John Sayles, 'Yellow Earth'

John Sayles discusses his novel, "Yellow Earth", at Politics and Prose.

A writer, actor, and filmmaker, Sayles has directed eighteen feature films, including Matewan and Lone Star, and has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. His new novel revives the spirit of the Wild West to trace the arc of a classic boom-and-bust cycle, exploring a clash of world views when shale oil is discovered on the site of the Three Nations reservation in North Dakota. As the drilling and fracking get underway, the reservation—rebranded the Three Nations Petroleum Company—is beset by a hoard of get-rich-quick opportunists, who stick around until a global dip in oil prices ends the fun.

John Sayles works as a fiction writer, screenwriter, actor and feature film director. His novel Union Dues (1978) was nominated for the National Book Award and the National Critics' Circle Award. He has written over a hundred screenplays and was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has directed 18 feature films, with another, I Passed This Way, currently in progress. His films Matewan and Lone Star, as well as his previous novel A Moment in the Sun, are often used for instruction in History and American Studies courses. Yellow Earth is his fifth novel.

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