April 18: SIETAR-MN Meeting

Every 3rd Tuesday of each month. September-May
PARKING: available in ramp across 19th Avenue
NEXT Meeting: Tuesday, APRIL 18, 2017 (7:00 PM)
TOPIC: Intercultural Living and Writing – Guest Authors

Come meet two accomplished Minnesota authors, Doug Mack and Tom Larson, and hear them talk about their intercultural living and writing. Discover how they captured their experiences while exploring the cultures they encountered. For: persons involved with travel, multicultural education and cross-cultural employment. Gain insights about ways to expand your intercultural understanding as well as acquire new ideas for training and support.

Doug Mack – Doug’s newly released second book, The Not-Quite States of America, is a travelogue about the U.S. territories, places you may have forgotten exist at all. Scattered shards in the Pacific and the Caribbean, the not-quite states—American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—and their 4 million people are often forgotten, even by most Americans. But they’re filled with American flags, U.S. post offices, and Little League baseball games. How did these territories come to be part of the United States? What are they like? And why aren’t they states? The Not-Quite States of America is an entertaining account of the territories’ place in the USA, and it raises fascinating questions about the nature of empire. As Mack shows, the territories aren’t mere footnotes to American history; they are a crucial part of the story.

Tom Larson - Tom’s debut novel, Hyena’s Tree, is shaped by his first-hand experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa. Working as a biologist in a United Nations sponsored national park development project, Tom’s experiences ranged from encounters with African buffalo, lions, crocodiles, and poachers to a 2,400 mile journey by bicycle, train, taxi, and boat across West Africa. His passion for wildlife and knowledge of African history, along with his four decade career in conservation are reflected in his writing. Hyena’s Tree blends Tom’s actual experiences with African wildlife and his interest in African history with fictitious elements to produce a work that is both informative and exciting
