Fragments of America Volume II Reading

Join us for a reading and celebration of Chris McNally's Fragments of an America, Volume Two, a collection of poems and prose offering a fierce and often humorous meditation on the kaleidoscope of American character – moving from political critique to intimate reflections on love, loss, and what remains. Titles range from "Liz Cheney's Horse" and "Thus Spake Sinatra" to the tender, philosophical "Love Like This" and "Alcazar." The author will intersperse excerpts from a variety of poems with anecdotes and reflections on what inspired them, starting with his life changing visit to the Lascaux cave paintings in 1981. Following his first volume (2016), McNally presents a challenging composite of contradictory experiences, viewed through a stance of courage and erudition – a playful but serious, honest, necessary work for our era of civil fracture.

6:30 Hugo House intro

6:35 – 7:05 author reading

7:10 – 7:30 Q&A

7:30 – 8:00 mingling and Q&A

Chris McNally

Chris McNally was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1960. He studied history at UC Berkeley, with additional study at the Université du Benin in Togo and in Bordeaux, France, and later earned an MFA from New York University. An avid historian, in 2012 he completed the essay Principles for a Profound Leadership: The Self-Worth of a Nation, and in 2016 published Fragments of an America, Volume I, all while helping raise two sons and running a construction project management firm for fine homes. He lives outside Hudson, New York with his wife Tamara.