Kirjahaku

In his collection of Prairie essays-some of them profoundly personal, some poetic, some political-Roger Epp considers what it means to dwell attentively and responsibly in the rural West. He makes the provocative claim that Indigenous and settler alike are "Treaty people"; he retells inherited family stories in that light; he reclaims the rural as a site of radical politics; and he thinks alongside contemporary farm people whose livelihoods and communities are now under intense economic and cultural pressure. We Are All Treaty People invites those who feel the pull of a prairie heritage to rediscover the poetry surging through the landscapes of the rural West, among its people and their political economy.

“Make yourself big when you enter a room, when you meet a bear in the woods. Make yourself big. Meet the eyes.” Roger Epp’s poetic meditations about the best, the hardest, the loneliest times of leading a small university campus through significant change are depicted in a series of elegant yet understated prose pieces, alongside images by his life partner, Rhonda Harder Epp. Taking a candid look at the many challenges such a position brings, Roger Epp humanizes, scrutinizes, and upholds the integrity of academic administrative work. Only Leave a Trace will resonate with those who work in universities, hold leadership roles in them, or care about the connections between higher education, students, and place.