On the Road with Absaroka County's Finest

This narrative comes from Craig Johnson's very entertaining monthly e-mail newsletter (March 1 edition). The only mystery writer in Ucross is preparing to launch his annual spring book tour with the mytical yet compelling Walt Longmire, sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. Here's what's happening in Craig's world:

I'm calling this one the Kindness Goes Unpunished-High Noon or 7 PM Tour. It's that time of year when I take my dog-and-pony show on the road. Unfortunately, neither the dogs nor the ponies will be accompanying me, but my wife Judy will be...

The tour for Kindness Goes Unpunished starts a little early with an event at the Johnson County Library, which seems appropriate since Johnson County is home and was the model for Walt's Absaroka County. This is an event I've been looking forward to for quite a while, since not only are the attendees going to know all the street names, half of them are going to have been in the books. The Friends of the Library will have The Cold Dish and Death Without Company for sale and the promise of signed copies of Kindness Goes Unpunished, which can be picked up on the on-sale date of March 15.

Speaking of on-sale dates, look for the paperback of Death Without Company on February 28. My name's in red. As Vic would say, "What's up with that?" I'll be at the Johnson County Library Banquet, Buffalo, Wyo., Saturday, March 10 at 6:30 p.m.

Casper got the nod for the actual kickoff, because Lisa Craft is such a sweetheart. I'm on Brian Scott's radio show in the morning, which is always a gas. He's funnier than I am. I'll be at Blue Heron Books in downtown Casper on Thursday, March 15, 6-7:30 p.m.

Labels: booksellers, mystery, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 2:47 PM 0 comments

 
Kennedy Featured in Bombshells

Labels: anthologies, memoir, writers, Wyoming Arts Council

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:55 AM 0 comments

 
Hagy Novel Explores Friendship Forged by WYO & War

Yesterday’s mail brought a review copy of Alyson Hagy’s new novel, Snow, Ashes, published by Graywolf Press. Alyson teaches in the University of Wyoming M.F.A. program and is a WAC creative writing fellowship recipient. The book’s formal release date is May 1. According to the press, Alyson will hit the road for a regional author tour, but no details yet.

Here’s a book jacket description:

The uneasy friendship between Fremont Adams and C. D. Hobbs worked best when both men had a job to do, when they could fall into the rhythm of hard labor. Neglected by his mother at an early age, Hobbs found his way into the Adams family. But everyone could tell he was always a bit off. Fremont resigned himself to watching out for Hobbs, who had the innocence and optimism that can come only from ignorance. After a grueling tour of duty in Korea, however, Adams and Hobbs return to the ranch marked in dangerous ways.

In four parts -- alternating between the Wyoming ranch and Korea -- Alyson Hagy reveals the intricacies of a profound friendship between two very different men. Snow, Ashes is a suspenseful, engaging exploration of survival and failure and of how the most vulnerable among us can have a wisdom beyond measure.

Labels: publishing, University of Wyoming, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 10:12 AM 0 comments

 
Teton County Library Hosts Fantasy Author

T.A. Barron, who writes "epic tales of young heroes on their paths to self discovery," will conduct a talk and book signing at the Teton County Public Library in Jackson from 7:30-8:30 p.m. on Friday, March 2, in the Ordway Auditorium. The program is free and open to the public.

"Barron’s talk will explore how he finds great inspiration in the wonders of nature and the heroic potential of every person," says Lara Lovett, Young Adult Coordinator. "During the talk, he will illustrate his words with pictures and welcome questions from kids, teens and parents."

Lovett says that Barron’s stories of heroic young people set in a variety of places and times have proven to be a popular pick among the library’s young adult readers. "Fantasy fans have devoured The Lost Years of Merlin epic and are equally enthusiastic about Barron’s most recent trilogy," says Lovett. The new trilogy, The Great Tree of Avalon, has become a New York Times bestseller, while Barron’s The Lost Years of Merlin is being developed as a feature film.

Barron says that he cultivated a love of the outdoors while growing up on a ranch outside Colorado Springs, Colo. In elementary school, he wrote, illustrated and printed his own magazine called The Idiot’s Odyssey. He continued to write in college and during backpacking journeys through Asia and Africa.

Barron took a detour through the business world where he worked as president of a venture capital firm in New York. In 1989, Barron moved back to Colorado where he now lives with his wife and five children on a small farm. Barron has been awarded the Wilderness Society’s highest honor, the Robert Marshall Award, for his efforts to protect America’s wilderness heritage.

