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Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella follows friends Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, two black women who pass as white. Their anxieties about passing culminate in tragedy, revealing the powerful repercussions of hiding one’s identity. Nearly a century later, Larsen’s exploration of race remains urgent and relevant as ever.

Chemeketa Press

American Voices

Passing

S. Alice Callahan

In this novel, first published in 1891, young, idealistic Genevieve Weir arrives in Indian Territory on a mission to bring “civilization” to the Muscogee people. There she meets Wynema, a young Muscogee girl who shares the traditions and beliefs of her tribe. Together, these young women come of age during a time in American history marred by racism, sexism, and brutality toward Native Americans. 

A story about love’s power to overcome differences, this novel also takes a hard look at “the wrongs and opression” perpetrated by the U.S. government toward Indigenous tribes. Edited by Tammy Jabin, professor of English at Chemeketa Community College, and including an introduction by Norma Marshall, Native American Studies instructor at the College of the Muscogee Nation, this new edition of Wynema: A Child of the Forest brings this novel to a twenty-first century readership.

Wynema: A Child of the Forest

John Muir

Recovering from a factory accident that nearly claimed his eyesight, a young John Muir ventured into the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The flowers, wildlife, and rock formations he saw during the summer of 1869 changed how he would look at nature forever. Recollected at the end of his life from early journals and sketches, this ecstatic personal narrative gives insight into the forward-looking nature lover who would become known as the father of the nation's parks system. To read this book is to become Muir's hiking partner, sharing in "a glorious botanical and geological excursion" that would blaze the trail for the modern-day environmental movement.

My First Summer in the Sierra