Boise News

Western Book Roundup

Montana Festival of the Book Brings Crime Fiction Superstars to Missoula

By Jenny Shank, 10-20-09

This year’s Montana Festival of the Book, which begins Thursday, has an incredible lineup scheduled.  The October 23 reading with humorist David Sedaris is sold out, but there’s so much else going on that nobody who missed out on tickets for that event should go home with an empty brain. 

On Thursday, October 22, four renowned crime novelists will participate in the panel discussion ”The Last Good Kiss: An Appreciation of James Crumley.” Michael Koepf will interview Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman and James Grady about “the work of Montana mystery writer James Crumley and its impact on the mystery genre and literature as a whole” (Wilma Theatre, 3 p.m.).

Many writers of some of the great books I’ve reviewed here over the past few years will offer readings, including Maile Meloy (with Dennis Lehane and Andrew Sean Greer on Thursday, October 22, Wilma Theater, 7:30 p.m.), Marianne Wiggins and Kevin Canty (with James Lee Burke, October 24, Wilma Theater, 7:30 p.m.), and Rick Bass (October 24, Holiday Inn, 11 a.m.). 

Bass and Wiggins will participate on a panel discussion called “Locating the Novel” that sounds fascinating, described in The Missoulian in this way: “Some novels are ‘high concept.’ Some authors start out with a setting, a room, a landscape. And sometimes the story begins with the sound of a voice, a character. How does the ‘initiating impulse’ affect the final product? And do some authors only hear voices while others always see visions?” (October 23, with Andrew Sean Greer, and Peter Orner, Holiday Inn, 2:30 p.m.)

The one presentation that makes me wish teleportation existed so that I could just zap myself up to Missoula is “‘The Wire,’ An Interview,” with the show’s creator David Simon, and George Pelecanos, one of the show’s co-producers and writers (Holiday Inn, October 24, 1 p.m.).

Like a lot of people, I am completely obsessed with The Wire.  I don’t have cable television, so I’ve caught all the episodes on DVD.  There’s nothing I find more relaxing after a long day of looking after my kids than to sit on the couch and immerse myself in the Baltimore ghetto, particularly when the screenplays are written by George Pelecanos and Richard Price (with whose writing I’m also mildly obsessed). I’ve learned a lot about parenting from The Wire, such as the importance of setting up a Hamsterdam where all the things you’ve forbidden the kids to do in other parts of the house are permitted. 

Okay, back to books:

• Kim Wyatt, publisher and editor of Bona Fide Books recently wrote in with a call for submissions for a new anthology, Permanent Vacation: Living and Working in Our National Parks:

“Bona Fide Books seeks literary essays for a collection about life and work in our national parks. Diverse park experiences desired. Although we enjoy tree-hugging epiphanies, we also want to read about day-to-day life, and the societal, environmental, and existential implications of living in the park. What happened there, and how did it influence your life? Writers will receive $100 for their essay and one copy of the collection. Deadline: January 5, 2010. See www.bonafidebooks.com for guidelines.”

• Boise’s JR Walsh won Esquire Magazine’s recent fiction contest.  Esquire’s editors assigned three possible titles for entries of 4,000 words or less, and over 3,000 writers submitted stories.  Walsh chose the title “An Insurrection” for his offbeat love story.  He wins $2,500 and publication in Esquire.  He told the magazine he’s working on “a novel involving a blanket.”

• The annual Sun Valley Hemingway Festival takes place this week in Idaho, with events on October 22 through 24.  Speakers include Hemingway experts Scott Donaldson, Susan F. Beegel, David M. Earle, and Sandra Hofferber, who will lead a “Hemingway Haunts” tour on October 23 (1:30-3:30 p.m.).  The highlight of the weekend will require deep pockets: On Saturday there will be an “elegant dinner” at Hemingway’s last residence.  Tickets are $1000 a person, and the proceeds benefit the Nature Conservancy.

• The Denver Post recently featured Denver novelist Carleen Brice in its regular series on the homes of people in the Denver area.  But while they usually highlight fabulous homes of designers or architects, as Elana Ashanti Jefferson writes, Brice’s place is “down-to-earth,” a “one-story, two-bedroom house in Park Hill.” Jefferson wrote of Brice’s recent accomplishments:

“But few other aspects of the life and home of this rising literary star have changed since her 2008 debut novel, “Orange Mint and Honey,” made Essence magazine’s recommended-reading list and was optioned by the Lifetime Movie Network. Lifetime recently moved forward with turning Brice’s coming-of-age story about the daughter of an alcoholic into a movie featuring one of the author’s own muses, singer and poet Jill Scott.  Brice’s second novel, “Children of the Waters,” came out earlier this year. And now she is working on her third.”

But, Brice noted, “I’m still broke.”

• Finally, Westminster, Colo.-based novelist David Wroblewski, author of the best-selling Oprah’s Book Club pick The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, is on a nationwide tour for the paperback edition of the book.  He’ll be back in our neck of the woods on November 2, when he’ll deliver a lecture for the Denver Post Pen and Podium Series in Denver, and he’ll follow that up with a December 8 appearance at the Tattered Cover.

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