The Miseducation of Cameron Post: Custer County Fair

Irene and I had done up the fair before—we’d done it up big…. In years before, we thought we owned the fair.

But that August we haunted the midway like ghosts—stopping in front of the Tilt-A-Whirl, then the fishbowl game, watching like we’d already seen everything there was to see but couldn’t quite pull ourselves away…. Everything was painted in ringing noises and flashing lights and shouting and screaming, crazy laughter, little kids crying, the smell of popcorn and fry bread and cotton candy thick in the air, but it all just sort of floated around me like smoke. (43)

Emily M. Danforth. The Miseducation of Cameron Post. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.

About the Book

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Set in rural Montana in the early 1990s, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a coming-of-age novel about a pre-teen girl who is discovering her own homosexuality. After her parents die in a car crash, Cameron comes to live with her old-fashioned grandmother and ultraconservative aunt. She develops a relationship with her best friend, a beautiful cowgirl, but once she is outed she is sent to God’s Promise, a “de-gaying” camp where Cameron comes face to face with the cost of denying her true identity.

Visit www.emdanforth.com to explore a virtual version of Cameron Post’s dollhouse, watch the book trailer, follow fictional Tumblr accounts for the book’s characters, and find a book club guide.

While the settings in The Miseducation of Cameron clearly reference actual locales, it is understood that the book—including its places—is ultimately the product of the author’s imagination. The intent of this literary map is to enrich the reading experience by interpreting those places, not to render them literally or definitively.

About the Author

Emily M. Danforth

Emily M. Danforth was born and raised in Miles City, Montana. She has an MFA in fiction from the University of Montana and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her short fiction has won the International Queer Writing Award from the U.K.’s Chroma Magazine, and the George Garret Award from Willow Springs. She teaches creative writing and literature courses at Rhode Island College in Providence.