fbpx

Fishtrap’s NEA Big Read – “The Cold Millions” by Jess Walter

January and February, 2025

This winter, enjoy a great book together as a community.
Plus weekly events, discussions, resources, and more!

The Cold Millions by Jess Walter is a critically acclaimed, nationally bestselling novel set in Spokane, Washington, about two brothers who are swept into the turbulent class warfare of the early 20th century. An intimate story of love, sacrifice, and betrayal set against the dawn of the labor movement, this “vivid, propulsive” novel (USA Today) offers a vibrant portrait of a nation grappling with the chasm between rich and poor, the vulnerable and the powerful. Walter weaves fiction and history into “…a work of irresistible characters, harrowing adventures, and rip-roaring fun” (Washington Post). “It’s often said that a novel contains the world; Walter brings new meaning to this phrase, peopling The Cold Millions with vaudeville stars, hobos, suffragists, tycoons, union agitators, policemen, and dozens of other vibrant characters. Warm and deeply humane, this transporting novel is a staggering achievement” (Esquire).

The Cold Millions - A Literary Tour from Factory Town on Vimeo.

The Big Read Schedule of Events

KICKOFF – Songs of the People

Thursday, January 9

7:00pm at Fishtrap – 107 W. Main St. Enterprise
Tickets: $10 suggested donation at the door

The Big Read kicks off with a joyous interactive musical event from early 20th century Vaudeville and the Labor Movement hosted by the Wallowa Valley Music Alliance. Meet characters from The Cold Millions, dress in your best 1900 garb, and join in.

Unabashed, Unafraid, Unashamed: Women Fighters on the Front Line of Oregon’s Labor Movement with Moe Bowstern

Wednesday, January 15

7:00pm at Fishtrap – 107 W. Main St. Enterprise and online at fishtrap.org

Labor activist and historian Moe Bowstern offers a look at the remarkable and brave lives of union writer Julia Ruuttila, who Jess Walter included as a character in The Cold Millions, and her long time partner and women’s rights champion, Dr. Marie Equi.

Moe Bowstern contributes to underground literary cultural traditions as a reader, writer, and editor, best known for the commercial fishing zine Xtra Tuf, which shares stories from her decades in the Alaska salmon, halibut, herring, cod, and crab fisheries. She is a regular performer and emcee at the annual Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria, Oregon. From 1997 to 2007 Moe gave her time to DIY social practice projects in Portland, Oregon, co-creating space for citizens to protest within the queer, fun-centered, anarchist Amalgamated Everlasting Union Chorus, and making ceremony outside of mainstream capitalism with an annual mega-collaboration, the Winter Solstice Puppet Show, among other projects. Moe was the principal author for the collaborative oral history book It Did Happen Here: An Anti-Fascist People’s History (PM Press, 2023) and co-wrote the narration for the 2020 independent podcast of the same name. She earns wages and healthcare at a warehouse. Read Subversion Through Friendliness, Moe’s weekly zine-style newsletter at Substack.com.

Screening of the documentary film, The Wobblies

Saturday, January 18

2:00pm at Fishtrap – 107 W. Main St. Enterprise

The Wobblies (1979) is a documentary about the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a union that opposed World War I and sought to overthrow capitalism.

The story of a Wallowa Love song written by a jailed Wobblie in Centralia

Tuesday, January 21

Noon at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture – 403 Main St, Joseph

Join Jennfier Gibbs of the Wallowa History Center as she unfolds the fascinating story of Eugene Barnett, the man who wrote a song to his wife from jail in 1919 titled, “Wallowa Love” and the surprising story behind it of a shooting in Centralia between labor workers and the American Legion.

Industrial Workers of the World 1905-1935 with Aaron Goings

Thursday, January 23

7:00pm online at fishtrap.org

Founded in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World captured the imagination of a generation with its fiery rhetoric, daring tactics, and program of revolutionary industrial unionism. Join Aaron Goings, author of The Red Coast: Radicalism and Anti-Radicalism in Southwest Washington and The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest for an online discussion of the times and people who led to this movement.

Dr. Aaron Goings is a Professor of History at Peninsula College in Port Angeles. He spent most of the last 15 years a tenured history professor at Saint Martin’s University; he also was a Fulbright Scholar in Finland and a senior researcher at the Institute of Advanced Social Research in Tampere University in Finland. Aaron has written three presses, including The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest with the University of Washington Press. His fourth book will be published by the UW Press in the summer of 2025.

Screening of the documentary film, The Wobblies

Thursday, January 23

4:30pm at Eastern Oregon University – Ackerman 210

The Wobblies (1979) is a documentary about the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a union that opposed World War I and sought to overthrow capitalism.

Big Read Finale with Jess Walter

Wednesday, February 5

7:00pm at Fishtrap – 107 W. Main St. Enterprise and online at fishtrap.org
Meet Jess Walter, author of The Cold Millions and learn how he was inspired to write the story and find inspiration for its characters.

Tickets: $15 General Admission $12.50 Fishtrappers $5 Students
Online tickets are available at the same price.

Thanks to our Big Read sponsors:

Since 2006, Fishtrap has presented an NEA Big Read or Fishtrap Reads program as a way to bring a great work of literature to our communities by providing public events, discussions, and free books to Wallowa and Union County schools, libraries, as well as the general public. The NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. The program broadens our understanding of the world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. The program is supported locally by neighborhood businesses, foundations, and organizations including The Bookloft and Oregon Arts Commission, plus program partners in Cook Memorial Library, Art Center East, and the Eastern Oregon University Library.