Back To Where You Belonged: Las Vegas Writers Weigh the Power of the Past

In a wide-ranging anthology that moves from the ancient artists of Southern Nevada’s who carved petroglyphs into rock walls to contemporary family trauma, 10 Las Vegas essayists examine the weight of the past on the present―and, perhaps, on the future. Set in and around a city with its own peculiar and complicated relationship to the very idea of history, these eclectic narratives examine the topic from a variety of surprising directions. Go back in time to visit the “basketweaving” tribes who predate the city’s founding. Experience the heady midcentury days of freewheeling law-enforcement. Follow an abuse survivor as she revisits the sites of family torment. Join a young African-American man as he experiences a racial epiphany in the county morgue. Listen in as a photography model ponders the psychology of the men who hire her to recreate urgent moments from their pasts. Through such stories, this collection―the eighth volume in the Las Vegas Writes series―presents a singular view of a city that’s forever negotiating the uneasy passage between then and now.