DEBUT OF 2005 OWEN WISTER REVIEW: I traveled the snow-splashed Summit April 30 to attend a reception for the University of Wyoming's Owen Wister Review. The evening event at Laramie's Old Train Dept attracted 60 people on a night more winter than spring. The literary magazine has had its ups and downs since its founding in the 1970s by retired prof (and former WYO Poet Laureate) Bob Roripaugh. Bob Townsend, the 2005 editor, showed me a copy of the typed-and-photocopied 1978 inagural issue. It was a little rough in spots but featured good writing on a western theme. Bob notes in the foreword to the 2005 issue that his goal was to return to the western theme but approach it in a more contemporary vein. Emilene Ostlind, Bob Roripaugh, and Siri Nordvall culled the poetry submissions. Wyoming Arts Council fellowship winner B.J. Buckley, selected as OWR's featured writer, read her poetry to accompaniment by a coal train rumbling down the track fifty yards away. Big Horn resident and recent UW grad Greg Nickerson recited his cowboy poem, "The Wake of Old-Time Tom," in which a dead cowboy's ashes engage in an unseemly act. Myra L. Peak's husband and eight-month-old daughter joined other audience members to listen to the Green River writer read an excerpt from a novel-in-progress about her stint as a coal-mine foreman in the 1980s. Other readers included Micah Wyatt, Sheridan; Renee Carrier, Hulett; Joan Gelfand, San Francisco; and Garry Wallace, Powell. Three of the people involved in this event are alumni of Young Writers Camp, held each summer near the aptly-named town of Story, Wyo. Wyatt is a former camper and now is YWC director. Ostlind and Nickerson each attended several sessions of the camp, having fun and polishing their writing for future publication. Get your copy of the Owen Wister Review at Laramie bookstores or by writing UW Student Publications, Dept. 3625, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071.
- posted by Michael Shay @ 3:43 PM