Betsy Gains Quammen: Reading and Signing

About this event

About the Book: Why do humans need ghosts? And what do ghosts have to teach us? This Haunted Land investi gates some of America’s most enduring legends and uncovers how ghost stories can illuminate some of the most unsett ling parts of history. With curiosity, a touch of skepti cism, and an open-hearted willingness to learn from the living and the dead, Betsy Gaines Quammen takes readers on a journey into haunted towns, forgott en lives, and abandoned places. From a once-booming uranium mining community in Colorado to a fort on the coast of Florida that predates the United States itself, this riveti ng explorati on of memory, mourning, folklore, and social anxiety shows that politi cized eff orts to rewrite history can only be defeated by bearing witness to the specters of the past. About the Author: BETSY GAINES QUAMMEN is the author of American Zion and True West, which won the 2024 Reading the West Book Award. She examines the intersections of extremism, public lands, wildlife, and western communities, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Daily News, and History News Network. She received a PhD in history from Montana State University, a MS in environmental studies from University of Montana, and a BA in English from Colorado College. She lives in Bozeman, Montana, with her spouse, writer David Quammen.