“I am a child of the American West, a landscape so rich and wide that my culture trembles with terror before its power.” So begins Taylor Brorby’s Boys and Oil, a haunting, bracingly honest memoir about growing up gay amidst the harshness of rural North Dakota, “a place where there is no safety in a ravaged landscape of mining and fracking.”*

Join the Center of the American West for the kickoff of our 2023-24 "Rewriting the West" author series as we welcome author Taylor Brorby to discuss his 2022 book, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land, with Professor Bud Coleman, Roe Green Endowed Chair in Theatre at CU Boulder.

Set at the edge of the 100th meridian in North Dakota and westward, Brorby’s memoir speaks to issues related to extractive economies, queerness, disability, and climate change. The book helps us wonder what "rewriting the West" could look like as we explore recently published works that complicate conventional notions of the western U.S. through evocative first-person narratives.

An audience Q&A and book signing will follow.
This event is free but space and books are limited.

For more details and to register, please call 303-492-4897 or register via this form

*excerpt taken from Taylor Brorby's website