While in town, Barron will also make presentations for Jackson Hole Middle School, Summit School and Journeys School students.

FMI: Lara Lovett at 733-2164 ext. 221 or via e-mail

Labels: book discussion, readings, writers, Wyoming

- posted by Michael Shay @ 11:53 AM 0 comments

 
Ron Franscell Returns

Ron Franscell announces "Wyoming Book Tour II" for his book Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town, which the Chicago Sun-Times has called "heartbreaking ... the girls' last terrifying moments are delivered with such vivid texture that they are almost too painful to read. The technique and execution is not unlike Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.... And just when your heart is broken by this terrible tragedy, Franscell adds a coda that will further disturb your peaceful sleep."

Here's Ron's schedule:
Saturday, March 10, 7-9 p.m., Discussion and Q&A, Natrona Co. Library, Casper
Monday, March 12, noon-2 p.m., Hastings Books, Gillette
Monday, March 12, 6-7 p.m., Book Shop on Main, Sheridan
Tuesday, March 13, 1-3 p.m., Books & Briar, Riverton
Wednesday, March 14, 1-2:30 p.m., Wheatland Mercantile Book Nook, Wheatland
Thursday, March 15, 5-7 p.m., B. Dalton Books, Rock Springs
Friday, March 16, 4-7 p.m., Off the Beaten Path Bookstore, Rawlins
Saturday, March 17, 1-3 p.m., Main Street Books, Lander

Go to Ron's web site for more info.

Labels: book discussion, booksellers, readings, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 7:57 PM 0 comments

 
Brush Up on Your Writing at YWC

Micah Wyatt in Laramie informs me that the dates have been set for the 2007 Young Writers Camp at the scenic Thorne-Rider Youth Camp near Story.

Writers (ages 15-18) will gather June 16-23 at the camp. Instructors/mentors/chaperones will be the same as last summer. Micah, a writer and YWC alumnus, returns as director. Danica Wyatt, a fine essayist, physicist, and Micah's sister, will be there, as will poet Jesse Loesberg from San Franscisco.

Guest teachers are wont to drop in. Last June, I joined the teachers and students for some mysterious homemade stir fry and we sat around the fire pit on a balmy evening and discussed short story writing. Everyone read a sample of his/her work.

Here's where I have to admit that my son, Kevin Shay, is a YWC alumnus. He says he'd love to come back as a visiting writer and may someday because he's a pretty good writer (I'm biased) and is working towards a career as a high school language arts teacher. As we speak, he's taking courses at Pima County Community College in Tucson, a place he enjoys very much in the winter months but not so much in July.

Sign up for the 2007 camp by going to the Young Writers Camp web site and downloading the printable application. It's open to teen writers who live in WYO and elsewhere.

Labels: poets, students, writers, writing conferences, Wyoming

- posted by Michael Shay @ 12:01 PM 0 comments

 
Memoirs Highlighted at NWC Writers Series

The Northwest College Writers Series in Powell will feature these writers during the spring semester:

Mary Clearman Blew (pictured at right), author of the memoir "All But the Waltz" and professor at University of Idaho, Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m. Fagerberg Building, Room 70.

Kim Barnes, an Idaho native whose memoir, "Into the Woods," was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m., Fagerberg Building, Room 70.

Garry Wallace teaches biology and English at NWC and will read from his memoir, "Biography of a Bird Dog," on Tuesday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. Listen to a live interview with Garry on Tuesday, April 3, on KODI’s Party Line show at 9 a.m. (1400 AM on the dial; simulcast on KZMQ 1140 AM).

Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt on Friday, April 20, 7:30 p.m., in the Nelson Performing Arts Building. David will be interviewed at 9 a.m. on April 16 on KODI’s Party Line show.

All the events are free and open to the public. FMI: http://www.northwestcollege.edu/hum/writers.htm

Labels: Idaho, memoir, poets, writers, Wyoming

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

 
Literary Connection April 27-28

In early December, I reported that the Literary Connection: Between Readers and Writers conference in Cheyenne had selected three of its five presenters. Now the line-up is complete. They include Brooklyn's Myla Goldberg, author of the national bestseller Bee Season; novelist and short story writer Jill McCorkle (The Cheerleader, Crash Diet); Bob Shacochis, globe-trotting author of Swimming in the Volcano and Easy on the Islands; Wyoming songwriter Jeff Hawthorne Bullock (Girls Night Out, recorded by The Judds); and California poet Kim Addonizio, author of Jimmy & Rita and Tell Me, a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award.

