We all have di ﬀ erent ways to connect to the there once there for us, our families, what got passed down from our ancestors, our relatives, the land, both the benefits of culture and language as well as our legacies of pain, struggle and loss. The world as it looked for Indigenous people pre-contact and pre-colonization is a di ﬀ erent one - to say the least. Why I chose it as a title for this novel has to do with the way Indigenous people everywhere experience themselves in this world. Regarding Oakland, Stein is quoted as having said, “There is no there there.” The way she meant it has to do with spending part of her childhood in a certain part of Oakland, then leaving and coming back years later to find it developed over, and unrecognizable.

The title comes from a Gertrude Stein quote. It’s about all of us trying to make sense of ourselves, our roots, in this day and age. 'There There' is a novel about Oakland, California, and Indigenous people both born and raised in Oakland, as well as those who relocated from reservations. A fast-paced, unflinching polyphonic account from the invisible, the voiceless. And I knew I wanted to write a novel about Oakland. I’d known I wanted to write a novel with many voices and perspectives before the idea for the novel came to me.

And on that drive, on I-5 somewhere between Oakland and L.A., the idea for the novel was just suddenly there - as if knowing I’d be a father made the idea complete. But while the idea to represent my life and my community had been building in me over time, the idea for 'There There' came to me in a single moment. Working in the Native community in Oakland, I found that the stories of the people I knew were not represented anywhere. In fact, the Native fiction I read made me feel less Native, or more alone, because it was about reservation life. I came to find there was very little in literature about Oakland, and almost nothing about Native people living in cities. I started working at the Health Center at the same time that I was falling in love with literature, with fiction, working at a used bookstore on the other side of town. I was born and raised in Oakland, then worked o ﬀ and on for eight years in the mental health department at the Native American Health Center in Oakland. Was there a particular event or idea that was the genesis for 'There There'? Interview courtesy of Penguin Random House. Bestselling and award-winning author Tommy Orange will be in conversation with Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kelly Fayard on Thursday, May 13 for the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences' virtual Harper Distinguished Speaker Series lecture.

Tony loneman there there