VOTE NOW for the Reading the West Awards
By Frank Pester
By Frank Pester
Last year, we did not produce newsletters between February and June. This year, there are no gatherings or in-person author events scheduled for March and April. We are still living in pandemic times. At this anniversary of the onset of the global crisis named CoViD-19, we are different people. I am grateful that our staff and bookstore have remained uninfected. Our masks, sanitization and distancing measures are designed to keep it that way.
What I write here doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of the owners of Weller Book Works or those of my colleagues, but I know that each of us is devoted to some idea of racial justice in a country where, even since its inception, violence, exploitation, and colonial nightmares have ruled the day.
If I described a world in lockdown due to a deadly virus and the majority of people unable to be tested, as well as impending economic doom and a recent earthquake to boot, you might think I’m describing a low-budget apocalypse movie starring Nicholas Cage.
But, you know as well as I do that this is real life.