The book "There There" is the award-winning and best-selling novel by Tommy Orange. Orange grew up in Oakland and now lives with his wife and son in the foothills town of Angels Camp, California. This novel is Orange’s first. 

Orange’s voice is of an urban Native American. His ensemble of about a dozen main characters are young and old, boys and girls, men and women, native and non-native. Their lives are woven together in ways that don’t become clear until a final, climactic and violent scene that unfolds at a pow-wow at the Oakland Coliseum. While the book is fiction, small details, scenes, situations, names and character sketches come from Orange’s life. 

Orange was at CapRadio in September for a CapRadio Reads event which Insight Host Beth Ruyak hosted. This is a recorded excerpt from an hour-long conversation before a live audience.

Orange has an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.