Overview

"These essays travel near and far to explore landscapes of personal and cultural significance and the communities that inhabit them. At a time when we reexamine how policies of yesteryear shape equities in the present, award-winning writer Stephen Benz challenges readers to delve beyond whitewashed versions of history and reassess our treatment of native people and the environment with fresh, critical eyes. From westward expansion and Manifest Destiny to the Cold War and the Global War on Terror, Reading the Signs prods myths and provides missing context around events touched by the American impulse to grab land and harvest resources--both within and beyond our shores. These essays challenge us to search for missing layers of truth and decide which versions of history should prevail. With a wandering spirit and an inquisitive mind, Benz ventures around town, across country, and overseas in search of forgotten, overlooked, or misunderstood stories. From rock concerts and courthouses to farm towns, battlegrounds, historical sites, and quirky museums, these ""itinerant essays"" revel in discovering ""new wonders every mile."" Along with Topographies (Etruscan Press) and two books of travel essays--Guatemalan Journey (University of Texas Press) and Green Dreams: Travels in Central America (Lonely Planet)--Stephen Benz has published essays in Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, TriQuarterly, New England Review, and other journals. Three of his essays have been selected for Best American Travel Writing (2003, 2015, 2019). His poems have appeared in journals such as Nimrod, Shenandoah, and Confrontation as well as in a full-length collection, Americana Motel, published by Main Street Rag Press. Benz now teaches professional writing at the University of New Mexico."

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9781736494622

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Reviews

In his progress from the place we called home to remote and little visited, Stephen Benz meets a lot of out-of-the-ordinary people: Dale the tobacco-spitting harvest field-crew hand; Mr. Johnson, the gruff Bible-reading grounds crew boss; Carolyn Terry, the curator of the world's only apron museum; an unnamed Elko, Nevada waitress who bets all her tip money; his own suddenly-appearing but finally-disappearing Uncle Joe; Daniel the Romanian partisan. He also sees a lot of out-of-the-way places: the Palouse; Iuka, Mississippi; Quanah, Texas; the Parting-of-the-Ways; Transnistria; Camaguey. Benz journeys from the bones to the stars, and along the way he makes himself into Everyperson: Reading the Signs offers up the stories of the Listener, the memories of the Watcher. --H. L. Hix, Demonstrategy Stephen Benz's essays are simultaneously personal and universal in the way they tap into human experience. From family stories to travels of great distance, Benz takes readers on a compelling journey. Rich in sense of place, these essays deftly challenge physical and spiritual divides while exploring various crossroads near and far. --Diane Thiel Benz's essays hold the reader all the way, section after section. This is a book for anyone who has a traveling heart. --William Heyen, Nature: Selected & New Poems 1970-2020 Benz's fascinating new book teaches us to read the land through his experience, whether driving a truck, cruising battle sites or Indian and Latin American culture. By the end, he helps us understand what it means to find one's place in history. --David King Dunaway, The Ballad of Pete Seeger

Author Information

Along with two books of travel essays--Guatemalan Journey (University of Texas Press) and Green Dreams: Travels in Central America (Lonely Planet)--Stephen Benz has published essays in Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, TriQuarterly, New England Review, and other journals. Three of his essays have been selected for Best American Travel Writing (2003, 2015, 2019). His poems have appeared in journals such as Nimrod, Shenandoah, and Confrontation as well as in a full-length collection, Americana Motel, published by Main Street Rag Press. Topographies, a collection of essays, appeared in 2019 from Etruscan Press. Formerly a writer for Tropic, the Sunday magazine of the Miami Herald, Benz now teaches professional writing at the University of New Mexico.

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