Liz Prato in Conversation with Aaron Gilbreath

We are thrilled to welcome back Liz Prato, in conversation with Aaron Gilbreath, to discuss her new book Kids in America: A Gen X Reckoning. In this revealing and provocative essay collection, Prato reveals a generation deeply affected by terrorism, racial inequality, rape culture, and mental illness, in an era when none of these issues were openly discussed. Part memoir, part journlistic exploration, Kids in America illuminates a generation often written off as cynical, sarcastic slackers, showing that its impact on culture and society is undeniable. Prato herself is a GenXer, growing up in Denver in the ’70s and ’80s, so the issues she explores here are issues of her generation, and a lot of the book is about coming to terms with things they often turned a blind eye to back then.

Prato is the author of two previous books: Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege: Essays on Hawaii–a finalist for an Oregon Book Award–and the story collection Baby’s On Fire. She also edited the anthology The Night, and the Rain, and the River. She lives in Portland with her best friend/husband, who is a bookseller, musician, and writer, and also with a couple of handsome cats. She lives for small presses, indie bookstores, and palm trees. She is editor at large for Forest Avenue Press and has taught classes at The Attic Insttitute. Her stories and essays have appeared in dozens of literary journals and magazines, including Hayden’s Ferry Review, McSweeney’s, Carolina Quarterly, Baltimore Review, The Rumpus, Salon, Hunger Mountain, and ZYZZYVA, and her essays have been chosen as notable works in Best American Essays 2018 and Best American Sports Writing 2018. 

Prato will be in discussion with  Aaron Gilbreath, whose most recent book is The Heart of California: Exploring the San Joaquin Valley, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award last year. Gilbreath is an essayist, a journalist, and  previously a contributing editor at Longreads. He has written essays and articles for Harper’s, the New York Times, the Paris Review, and the Dublin Review, and his work has been listed as notable in Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing. Gilbreath is the author of two essay collections, Everything We Don’t Know: Essays and This Is: Essays on Jazz.