When the lake runs dry, we’ll know the value of water.
Monsoon Season: Las Vegas Writers on Water in the Desert, the 16th volume in the acclaimed Las Vegas Writes series, gathers a powerful chorus of voices exploring the desert city’s resilience and hidden beauty. Join Nevada Humanities and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District for a conversation with featured Monsoon Season authors Erika Dagri, Sally Denton, Scott Dickensheets, JM Huck, Andrew S. Nicholson, Marlene Roque, Geoff Schumacher, John L. Smith, and editor Jarret Keene.
This event is free and open to the public. Book sales and signing to follow.
Legendary Nevada writers John L. Smith, Geoff Schumacher, and Scott Dickensheets deliver moving essays on loss—of innocence, water, love—reminding us why they remain pillars of the region’s literary landscape. Rising talents Marlene Roque, JM Huck, and Erika Dagri bring fresh perspectives, writing with generosity and tenderness about Hispanic machismo, Southwestern art, and the rare magic of desert rain. Iconic Nevada author and historian Sally Denton provides a lovely overview of Las Vegas that reminds us of our city’s hold on the popular imagination. UNLV professor Andrew S. Nicholson, meanwhile, closes the collection with a luminous prose poem. Early nature writer Mary Austin’s essay “The Land of Little Rain” is reprinted here, too. Finally, local comics artist Safiyya Bintali provides the cover illustration.
With the support of Huntington Press and Nevada Humanities, Monsoon Season affirms the vitality of the Las Vegas literary scene in these arid and parched times. These essays testify to a city that, like Southern Nevada itself, endures and astonishes when the rains finally arrive.
