FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: M'Bilia Meekers, Publicity Manager (206) 221-4994 / mmeekers@uw.edu
Timely Food Memoir of Bainbridge Island Forthcoming in Paperback UW Press will release The Deepest Roots by Kathleen Alcalá in February
"Alcalá explores [issues] relevant beyond Bainbridge's boundaries . . . from the meaning of a homeland to questions of who has power in the modern world and who has responsibility. . . . The stories raise[e] as many difficult questions as they answer."—Seattle Times
Seattle, WA—As friends began "going back to the land" at the same time that a health issue emerged, Kathleen Alcalá set out to re-examine her relationship with food at the most local level. Remembering her parents, Mexican immigrants who grew up during the Depression, and the memory of planting, growing, and harvesting fresh food with them as a child, she decided to explore the history of the Pacific Northwest island she calls home.
In The Deepest Roots, Alcalá walks, wades, picks, pokes, digs, cooks, and cans, getting to know her neighbors on a much deeper level. Wanting to better understand how we once fed ourselves, and acknowledging that there may be a future in which we could need to do so again, she meets those who experienced the Japanese American internment during World War II, and learns the unique histories of the blended Filipino and Native American community, the fishing practices of the descendants of Croatian immigrants, and the Suquamish elder who shares with her the food legacy of the island itself.
Combining memoir, historical records, and a blueprint for sustainability, The Deepest Roots, now available in paperback, shows us how an island population can mature into responsible food stewards, and reminds us that innovation, adaptation, diversity, and common sense will help us make wise decisions about our future. And along the way, we learn how food is intertwined with our present but offers a path to a better understanding of the future.
Kathleen Alcalá is the author of a collection of essays, The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing; three novels, including Treasures in Heaven; and a book of short stories. She lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
To request a review copy or set up an interview with the author, please contact M'Bilia Meekers by telephone at (206) 221-4994 or by email at mmeekers@uw.edu.
January 2019
360 pp., 7 b&w illus., 5.5 x 8.5 in
$22.95 / 15.00 paperback / ISBN 9780295999708
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir; Pacific Northwest / History; Food
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