As in the past, two of the scheduled writers will conduct a free writing workshop at Laramie County Community College on Friday, April 27, 1-4 p.m. On Saturday, April 28, 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., at the Hitching Post Inn, the Connection’s five writers will talk about their work and sign books, courtesy of City News. There is a cost for this event.

Labels: Literary Connection, poetry, writers, writing conferences

- posted by Michael Shay @ 7:59 PM 0 comments

 
Meet the Arts Council Board

The Wyoming Arts Council board meets Feb. 1-2 at the Hitching Post Inn in Cheyenne as part of this week's 25th anniversary celebration of the Governor's Arts Awards. The board will meet from 1-5 on Thursday and 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on Friday. The traditional public comment session will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at the Hitch. This is your opportunity to offer your comments about the WAC and/or the board, or to quiz us about our policies. The WAC has undergone many changes in the past year so it's a good time to come out and see what's new.

The GAA dinner and awards ceremony starts at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Taco John's Center next to the Hitch. Dinner will be served at 7, followed by the awards presentation by Gov. Dave Freudenthal at 8. We also have some great entertainment on tap. One of the honorees this year is poet and teacher Barbara Smith of Rock Springs. This continues the WAC tradition of honoring writers, literary groups and patrons in the state. During the past 25 years, awards have gone to David Romtvedt, Charles Levendosky, Gaydell Collier, Neltje, Ucross Foundation, and Wyoming Writers, Inc. It's not too early to start thinking about other lit people and orgs that have contributed mightily to Wyoming's literary tradition.

Unfortunately for procrastinators, the registration deadline for Friday's GAA gala event already has passed. See you next year.

Labels: artists' communities, awards, poets, writers, Wyoming Arts Council

- posted by Michael Shay @ 10:06 AM 0 comments

 
Award-winning author and wilderness advocate Terry Tempest Williams will read from her recent book, set in Rwanda, Friday, Feb. 2, at the University of Wyoming. The free public reading will begin at 5:30 p.m. in UW's College of Education auditorium. The University Bookstore will offer specially priced books at the reception to follow. A Utah native who recently relocated to Jackson, Williams is a candidate for the inaugural Eminent Writer-in-Residence position with UW's M.F.A. program in creative writing.

Labels: nature, readings, University of Wyoming, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 12:43 PM 0 comments

 
Last call for Wyoming Writers, Inc., Contest

The postmark deadline for the Wyoming Writers, Inc., annual writing contest is Jan. 31!

You may enter in the following five categories: Adult Fiction, Adult Non-fiction, Fiction Written for Children, Free Verse and Traditional Poetry. You may enter more than one piece.

Each entry should be accompanied by a $10 fee for members and $15 per entry for non-members. Again, there is no limit to the number of entries. One check may be written for all the fees; however, no fees will be refunded unless there are fewer than nine entries in any category. Each entry must be accompanied by an Affidavit of Authorship (available from the Contest Chair) and a cover sheet. All work must be unpublished and not previously submitted for publication. All work must be in English and must be the original work of the author. Word limit is 3,500 words for prose and 40 lines for poems. Critiques are available for an additional $10 fee apiece.

Entries should be mailed to Myra Mumma, Wyoming Writers, Inc. Contest Chair, 1610 Big Flat Rd., Missoula, MT 59804-9222.

FMI: Myra Mumma at rym528@yahoo.com.

Labels: contests, poets, writers, Wyoming Writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 11:42 AM 0 comments

 
"Jentel Presents" Feb. 6

The Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner features a "Jentel Presents" event open to the public at Davis Gallery, 38 South Main, Sheridan, on Tuesday, February 6, from 5:30-7 p.m. "Jentel Presents" is a community outreach program that features presentations and readings by the visual artists and writers at the residency.

Presenters include:

Jon Taylor, New Bedford, Mass. Jon is a multimedia artist using aspects of architecture, fashion, sculpture and urban farming to critique oddities of human behavior. His recent research includes gastro economics, biotechnical skinterface, alimentation and indentured hyper promotional colonization

Ann Joslin Williams, San Francisco. Ann’s collection of linked stories, The Woman in the Woods, won the Spokane (Wash.) Prize for short fiction. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, she teaches at the California College of the Arts

Ricardo Wilson, Los Angeles. Ricardo is an L.A. native who has traveled to Panama and Jamaica to write and conduct research for his first novel, The Death of Sam Brown.

