La Frontera is New Publisher in Town

It's good news when Wyoming gets a new book publisher.

La Frontera Publishing has set up shop in Cheyenne -- and its first book is by a Wyomingite. La Frontera chose Encampment's Candy Moulton as its debut author with the second (and revised) edition of her 1994 book "Legacy of the Tetons: Homesteading in Jackson Hole." It will be distributed by the University of New Mexico Press and is featured in the press's spring catalog.

This new edition features a special section on "Mormon Row" and the handcart migration along the Mormon Trail. La Frontera's publisher, Mike Harris, sent me a review copy. It's a good-looking book, with a cover photo featuring one of the Mormon Row cabins with the distinctive Tetons in the background. Lots of photos are included, as is a map produced by WAC fellowship recipient Hannah Hinchman.

I know very little about this aspect of WYO history and look forward to reading the book before the next time I see Candy, which probably will be at the June 1-3 Wyoming Writers, Inc. conference in Thermopolis.

Mike and his wife plan to complete their move to WYO from southern California this summer. He has two more books in production. One, Mike says, is a fictional "family saga set during the Black Hills gold rush of 1876" and the other is "a nonfiction account of the last U.S. mining rush that took place around Death Valley in 1913" which is also "a bit of a true-life murder mystery."

Mike says he wants to let this blog's readers know that the press is looking for historical nonfiction manuscripts about Wyoming. "I have a slot open in my spring 2008 publishing schedule for a nonfiction book and I'm hoping to find something about Wyoming's Old West (about 1830s to around 1918) that would fit the bill. Our guidelines are on our the web site.... We don't accept printed manuscripts -- everything needs to be on a CD-ROM and presented in Microsoft Word or an RTF format."

Labels: humanities, publishing, Wyoming history

- posted by Michael Shay @ 10:25 AM 0 comments

 
Terry Tempest Williams at WWCC Jan. 25

The Arlene and Louise Wesswick Lecture Series in the Humanities and Education at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs presents “An Evening with Terry Tempest Williams” on Thursday, Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m., in the college theatre. Terry will read from new work and from those books, such as Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, which are familiar to her readers. The reading is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow.

Terry believes that landscape shapes culture: “I write through my biases of gender, geography, and culture. I am a woman whose ideas have been shaped by the Great Basic and Colorado Plateau, these ideas are then filtered through the prism of my culture and my culture is Mormon. The tenets of family and community which I see at the heart of that culture are then articulated through story.”

Her other works include Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, Pieces of White Shell: A Journey to Navajoland, Coyote’s Canyon, Desert Quartet, Leap, An Unspoken Hunger, and The Open Space of Democracy.

Labels: humanities, nature, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 1:58 PM 0 comments

 
Malinalli (a.k.a. Malinche) Focus of Book Group

Teton County Library in Jackson announces that the sign-up begins on Monday, Jan. 8, for a Spanish book discussion. “Malinalli, Real Woman and Mythical Figure” will explore Laura Esquivel's latest work Malinche, a provocative novel based on a woman (a.k.a. Malinalli) who remains controversial for her role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Participants will meet in the library's Ordway Auditorium from 7-8:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 5. Free and open to the public. Registration is required, with space available for up to 15 people. To register stop by the library's Information Desk or call 307-733-2164 ext. 237.

An indigenous woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, Malinche acted as an interpreter, advisor and intermediary for Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. She also was his mistress and had a son by him. "Malinche is viewed in Mexico as a traitor," said Patricia Rocha, the library's Latino Services Assistant. "In this book, Esquivel offers another point of view. Convinced Malinche served as an interpreter because she was a slave and had no choice, Esquivel also imagines this mythic figure's spiritual motivations -- a theme that should generate lots of discussion."

This is the fourth year the library has offered a Spanish-language book discussion, and the second year the book has been offered in either Spanish or English. Although participants may read the book in English, the discussion will be in Spanish.

FMI: Patricia Rocha at 307-733-2164 ext. 237.

Labels: book discussion, humanities, Latin America

- posted by Michael Shay @ 1:10 PM 0 comments