Kabat Launching Nightshining: A Memoir in Four Floods at Andes Hotel May 3

ANDES — On May 3rd Jennifer Kabat is launching Nightshining: A Memoir in Four Floods with Diamond Hollow Books at the Andes Hotel. The event is free and open to all. The second part of her diptych tied to local histories, Nightshining follows floods Kabat experienced after moving to Margaretville, the first in 2006 then Hurricane Irene, eventually leading her to search for one historic deluge, the 1950 Rainmakers Flood. Before New York City built the Pepacton Reservoir, the city faced a catastrophic drought. To end it, the city used a Cold War weapon General Electric developed. Created by two scientists, one Kurt Vonnegut’s big brother Bernard and the other Vince Schaefer who never finished high school, that weapon—cloud-seeding, rainmaking—was meant to make mud to mire troops in Eastern Europe. Their technology spirals up through Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, the Vietnam War, banning leaded fuel, Reagan’s Star Wars, and now as geoengineering, a fix for climate change. The 1950 flood devastated the region, and the story is set in the community with research including oral histories and interviews with those who survived the flood like Len Utter, Gary Atkin, Steve Miller, and Betty Baker. In talking about the process, Kabat says, “Getting to write two books set here, about here, about community here, has been hugely meaningful for me.”

Nightshining is a propulsive, layered examination of the conflict between the course of nature and human legacies of resistance and control. The first of Kabat’s acclaimed paired memoirs, The Eighth Moon, follows the 1840s Anti-Rent War, layering that story with her move to the Catskills and the rise of the 2009 housing crisis. Nightshining is already receiving early pre-publication praise. Publisher’s Weekly writes, “Kabat examines grief, government secrets, and meteorological manipulation in this elegant and layered account.” Foreword Reviews says, “Jennifer Kabat’s pensive, poetic memoir Nightshining explores the connections between local waterways and stories of family, community, and climate change.”

Diamond Hollow Books invites you to celebrate the release of Jennifer Kabat's Nightshining: A Memoir in Four Floods (Milkweed Editions) on Saturday, May 3, 2024 from 5-7 pm. Jennifer will be in conversation with Iris Cushing, who also appears in the book. Location: The Andes Hotel Ballroom, 110 Main Street, Andes, NY. Information 347-262-4187 or miles@diamondhollowbooks.com. Admission is Free