the Mississippi River, he falls into the gullet of true crime discussion boards, exploring the stamina of conspiracy theories along the cankered byways of the Midwest.
 
In this exhilarating debut, Barrett Swanson introduces us to a new reality. At a moment when grand unifying narratives have splintered into competing storylines, these critically acclaimed essays document the many routes by which people are struggling to find stability in the aftermath of our country’s political and economic collapse, sometimes at dire and disillusioning costs.

Swanson, a winner of the esteemed Pushcar Prize, will be joined in conversation by Harper’s Deputy Editor  Rachel Poser.

FREE virtual program, but donations are gratefully accepted. To register, CLICK HERE!

Signed copies of Lost in Summerland: Essays are available for purchase through the Mark Twain Store. Proceeds benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum. Books will ship after the event. We regret that we cannot ship outside of the U.S. at this time.

Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign and its Travelers Arts Impact Grant program, with major support from The Travelers Foundation. For more information call 860-247-0998 or visit marktwainhouse.org