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For more information about the festival, visit loc.gov slash bookfest.

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When Umbring Taric was about eight years old, she left India with her family and immigrated to the US specifically to Minnesota.

And it was a transition for the whole family, learning new American customs,

whether it was the public transit system or, you know, how to use a drinking fountain,

as well as like Halloween and Easter and all of these things, and then came springtime.

And everybody in Minnesota just went out door. So my parents thought this is also a part of being American. This is also a custom.

So Umbring's parents, each working two jobs at the time, saved up and bought a tent.

And as she puts it, just sort of stumbled into the campground.

It wasn't some sort of great planned adventure.

It was very much like everything else in our life as immigrants, which was stumbling forward into the unknown and finding our way through it.

Which meant doing the outdoors the taric way.

For example, when we went camping, we made Indian food. My mom made Indian food.

We brought dishes and pots and pans from home. You know, we had blankets, we had pillows.

We didn't have the money for gear.

But that stuff didn't really matter because Umbring says all of the anxiety and stress her family felt adjusting to this new country.

It shrank in the big outdoors.

We got to be children again by sister and I got to explore.

And the best part was that we could see our parents enjoying themselves and feeling joy and feeling curiosity.

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