Wednesday, Aug 26, 2020 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

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One of the most iconic bookstores in the West, Salt Lake's Ken Sanders Rare Books, is in danger of closing—and for the sake of our souls, for the sake of truth telling and democracy, it must STAY. Join Torrey House Press and authors Craig Childs and Amy Irvine—old friends who are both recipients of the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award and the Orion Book Award—for a virtual evening of stories and musings about what it means to stay: to stand our ground, to stay the course, to stay open when it's hard to see past the seemingly hopeless and hateful state of the world. Following the event, signed, personally inscribed copies of the authors' books published by Torrey House Press will be available for sale through KSRB's website. There is also a GoFundMe campaign to save Ken Sanders Rare Books.

To donate now, go to https://gf.me/u/yjnswa

Join Amy and Craig on August 26 at 7 PM MDT on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85970959868

This counter culture institution opened its doors in Salt Lake City 24 years ago. Beginning with no money, few books, and a teenaged daughter, KSRB has grown into an overflowing powerhouse of an antiquarian bookstore known throughout the Intermountain West, and the world. It’s as much a book shop as it is a museum. It’s a place where Ken’s generosity allows the muse to dwell. For those not in Utah, many of you may have seen Ken Sanders on television from his fourteen years as a rare books and manuscripts appraiser on the popular PBS show, Antiques Roadshow.

Ken’s bookshop is an integral part of the very fabric of Utah’s culture. His store is under very real threats, most immediately with the loss of sales due to the Covid-19 crisis that has the store running at approximately 50% of normal sales. We know we are not alone in this, but the pandemic shows no sign of going away any time soon. Please do help by donating to this fundraising campaign, we can’t afford to lose this cultural icon!

Amy Irvine is a sixth-generation Utahn and long-time public lands activist. Her memoir, Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land, received the Orion Book Award, the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award, and the Colorado Book Award. Irvine teaches in the MFA program of Southern New Hampshire University. She lives and writes off the grid in southwest Colorado, just spitting distance from her Utah homeland.

Craig Childs has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books, including his most recent, Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America. He is a contributing editor at Adventure Journal Quarterly and his work has appeared in the Atlantic, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times. He lives in southwest Colorado.

Torrey House Press is an independent nonprofit publisher promoting environmental conservation through literature. We believe that culture is changed through conversation and that lively, contemporary literature is the cutting edge of social change. We strive to identify exceptional writers, nurture their work, and engage the widest possible audience; to publish diverse voices with transformative stories that illuminate important facets of our ever-changing planet; to develop literary resources for the conservation movement, educating and entertaining readers, inspiring action.