TO AVOID GOLFERS, BISON MUST BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT: In Geneen Marie Haugen’s novel-in-progress, “Emergence,” a young woman from Jackson seeks solace in the wilderness after a bison is shot to death on the local golf course. Haugen, recipient of a 2006 WAC creative writing fellowship, read an excerpt Oct. 1 at the Casper College Literary Conference. Aurora, the book’s protagonist, has been in the back-country for more than two months when she recalls the bison’s death: “The bull bison made the mistake of regarding a succulent green fairway as sustenance and could not be dislodged, even by a regiment of angry, putter-waving golfers driving menacing electric carts.” One of the clueless golfers poses next to the bison. The bison charges and tosses him “like a sack of dough.” The golfer is unhurt physically but is so outraged he calls the local wildlife management official who has the bison “dispatched” for trespassing on the links. There ensues a hue and cry by the country-clubbers to protect them from rampaging bison. Haugen paused in her reading and said: “This hasn’t happened yet, but it will.” She then plunged back into the world of fiction. It progressed, in turns, from dark humor to surreal passages to serious moments. As I remembered the golfer passage almost a week later, I laughed out loud, imagining the pompous man in pastel polyester tumbling ass-over-teakettle across the golf course. That one scene will have to stick with me until I get a chance to read the published book. Look for Haugen’s work as part of “Writers on the Range” from High Country News and in the anthology "Going Alone: Women's Adventures in the Wild." Also find her at various conferences about the western outdoors, where she teaches and leads “contemporary vision quests.” You can bring her to your Wyoming community through a WAC Tumblewords grant.
