I asked novelist Tim Sandlin if he'd like to be subjected to question-and-answer sessions about the Jackson Hole Writers Conference, June 23-26, and other topics about the writing life in WYO. He agreed. This is the first in a series.

Mike: How did you get involved in the planning of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference? It takes a lot of work. Were you an unwilling conscript or a naive volunteer?

Tim: Writing, especially the writing of fiction, is the most isolating of all art forms. In my opinion. To write a novel you go into a room in your brain that no one else may enter and you stay there for a year, at least. Sometimes many years. I don't see music or visual arts or acting being quite the same thing. And, besides the emotional isolation, being a writer in the West can be physically isolating, if you let it. There aren't a lot of us outside the cities and college towns. I wrote pretty much daily in Jackson Hole for over fifteen years before I met another writer. I suppose they were here, but I wasn't alert enough to track them down. And, I made a conscious decision, early on, that I could either write or ski, and I chose to write, so I often spent months without talking to a person who was interested in anything I was interested in.

Then, I went off to North Carolina to grad school and found, out there, you can't throw a rock without conking a writer on the head. The problem with East Coast writers is so many of them don't know anyone who isn't a writer. Or an agent, or an editor, or a writing teacher. I found writers in the East were isolated from life its ownself, while writers in the West were isolated from writers.

Which brings up the writers conference. When I returned to the country God vacations in I wasn't willing to give up all contact with writers, but I didn't want to mummify myself either. The logical choice was the writers conference: Four days a year I spend in the company of writers, talking about writing, recharging the batteries, and connecting with people who have
a common interest. The other (you do the math) however-many-days of the year, I write.

At least, that was the original plan.

Read more in upcoming wyolitmail posts.
- posted by Michael Shay @ 8:31 AM