Western Book Roundup
Lynn Rossetto Kasper Visits Boulder & Desert Writing Award Announced
The Boulder Farmer's Market will open for its first Wednesday afternoon of the season today, kicking off with a book signing and talk by Lynn Rossetto Kasper, host of NPR's The Splendid Table. She'll be discussing her new book, How to Eat Supper. (Free, 5:30-6:30 p.m.)
The Bluff, Utah-based Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers announced that this year's winner of their annual award is Joe Wilkins. Wilkins plans to study and write about the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains from Texas to Montana.
Also in the Roundup: Margot Kahn tours behind Horses That Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith, and WyoFile.com excerpts Alexandra Fuller's new book.
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Western Book Roundup
Proulx News, Fuller on Wyoming Oil, and Cather Archive Goes Online
Annie Proulx fans can begin the countdown to the release of her next book: Buzz Girl reports that Proulx's "new collection of 9 'stunning' short stories about the people who now inhabit pioneer country" is due out in September 2008. The book, to be published by Scribner, is titled Fine Just The Way It Is.
Another Wyoming writer, Alexandra Fuller, recently wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times, about the recent, massive expansion of the oil and gas industry in Wyoming, and the harm it's caused the environment and Wyomingites' physical and mental health.
Also in the Roundup: A new online Willa Cather Archive, and a former Denver bookseller retires to Harlem
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Western Writers
An Interview with Tara Yellen
Tara Yellen's funny, sharp debut novel, After Hours at the Almost Home, published by Unbridled Books this month, follows the fortunes of the waiters, waitresses, and bartenders at a Denver bar during the hectic night of the Broncos' 1999 Super Bowl win, when a seasoned waitress doesn't show up for her shift. Yellen was born in Fort Collins, grew up in New York, and returned to Colorado to earn a master's degree in Creative Writing from CU, where I met her ten years ago. Yellen went on to earn an MFA from Virginia, and currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area. She says that as she's been revising her novel, over the years she's worked many jobs, including stints as a "nanny, teacher, tutor, freelance writer and editor, and, of course a bartender and waitress." I recently interviewed Yellen via email about why she chose to set her novel in Denver, how the book evolved, and how waiting tables can inspire fiction.
New West: Of the many places you've lived, why did you decide to set your first novel in Denver?
Tara Yellen: I didn’t decide. I was living in Denver, finishing up at the writing program at CU Boulder, when the story came to me. The location just felt right—for the events, for the characters. It was probably a good thing that the book ended up taking me so long to finish. The bulk of my revisions took place after I’d moved away from Colorado. I was sad to leave (and still think I might move back), but for writing, distance always helps.
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Western Book Roundup
Earth Day Books by Boulder AuthorsJust in time for Earth Day, several Boulder authors have released ecologically minded books. Read on to learn about Disappearing Destinations, Go Green, Live Rich, and The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw.
Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them
Vintage, 400 pages, $15.95
Former NewWest contributor and Boulder resident Heather Hansen co-authored this book with Kimberly Lisagor. Disappearing Destinations documents the environmental problems at popular tourist sites around the world. Publishers Weekly calls it a "fact-packed survey of travel destinations endangered by global warming, environmental degradation, predatory logging, mining and fishing and the impact of too many tourists… The authors' accounts of how the world's beauty is being despoiled, based on sharp on-site reporting, are a cautionary call to arms for tourists to fight environmental excesses and, when traveling, to tread lightly." In an email, Hansen noted that the book includes regionally-relevant chapters on " Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and the Cascades."
Heather Hansen will discuss the book at the Boulder Book Store tonight (April 22, 7:30 p.m.) and at the Tattered Cover in LoDo on May 28 (7:30 p.m.).
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Western Writers
An Interview with Dagoberto Gilb
Dagoberto Gilb grew up in Los Angeles and moved frequently throughout the urban West that he depicts in stories and novels in his characteristic incisive and humorous way. After earning a master's degree from the University of California, Gilb worked for many years as a construction worker and carpenter in LA and El Paso. Gilb began publishing stories in literary magazines and eventually books, including 1994's The Magic of Blood, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award, and 2003's Gritos, an essay collection that was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gilb currently is a professor at Texas State University, and recently published a new novel, The Flowers, which depicts life in an apartment complex as seen by the winning 15-year-old narrator, Sonny Bravo. I interviewed Gilb via email about the quirky characters and organic structure of the novel, and how writing and living in Texas influences his work.