FMI: Lynn Reeves, 307-737-2311, jentel@jentelarts.org

Labels: artists' communities, readings, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 11:07 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

 
Kevin Holdsworth of Rock Springs will read from his new book, Big Wonderful: Notes from Wyoming, on Friday February 2, 7 p.m. at Second Story Books in downtown Laramie and on Saturday, February 3, 2 p.m., as part of the Rocky Mountain Land Series at the Tattered Cover Bookstore, 1628 16th Street at Wynkoop in Lower Downtown (LoDo) Denver. Big Wonderful was released Nov. 30 by University Press of Colorado (ISBN: 0870818465, hardcover, $26.95).

Labels: Colorado, writers, Wyoming

- posted by Michael Shay @ 4:36 PM 0 comments

 
Return of "Yellowstone Kelly"

I was eight when I saw the movie Yellowstone Kelly, with Clint Walker as the almost-forgotten frontiersman, explorer and army scout in the post-Civil War West. I don’t remember much of the plot, but Walker – who was star of the Cheyenne TV series – battled the wilderness, Indians, and an inept assistant played by Ed "Kookie" Byrnes. The big dude played Cheyenne Brodie on television, roaming the West and helping folks out of various predicaments. He was heroic, in all the ways of westerns of the fifties and early sixties.

The University of New Mexico Press has just published The Life of Yellowstone Kelly by Jerry Keenan of Longmont, Colo. The true tale is even more fantastic than the Hollywood version. Kelly was born in New York in 1848 and joined the U.S. Army at the close of the Civil War. He served in Minnesota and the Dakotas. When he left the army, he headed further West and "came to know the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone River valleys as well as any white man of his era," according to the UNM Press web site. Later, "he explored Alaska, fought in the Philippines, and served as agent at the San Carlos Apache reservation in Arizona. He then prospected in Nevada before finally retiring to the quiet life of a California orchardist."

"Jerry Keenan used Kelly's memoirs and personal correspondence, along with a variety of primary and secondary sources, to produce a comprehensive look at this remarkable man who knew many prominent figures of his era, including George Bird Grinnell, Col. Nelson A. Miles, William F. ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, and President Theodore Roosevelt."

Keenan is a writer/historian and the author of The Great Sioux Uprising, The Wagon Box Fight, Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars 1492-1890, and Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars.

He’ll be signing copies of his book on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2 p.m., at the Borders Bookstore, 1101 S. Hover St., Longmont, Colo.

Labels: Western History, writers, Wyoming history

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:01 AM 1 comments

 
Mark Jenkins, Global Correspondent

Can’t keep a guy like Mark Jenkins down on the farm, not after he’s cycled across Siberia, paddled a kayak from battlefield to battlefield along the Turkish coast of Gallipoli, and climbed the icy Italian Ridge of the Matterhorn. Mark, a Laramie native and two-time WAC fellowship recipient, reports that he just returned from researching an article on Pakistan for National Geographic and will depart for Botswana next week to do a story for Bicycling magazine about AIDS/HIV health workers.

Between assignments, he’s at home in Laramie, spending time with his wife Sue and two daughters. Says Mark: “Even after circling the globe dozens of times, I still believe Laramie to be a wonderful place to live. It has just the right balance of cultural activities, limited traffic, intellectual residents who are often also outdoor athletes, open country right at your doorstep, gorgeous summers and brutal winters.”

After spending almost eight years writing for Outside magazine, Mark ended his column “The Hard Way” in October and departed for greener pastures. In the future, he says, “I’ll be focusing a bit less on adventure and more on geopolitical and environmental writing.” In 2007-2008, he will be writing more for the Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic, as well as working for Rodale Press as its global correspondent, penning pieces for Men's Health, Best Life, Backpacker, Bicycling and Runner's World.

Rodale will publish Mark’s second volume of collected works, A Man's Life, later this year. Rodale also is reissuing his first two books, Off The Map and To Timbuktu.

Meanwhile, you can read an original essay by Mark, "Growing Up in Wyoming," and an except from To Timbuktu, in Deep West: A Literary Tour of Wyoming, published by Grebull's Pronghorn Press.

Labels: Deep West, fellowships, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 2:21 PM 0 comments

 
Celebrating 50 Years of On the Road

Jenny Shank reports in New West Dec. 19 about a series of events in the Denver area commemorating the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

The Denver Public Library will display the On The Road scroll January through March. According to a press release, the library will exhibit "the original 120-foot scroll on which Kerouac wrote his first typewritten draft of On The Road."

