Inter State: Essays from California

A "must read" debut collection of poetic, linked essays investigating the past and present state of California, its conflicting histories and their impact on a writer's family and life (Los Angeles Times).

California has been advertised as a destiny manifested for those ready to pull up their bootstraps and head west across to find wealth on the other side of the Sierra Nevada since the 19th century. Across the seven essays in the debut collection by José Vadi, we hear from the descendants of those not promised that prize.

Inter State explores California through many lenses: an aging obsessed skateboarder; a self-appointed dive bar DJ; a laid-off San Francisco tech worker turned rehired contractor; a grandson of Mexican farmworkers pursuing the crops they tilled.

Amidst wildfires, high speed rail, housing crises, unprecedented wealth and its underlying decay, Inter State excavates and roots itself inside those necessary stories and places lost in the ever-changing definitions of a selectively golden state.

Author: Jose Vadi
Publisher: Soft Skull
Published: 09/14/2021
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.5lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781593766955


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/21/2021
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2021
Shelf Awareness 09/21/2021

About the Author
JOSÉ VADI is an award-winning essayist, poet, playwright, and film producer. Vadi received the San Francisco Foundation's Shenson Performing Arts Award for his debut play, a eulogy for three, produced by Marc Bamuthi Joseph's Living Word Project. He is the author of SoMa Lurk, a collection of photos and poems published by Project Kalahati / Pro Arts Commons. His work has been featured by the PBS NewsHour, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Daily Beast, while his writing has appeared in Catapult, McSweeney's, New Life Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review of Books, SFMOMA's Open Space, and Pop-Up Magazine.