New West: The cast of characters in "The Flowers" is so vivid, from Sonny's nerdish twin friends, to "The Cloyd," to Sonny's beautiful, self-focused mother. How did you create these people?
Dagoberto Gilb: I say I write from physical experience, not just musings or opinions or prescriptions. That is, I run or get into something and there is, call it, a throbbing. I focus on it and I write about that. The characters resemble people I've dreamed, re-invented, re-imagined, re-designed, made mythic in a "realistic" setting. The twins are my comedic Greek chorus. A novel is like a psychic map.
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Western Book Roundup
New Books, Literary News, and Events Across the Region
There's a lot going on across the region this week, including readings and performances, a new book deal for an Oregon writer, and a lawsuit against a defunct Utah bookstore.
Colorado
The ninth annual Pablo Neruda Poetry Festival kicks off Thursday at El Centro Su Teatro in Denver. The first night features a tribute to the Denver teacher and poet Lalo Delgado, who died in 2004 and was posthumously named Denver's first Poet Laureate. Su Teatro actors will perform Delgado's poetry on Thursday (April 17, 8 p.m., $12-$15), and on Friday the stage will host participants in the Barrio Slam, vying for a $500 prize. On Saturday afternoon, there's the "Tacos and Words Literary Salon" (tacos included with the price of admission) and that night is Palabras Vidas, a reading by Sandra Maria Esteves of the Nuyorican Poets Café and regional poet Sheryl Luna, among others.
Also in the Roundup: Book news and events for Montana, Oregon, and Utah.
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Western Writers
A Chat with Mary Clearman Blew
Mary Clearman Blew grew up on her great-grandfather's original homestead, a ranch in central Montana, and she wrote and taught in the state for many years before moving to Idaho, where she is currently a creative writing professor at the University of Idaho. She has published many award-winning books of short stories, memoirs, and essay collections, and the University of Nebraska Press recently published her first novel, Jackalope Dreams, the story of an aging country schoolteacher who is forced to confront the changes her rural Montana community is undergoing in part because wealthy newcomers are buying the land. It's a funny, sad, and keenly observed tale of the old West clashing with the new, and Blew succeeds in busting many Western myths in the process of telling her story. I recently interviewed Mary Clearman Blew via email about her novel, the myth of the Jackalope, "the West as glitz," and how the West has "become fashionable" in publishing.
New West: You've published many nonfiction books and short story collections, but Jackalope Dreams is your first novel. What prompted you to write this novel?
Mary Clearman Blew: I’d always wanted to explore the possibilities of the longer narrative. Some of these characters had been in my mind for a long time, and I wanted to give them voices.
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Western Book Roundup
Colorado Writers Earn Their Spurs and Boise Indie Bookstores Falter
Two Colorado women cleaned up recently at this year's Spur Awards, with Denver resident Sandra Dallas winning the Best Western Short Novel category with her book Tallgrass, and Colorado native and current Missoula resident Aryn Kyle winning the Best Western Long Novel category with her book The God of Animals. The Spur Awards are sponsored by the Western Writers of America, who have been handing out the honors since 1953. (Via Texas Pages.)
Also in the Roundup: Another independent bookseller bites the dust in Boise, and Denver authors tell Her Story.
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Western Book Roundup
National Poetry Month Across the Region
In 1996, the Academy of American Poets declared April to be National Poetry Month, and no one seems inclined to argue with them. Poets and poetry-lovers across the country continue to get in the spirit of things with readings and events, and our region is no exception. Check out the national poetry map on Poets.org, which fills users in on everything you'd want to know about poetry in your state, including "Poetic History," "Favorite Poems," poems about the state, readings, workshops, and more. Read on for a sampling of the many poetry-related events across the region this month. [more]
