Michael Katakis – författare

Michael Katakis has spent his life travelling with a camera and writing a journal. This is the resulting book. For the past 25 years he has collaborated with the social anthropologist Kris Hardin in work spanning continents and cultures. Their initial project was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, photographing and interviewing veterans and civilians alike, the result of which was a moving portrait of America's strengths, sacrifices and errors during a profoundly divisive time in the nation's history. A different and disturbing portrait of the country emerges in 'Troubled Land: Twelve Days Across America' where Michael Katakis sought to have a dialogue with ordinary people right after September 11 2001. In between these projects were two periods of fieldwork in Sierra Leone documenting the people of a village before their bloody civil war began. His fine photographs were given an added, unintended significance by the awful events that followed. From Michael Palin's Introduction: 'Michael Katakis is an indefatigable traveller.Driven by a restless curiosity and a belief in the importance of the individual against the system he puts his humane and enquiring ear to the ground and picks up signals that are salutary, precise and stimulating. His thoughtful words and pictures confer dignity and provoke indignation in equal measure. He guides our eye and our conscience without ever having to resort to hustle or harangue. There is a peacefulness at the heart of his work which gives us time to think.'

Three authors from diverse backgrounds contribute essays to this volume of photographs of Native Americans from the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Noted photographer and author Michael Katakis, Professor of Native American literature and American Book Award winner Gerald Vizenor, and Associate Curator of the American collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Robert Preucel have contributed very personal and sensitive essays inspired by the portraits in this volume. Listen closely as you look at these arresting images.

Three authors from diverse backgrounds contribute essays to this volume of photographs of Native Americans from the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Noted photographer and author Michael Katakis, Professor of Native American literature and American Book Award winner Gerald Vizenor, and Associate Curator of the American collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Robert Preucel have contributed very personal and sensitive essays inspired by the portraits in this volume. Listen closely as you look at these arresting images.

Twenty-four evocative images, in postcard format, from the new book Excavating Voices: Listening to Photographs of Native Americans, by such renowned photographers as William Henry Jackson and Edward S. Curtis. Selected from the more than 300,000 images in the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

For many, Ernest Hemingway remains more a compilation of myths than a person: soldier, sportsman, lover, expat and, of course, writer. But the actual life beneath these various legends remains elusive; what did he look like as a laughing child or young soldier? What was his handwriting like and what did he say in his most personal letters? How did the train tickets he held on his way from France to Spain or across the American Midwest feel, and what kind of notes did he take on his journeys? This remarkable book answers these questions. Featuring a foreword by Hemingway’s son Patrick and an afterword by his grandson Sean, the book has the intimate feel of being a member of the family. It tells the story of a major American icon through the objects he touched, the moments he saw, the thoughts he had every day.Beautifully designed, including over 400 dazzling images of him at every stage of his life along with the letters, notes and miscellany that made his life so rich, it is an intimate, illuminating portrait like no other.It is a one-of-a-kind, stunning tribute to one of the most titanic figures in literature.

Once upon a time, Michael Katakis lived in a place of big dreams, bright colours and sleight of hand. That place was America.One night, travelling where those who live within illusions should never go, he stared into the darkness and glimpsed a faded flag where shadows gathered, revealing another America. It was a broken place, bred from fear and distrust - a thousand shards of glass - filled with a people who long ago had given away all that was precious; a people who had been sold, for so long, a foreign betrayal that finally came from within, and for nothing more than a handful of silver.These essays, letters and journal entries were written as a farewell to the country Michael loves still, and to the wife he knew as his 'True North'. A powerful and personal polemic, A Thousand Shards of Glass is Michael's appeal to his fellow citizens to change their course; a cautionary tale to those around the world who idealise an America that never was; and, crucially, a glimpse beyond the myth, to a country whose best days could still lie ahead.'A Thousand Shards of Glass, a book written with remarkable prescience some years ago, recounts with sad eloquence his disillusionment with America. His is a voice full of common sense and simple humanity that seem to have been lost in contemporary America. It is a voice both kind and angry, the voice of a reasonable man who has not lost his idealism but who is deeply troubled by what he sees and describes so clearly' Dr. Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm'Katakis writes with an economic elegance about the rift between America as advertised and America as experienced with the passion and precision of a poet' Rick Klefell, NPR

An old cowboy stares into the eyes of his dead wife and remembers a time before he knew her; a photojournalist and his terminally ill wife enjoy one last night together under the hunter’s moon; a family wait for their son to return home from the civil war in Bosnia; and a dying man takes violent revenge against the people who ruined his life. Crisp, heartfelt and clear-eyed, Katakis’s debut short story collection bears comparison with those of the great American writers and demonstrates the enduring power of love in even the cruellest of environments.   "Dangerous Men is mesmerizing. These are wonderful, devastating stories, filled with dread and death, yet suffused with decency and love. I loved it.” Ken Burns"Very violent and immensely readable, both deeply sad and deeply cathartic” Henry Marsh  "Highly recommended for Steinbeck readers and others safe-sheltering from the dangerous men in Washington, D.C." Steinbeck Now"A work of great sensitivity and lyrical beauty." Raja Shehadeh