In the midst of working on his latest project, about the concept of walls, cultural anthropologist Anand Pandian found himself volunteering with a group called Tucson Samaritans — a humanitarian organization that leaves water and food for migrants in the desert.
One day, another volunteer had him stop him by a cross on the side of the road. The cross marked the place where a migrant woman some years before had walked carrying a stillborn child that was born while the woman was walking through the desert.
The result of Pandian’s work is a book titled "Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life and How to Take Them Down."
In the wake of the 2016 election, he traveled across the country — including a stop in Scottsdale — to try to find out why we’re so divided as a nation and how we might be able to get back together.
Pandian says his experiences taught him that sometimes walls are made of mortar, but that sometimes they’re made of mistrust.
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More than 300 authors will be presenting at this year’s Tucson Festival of Books. Catch up with the authors during signings and panels, and brush up on their work in these recent conversations from The Show. -
Tucson storyteller Molly McCloy loves telling stories about hard things. She’s done it on stage and in print — her memoir, “Nine Grudges: The Spiteful Origins of the Happiest Dyke on Earth” will be published later this year. -
Written by ASU professor Rashad Shabazz, the book situates Prince’s earliest musical inspirations in a city where, between 1950 and 1970, the Black population grew by 436%. -
By day, Russ McSpadden works as a Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. But McSpadden is also a poet, and he’s recently published a collection called “Borderlings.” -
Ron Dungan is a longtime environmental reporter in Arizona. Now, he’s out with his first book: "The Worst Fishing Dog Ever: And Other Essays."
