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The Country That Fiction Built

Explorations: Steilacoom Library Speaker Series

Join us virtually, as UW English professor Michelle Liu discusses how two great works of fiction have fundamentally changed our country's outlook on race, morality and humanity.

Pierce County Library and Humanities Washington, in partnership with the Steilacoom Historical Museum, welcome you to this compelling conversation.

Ask who Atticus Finch is, and most will remember him from high school English as the heroic lawyer defending an unjustly charged African-American man in To Kill a Mockingbird. Ever since Harper Lee imagined him into life in 1960, the name “Atticus Finch” has become shorthand for a person who acts according to their conscience, not majority rule.

This talk delves into the many ways our country is deeply shaped by Harper Lee, as well as by the best-selling author who lived in the century before her—Harriet Beecher Stowe. Using To Kill a Mockingbird and Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin—the novel largely credited with moving the United States into the Civil War—Michelle Liu invites participants to think about how these two works of fiction still fundamentally shape, as well as limit, how we think about skin color, morality, and who counts as human. How can fiction help us imagine building more empathy and openness to those with experiences different from our own?

Michelle Liu is a professor in the English department at the University of Washington, where she specializes in teaching writing and exploring ideas about identity, history, emotion, and storytelling. 

How do Zoom programs work?

• Register for the program.
• A few hours before the program you will receive an email from the Pierce County Library System with a Zoom link and phone login information.
• When the Zoom program is scheduled to begin, log in and enjoy the program.
• If you are having trouble logging into the program simply reply to the email you received with the Zoom login information and ask for help.
• The Pierce County Library recommends using the latest version of Zoom, with all current updates. Check for the latest version by clicking here.
• The Library System expects that all participants in Library virtual events and classes follow the Library Rules of Conduct. If an individual does not follow the Rules of Conduct, the library has the right to ask that individual to leave the virtual program.
• If you have registered for the event and are having trouble accessing the event, please email VirtualPCLS@pcls.us.

Public Notice & Disclaimer

During this program, you may be using a third-party platform, Zoom, for the purpose of communication, collaboration, projects, etc. This service may collect some personally identifying information about you, such as name, username, email address, and password. This service will treat the information it collects about you pursuant to its own privacy policy, which can be found here:  Zoom Privacy Policy.

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