Boise News

Western Book Roundup

Paperbacks for Spring Reading & Literary Conference Season Kicks Off

By Jenny Shank, 5-04-11

Helen Thorpe‘s Colorado Book Award-winning Just Like Us is out in paperback now, and it includes an update about the lives of her subjects, four young Mexican women who grew up in Denver, two with U.S. citizenship and two without. On May 12, Thorpe will speak at the Arvada Public Library, and on May 15 she will participate in the Dean’s Forum at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver. In October, Just Like Us will be the featured book for One Book One Town in Carbondale, Colo.

• Brady Udall‘s excellent novel The Lonely Polygamist is out in paperback now too. Udall will appear at the Jackson Hole Writers Conference, along with Cristina García, Gary Ferguson, and Stephanie Elizondo Griest from June 23-26. The conference is open for registration now. (Check back on New West in late June for David Abrams‘ report on the conference.)

• Robin Black will be the guest of honor at this year’s Lighthouse Writers Workshop Fly-By Writer’s Project on May 13 and 14. Black, the author of the short story collection If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, will be in Denver on Friday, May 13 for a reception and performance of one of her stories by Stories on Stage. On Saturday, Black will lead the workshop, “What Do Readers Care About and Why Do They Care? A Workshop on Telling Stories That Matter.” Tickets are available on the Lighthouse website.

• The Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University has announced the launch of a Mountain West Poetry Series. According to a press release, “Made possible by a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, this new book series will feature work by poets living in the Mountain West: Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.” The series kicks off in June with the publication of Joshua Kryah‘s We Are Starved. Kryah lives in Las Vegas and teaches at UNLV.

• Here’s an interesting conference that I’d never heard of before—the 19th Annual Literary Sojourn in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Perhaps I’d never heard of it because they feature such popular and acclaimed writers that they don’t need to advertise—this year’s lineup includes Jennifer Egan, who won the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for A Visit From the Goon Squad (I knew Goon Squad was a winner way back when I reviewed it for the Dallas Morning News). If Egan isn’t enough of a draw, Peter Matthiessen, Paula McLain, Julie Orringer, Jim Shepard, and Julia Glass will be there. Tickets for the Sojourn, which takes place September 10, are on sale now ($75).

• And for those looking ahead to the fall, the Women Writing the West conference, to be held in Lynnwood, Wash. from October 14 through 16, is open for registration now. This year’s theme is “West by Northwest,” and the conference will include a tour of Port Gamble, a variety of workshops on novels, screenwriting, and marketing, and the presentation of this year’s WILLA awards, featuring keynote speaker and librarian extraordinaire Nancy Pearl.

• If you find yourself in south Denver this weekend, please stop by the Greenwood Village Barnes & Noble, where I once worked, and where I’ll be signing copies of The Ringer on Saturday, May 7 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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