American Occupation: Dispatches from Minnesota's Resistance to ICE

To celebrate University Press Week, we are pleased to host a conversation featuring contributors to American Occupation: Dispatches from Minnesota's Resistance to ICE, edited by Jonny Diamond and Su Hwang (University of Minnesota Press). American Occupation is an urgent compilation of reflections and accounts that emerged during the shocking, months-long ICE operation in Minnesota. Two days after Alex Pretti was killed on January 24, 2026, Literary Hub published the first of forty-four Letters From Minnesota, an online rapid response series that invited novelists, journalists, poets, and memoirists to document their experiences under occupation. Gathering these crucial essays with twelve new contributions, American Occupation offers a mosaic of testimonies illuminating the creative solidarity and resolve of Minnesotans confronting fascist cruelty.

Panelists:

Jonny Diamond is editor-in-chief of Literary Hub. His book on the cultural history of the American axe is forthcoming.

Heid E. Erdrich’s most recent work is Boundless: Abundance in Native American Art and Literature, co-edited with Lisa Crossman. Recent books include Verb Animate: Poems and Prompts from Collaborative Acts, and Little Big Bully. Heid edited the anthology New Poets of Native Nations. She is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain.

David Mura is a poet, writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, critic, and playwright. He is author of several books, including most recently Exit, Miss Saigon: An American Memoir.

Lyz Lenz (moderator) is the New York Times-bestselling author of This American Ex-Wife. Her first book God Land (2019) was published by Indiana University Press. She writes a regular newsletter, Men Yell At Me.

Photo credit: “Tactical Officers Face Crowd Near Renée Good Shooting Site” by Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0. Modified by Haymarket.

This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books, Lit Hub, the University of Minnesota Press, Moon Palace Books, and Pilsen Community Books.