Wallace Stegner's Unsettled Country: Ruin, Realism, and Possibility in the American West Edited by Mark Fiege, Michael J. Lansing, and Leisl Carr Childers.

This text focuses on a collection of twelve essays critically examining Wallace Stegner, a prominent twentieth-century American West novelist, essayist, and historian, presented at a 2019 symposium. The essays explore Stegner’s complex legacy, highlighting his troubled relationship with settler colonialism, racial issues, and environmental challenges in the West, while also acknowledging his influential conservationism and role in founding Stanford’s creative writing program. Contributors analyze Stegner’s works for their themes of alienation, hope, and the potential for transformation amid regional ruin, with some critiques addressing his perspectives on Japanese internment and settler memory. Despite critical assessments, the collection ultimately emphasizes Stegner’s enduring "geography of hope" for the American West. [Extracted from the article]