Says Shank: "The book is significant for Denver because a good portion of it takes place here, where Kerouac meets up with pal Neal Cassady, who is called Dean Moriarty in On The Road. Kerouac writes that Moriarty ‘used to beg in front of Larimer alleys and sneak the money back to his father, who waited among the broken bottles with an old buddy, then when Dean grew up he began hanging around the Glenarm poolhalls; he set a Denver record for stealing cars and went to the reformatory.' "

It must be noted that a short stretch of On the Road takes place in Cheyenne during Frontier Days (called "Wild West Days" in the book).

The opening ceremony for the scroll exhibit will feature musician and friend of Kerouac David Amram (January 6, 2-3:30 p.m., Denver Central Library). The Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library will screen the beat film "Pull My Daisy," (January 5, 8-10 p.m.). Amram will perform a concert entitled "The Musical Roots of Kerouac's Prose" at El Chapultepec (January 6, 6-8 p.m.). A walking tour about the places Kerouac haunted in town entitled "A Lilac Evening, Jack Kerouac in Denver" will embark from the Central Library (January 7, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.), and finally there will be a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson ("From Kentucky to Colorado - The Literary and Journalistic Legacy of Hunter S. Thompson") at the Central Library (Sunday, January 7, 2:30-4 p.m.).

Shank also suggests that Kerouac fans to check out the website Neal's Denver, which features an online walking tour of the places where Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac hung out.

Labels: Colorado, writers, Wyoming

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:42 PM 0 comments

 
Jentel Deadline Jan. 15

Spend a month of creative time in northern Wyoming at the Jentel Foundation. Next postmark application deadline is Jan. 15 for sessions May 15 through December 13. Four visual artists and two writers selected for each session. Scenery is great, contemplative time is even better.

Labels: artists' communities, poetry, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 10:34 PM 0 comments

 
Fishtrap Opens Up Writers-in-Residence Program

The Eastern Oregon Writer in Residence program puts professional writers into rural communities for a full nine-week school term.

The program started with Fishtrap and Wallowa County, where it has run successfully for ten years. This year, the program is being expanded to Harney County (with the first residence in Crane), Fossil-Condon, and Chiloquin. Each community selects its own writer, but all communities will work with Fishtrap as program coordinator, and we are developing a "writers roster."

Writers work no more than two four-hour days in schools, teach an evening workshop for adults, and give at least one reading in the community. The rest of the time is theirs to write and live in the community. There is a $3,000 stipend for the nine weeks, and basic housing is provided. At Fishtrap, writers work winter term (mid-January through mid-March), and we change genres and grades each year (we will in fact have songwriters Kate Power and Steve Einhorn here this winter).

Annie Callan's “Taf” began with her Fishtrap residency. Ellie Belew found a local manuscript in the library which she went on to edit and publish. Our writers keep returning, and one of them bought a house here! The point is that this gig allows you time to write and time to learn something about a community. Although the Wallowa County program will continue to operate winter term, other communities are looking at spring and fall terms (at this point, Fossil-Condon and Harney County spring 2007; Chiloquin fall of 2007).

If you are interested in being on this roster, please contact Rich Wandschneider at Fishtrap. This will be a cumulative roster, so let Rich know ASAP, even if you are not available immediately.

Labels: Oregon, poets, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 11:12 PM 0 comments

 
Happy Birthday to Ucross

The fall 2006 issue of the Ucross Foundation annual report and newsletter features a long list of accomplishments of Ucross residents. As Executive Director Sharon Dynak notes in the introduction: “In all, 1300 individuals have been awarded Ucross residencies since we opened our doors 25 years ago.”

That’s a lot of writers, artists, and musicians who have enriched their art through a WYO experience. Wyomingites have benefited too, as we get to experience residents’ work in words and music, and appreciate art on display in the Big Red Gallery. Not to mention the huge (and artful) Fourth of July bash Ucross hosts every year.

Another intriguing thing about Ucross is its working ranch, which raises all-natural beef and continues its experiments in “organic meadow rejuvenation.” The Nature Conservancy and the Apache Foundation have rejuvenated the native flora which has led to higher numbers of native fauna.

So, the environment at Ucross nurtures both antelope and artists. Just a few reasons why Ucross won a 2005 Governor’s Arts Award.

Labels: artists' communities, poets, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 4:35 PM 0 comments