Join Elissa Washuta as she discusses her n ew collection of personal essays\, \;White Magic\, with author and ass istant professor of English\, Nick White. In \;White Magic\, \;Was huta reflects on the cheap facsimiles of Native spiritual tools and occult trends\, &ldquo\;starter witch kits&rdquo\; of sage\, rose quartz\, and t arot cards packaged together in paper and plastic\; she writes openly abou t a decade of abuse\, addiction\, PTSD\, and heavy-duty drug treatment for a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder and how she felt drawn to the real spi rits and powers her dispossessed and discarded ancestors knew\, while she undertook necessary work to find love and meaning. A Native woman\, she ex plores land\, heartbreak\, and colonization\, about life without the escap e hatch of intoxication\, and about how she became a powerful witch. Washu ta and White will discuss \;White Magic \;with time for attendee q uestions. \;
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Elissa Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz I
ndian Tribe and a nonfiction writer. She is the author of \;My Body Is
a Book of Rules \;and \;Starvation Mode. With Theresa Warburton\,
she is co-editor of the anthology \;Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Coll
ected Essays by Contemporary Writers. She has received fellowships and awa
rds from the National Endowment for the Arts\, Creative Capital\, Artist T
rust\, 4Culture\, and Potlatch Fund. Washuta is an assistant professor of
creative writing at The Ohio State University.
Nick White\,
originally from Mississippi\, is the author of the novel How to \;Surv
ive a Summer \;(Blue Rider/Penguin\, 2017) and the story collection&nb
sp\;Sweet and Low. He is an Assistant Professor of English at The Ohio Sta
te University's MFA Program in Creative Writing. His short stories\, poems
\, and essays have appeared in a variety of places\, including The Kenyon
Review\, Guernica\, Catapult\, The Hopkins Review\, Indiana Review\, The L
iterary Review\, Lit Hub\, and elsewhere. He is currently at work on a new
novel. \;