Description

Welcome anthropologist and writer from the Pacific Northwest Julie Tate Libby to the Readings Gallery to celebrate her newest book, The Next Best Place: Love Letters to a Mountain Town in the American West!

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When the Tate family moved to the Methow Valley in 1989, it was a rural, mountain valley surrounded by thousands of acres of public land.  Julie grew up exploring, backpacking and fishing, all the while, determined to one day own a home of her own. Throughout the next two decades, however, as waves of urban migrants flocked to the Valley for its mountains and natural beauty, gas stations turned into organic food stores, Lycra-clad skiers replaced cowboys on the trails, and gritty bars turned into coffee houses and wine tasting rooms. 

Drawing on her experiences in Hawaii, New Zealand, and elsewhere, anthropologist Julie Tate-Libby weaves together stories of a life lived close to nature, emerging conflicts between locals and their urban neighbors, and issues of class and otherness through a series of essays that reflect on the nature of place, belonging and identity. Poignant, funny and articulate, Julie's essays explore what it means to belong to a community and place– and what it takes to stay.  

Julie Tate-Libby is an anthropologist and writer from the Pacific Northwest.  Her first book The Good Way, a Himalayan Journey, (Koehler Books 2019) was a finalist for the 2020 Washington State Book Awards.  Her work on amenity migration, the power of place, and sacred mountains has appeared in many academic publications and her creative work has been featured in the Cirque Literary Journal and Washington State's Poet Laureate website.  Julie is also an avid teacher, gardener and culinary enthusiast who splits her time between Washington State and Hawai'i.