How to Change History

<p>In <em>How to Change History</em> Robin Hemley grapples with the individual's navigation of history and the conflict between personal and public histories. In an attempt to restore resurrect and reclaim what might otherwise be lost Hemley meditates and speculates on photography scrapbooks historical markers travelogues TV shows real estate come-ons washed up rock stars incontinent dachshunds stalkers skeletons in the closet and literature. He also examines his parents' lives as writers documenting their under-seen influence on the art movements of the day.</p><p>In one essay he writes about his mother's first cousin Roy a survivor of Pearl Harbor whose troubled daughter murdered him. The essay Jim's Corner examines the notion of memorial plaques and how they often highlight erasure rather than forestall it. Hemley writes about a stranger whose World War II experiences were chronicled in a scrapbook Hemley bought at an estate sale. In this book about reconstruction Hemley posits that while we cannot change events once they have passed we can return to those events to learn and sometimes perhaps change our understanding of them.</p><p></p><p><strong>Robin Hemley</strong> is the author or editor of sixteen books including <em>Oblivion: An After Autobiography</em> <em>The Art and Craft of Asian Stories: A Writer's Guide and Anthology</em> (with Xu Xi) and <em>Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood</em> (Nebraska 2020). An innovator of the contemporary essay Hemley has won numerous fellowships residencies awards and Pushcart Prizes. He is the founder of the international nonfiction conference NonfictioNOW.</p><p></p>