ANA MARIA SPAGNA
ANA MARIA SPAGNA is the author of ten books including the young adult novel The Luckiest Scar on Earth and, most recently, the nonfiction narrative PUSHED: Miners, a Merchant and (Maybe) a Massacre. Her work has been recognized by the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize, the Society for Environmental Journalists, the Nautilus Book Awards, and as a four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award. A former backcountry trails worker, Ana Maria now teaches in MFA programs at Antioch University Los Angeles, Western Colorado University, and St. Lawrence University. She lives in Stehekin, Washington with her wife, Laurie, and Maybelle the cat.
BEHIND THE BOOK
An interview with Ana Maria Spagna about the making of her most recent book, Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre (COMING SOON!)
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BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
PUSHED: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre
Amid the current alarming rise in xenophobia, Ana Maria Spagna stumbled upon a story: one day in 1875, according to lore, on a high bluff over the Columbia River, a group of local Indigenous people murdered a large number of Chinese miners—perhaps as many as three hundred—and pushed their bodies over a cliff into the river. The little-known incident was dubbed the Chelan Falls Massacre. Despite having lived in the area for more than thirty years, Spagna had never before heard of this event. She set out to discover exactly what happened and why.
Consulting historians, archaeologists, Indigenous elders, and even a grave dowser, Spagna uncovers three possible versions of the event: Native people as perpetrators; White people as perpetrators; It didn't happen at all. Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre replaces convenient narratives of the American West with nuance and complexity, revealing the danger in forgetting or remembering atrocities when history is murky and asking what allegiance to a place requires.
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"A solid history of Western expansion, a powerful refrain against xenophobia, and a celebration of those who resist."
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
A Novel
Fourteen-year-old Charlotte moves from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to Washington's Cascade Mountains, where she hopes to continue training for the national snowboarding championships. After her father signs an anti-development petition, she loses access to the local resort and takes to the backcountry, where she meets nature on its own terms. When adventure turns to tragedy, Charlotte learns that even our deepest scars can be lucky ones.
“A gorgeous exploration of falling in love in unexpected ways—with a new place, with a new parent, and with a new ethic. This novel is a coming–of–age in the truest and fullest sense.”
—LAURA PRITCHETT, author of Red Lightning