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NAOMI BENARON, RUNNING THE RIFT--FICTION

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Sat, 01/21/2012 - 4:00pm
Event address: 
1200 11th St
98225-7015 Bellingham
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Winner of the Bellwether Prize awarded biennially by Barbara Kingsolver, Running the Rift follows Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Rwandan boy, from the day he knows that running will be his life to the moment he must run to save his life, a ten-year span in which his country is undone by the Hutu-Tutsi tensions. Born a Tutsi, he is thrust into a world where it's impossible to stay apolitical, where the man who used to sell you gifts for your family now spews hatred, where the girl who flirted with you in the lunchroom refuses to look at you, where your Hutu coach is secretly training the very soldiers who will hunt down your family. Yet in an environment increasingly restrictive for the Tutsi, he holds fast to his dream of becoming Rwanda's first Olympic medal contender in track, a feat he believes might deliver him and his people from the violence. When the killing begins, Jean Patrick is forced to flee, leaving behind the woman, the family, and the country he loves. Finding them again is the race of his life.

Naomi Benaron earned an MFA from Antioch University and an MS from Scripps Institute of Oceanography. She teaches at Pima Community College and online through the Afghan Women's Writing Project. An advocate for African refugees in her community, she has worked extensively with genocide survivor groups in Rwanda. She has won the G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Fiction and the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. She is also an Ironman triathlete.
Books: 
Running the Rift By Naomi Benaron Cover Image
$24.95
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ISBN: 9781616200428
Published: Algonquin Books - January 3rd, 2012