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Free and in person. Masks required.

3900 Mission Inn Ave, Riverside, CA 92501, Community Room (ground level)

“The only fight he’d ever won was the grappling match against a stubborn package of Hostess Twinkies, and that was hard fought.” — Gordon Johnson, “Plato Plus Alexis,” from Bird Songs Don’t Lie

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, join Inlandia Institute for a conversation with author and newspaperman Gordon Lee Johnson and editor/author Terria Smith. This event is part of Inlandia at Riverside Public Library’s First Thursdays Arts Walk events series.

Rich in culture, history, and heritage, Johnson and Smith will discuss their own paths to writing, what they’re working on now, their work together as author and editor, and more.

“Johnson is certainly an ultimate tour guide through Inland Native California …,” writes Ruth Nolan. “[He] leads readers through his many stories in ways that share cultural values and practices along with glimpses of the heartbreak and outrage that have resulted from centuries of forced assimilations from the non-Native world.”

Terria Smith is the Berkeley Roundhouse Director for Heyday Books, which includes editing News From Native California magazine – a quarterly publication “devoted to the vibrant cultures, arts, languages, histories, social justice movements, and stories of California’s diverse Indian peoples” and serving as the Director of California Indian Publishing.

Books will be available for sale at the event. To preorder, please visit: https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/bird-songs-dont-lie-writings-from-the-rez/.