Decades ago, actors like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne made their names playing gun-slingers in movies set in the American West. But Westerns aren’t just a thing of the past and they’re not just on the big screen.

Today, we’ll spend the hour with Pulitzer Prize winning author Hernan Diaz and hear how he subverted the Western genre in his first novel In the Distance. 

We spoke with him back in February at the Westport Library. His novel, was the 2025 selection for WestportREADS, an initiative to strengthen community through the shared experience of a book. He’ll also talk about the mythology of the American West, disorientation in his work, and the power of public libraries.

Find more about the WestportREADS series here.

GUEST:

• Hernan Diaz: author of In the Distance and Trust

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