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Special Lit Lounge Book Club: Aspen Words Literary Prize Celebration
August 19 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm UTC-7
Tuesday, August 19, 2025 | 5:00–6:00 PM | Pitkin County Library
Join us for a special edition of The Lit Lounge as we celebrate the winner of the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize! This month, we’re spotlighting “Wandering Stars“ by Tommy Orange—a remarkable and unforgettable novel exploring the Native American experience across generations.
About the novel:
Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines. In a novel that is by turns shattering and wondrous, Tommy Orange has conjured the ancestors of the family readers first fell in love with in There There—warriors, drunks, outlaws, addicts— asking what it means to be the children and grandchildren of massacre. Wandering Stars is a novel about epigenetic and generational trauma that has the force and vision of a modern epic, an exceptionally powerful new book from one of the most exciting writers at work today and soaring confirmation of Tommy Orange’s monumental gifts.
Come together with fellow readers for an engaging discussion of this remarkable book, and enjoy light refreshments as we reflect on its themes and celebrate the community it brings together.
Let’s honor these powerful stories—and each other.
