STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Stanley resident John Rember will read “A Holiday Sermon,” “Andromeda” and other entries from his newly published “Journal of the Plague Years” on Tuesday in Hailey.

Rember will serve up this “pre-holiday celebration of wonder and kindness” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, at Hailey Town Center West, 116 S. River St.

Rember’s “Journal of the Plague Years” is a three-volume series of the journal entries he penned during and following the COVID pandemic.

“End Notes,” for instance, follows he and his wife Julia as they quarantined in the Sawtooth Valley absorbing medical and political developments in real time. The second volume, “Ghost Dance,” starts in September 2021 and expands the meaning of plague to include wars, population growth, climate change, increasingly corrupt and fraudulent politics and toxic tribalism.

The third volume, “Aftermath,” was written between April 2023 and October 2023 when, convinced that we are living among cultural, political and spiritual ruins, Rember circles back to those who treat others with dignity and compassion.

Together, the writings recognize that life can go on and even thrive, even though the landmarks of our lives crumble.

Books will be available for purchase and signing after the reading.

John Rember was born in Sun Valley, where hiss mother was a nurse at Sun Valley Hospital. His father was a miner, fishing and hunting guide and trapper and, so, Rember grew up in the Sawtooth Valley.

He went to Harvard, eventually earning an MFA at the University of Montana. He taught for many years at The College of Idaho in Caldwell and in the Pacific University MFA program in Forest Grove., Ore.