During this election season, the divisions that exist in Wisconsin and around the country have come into sharp relief. There are divisions between rural and urban America, between parts of the faith community and secular society, and between the coasts and the Midwest. They’re gulfs that are familiar to Wisconsin writer Meghan O’Gieblyn, who was recently in Milwaukee for an event at Boswell Book Company.
In fact, O’Gieblyn has been on both sides of several of those dynamics, growing up as an evangelical Christian in the Midwest who has since left much of her faith behind. Her new collection of writings is called Interior States. The idea of "making America great again," is rooted in one specific form of nostalgia, and O'Gieblyn says she sees a lot of nostalgic tension playing out in this part of the country.
"I’m interested in, I guess, the idea of nostalgia. You know we’re at a state of transition right now in the Midwest — we’re transitioning from a manufacturing economy to a more digital and services-based economy. And I’m interested in how people are using narrative and myth to reconcile that," she says.
