Jackson Hole News

house race

Barbara Cubin is winding down a seven-term run in Congress and retiring in January, after surviving a squeaker of an election in 2006 against Teton County Democrat Gary Trauner.

With the unpopular Cubin's departure, many expected Wyoming's at-large House seat to revert seamlessly to Republican hands. Ordinarily, the race is pretty much decided in the August Republican primary, an election to pick a GOP successor for a spot that hasn't been in Democratic hands for 30 years. Given the GOP's hold on the state, Wyoming's general election has been more coronation than an actual battle.

So why does it look like we have another close one on our hands? [more]

From The New West Blog

It's been 10 years since Matthew Shepard, a gay college student at the University of Wyoming, ran into two young men at a bar in Laramie who robbed him, drove him to the edge of town, tied him to a wooden fence and struck him 18 times in the head with a .357-caliber Magnum handgun before leaving him to die.

This weekend National Public Radio looks back on how the murder turned Laramie into "the country's newest symbol of hate," and also how it deeply affected the journalists who covered it. [more]

From The New West Blog

A collection of bipartisan bills that would protect land and rivers and limit energy development around the West -- the Omnibus Public Land Management Act -- may make it to the Senate floor in November, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reports. [more]

Western Writers

Boulder-based writer and writing coach Douglas Kurtz recently published his first novel, Mosquito, an action-packed literary thriller set throughout the American West, including stops in Boulder, Moab, Rocky Mountain National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Park, where eco-tour guide protagonist Ben Baxter leads his group in and out of peril. Kurtz grew up in New York and Kansas, studied at the University of Delaware, and then at the University of Colorado, where he earned a master’s degree in Creative Writing (and I met him ten years ago). Kurtz also earned his life coaching certification from the Coach Training Alliance, and specializes in working with writers through his business, Write Life Coaching. I recently interviewed Doug about how he blended thriller and literary fiction elements in Mosquito, his current novel, and how he helps other writers overcome "limiting thoughts and beliefs, self judgment, lack of direction, and anxiety."

New West: I really liked the premise of Mosquito with this haunted leader of Outward Bound-type adventures as the protagonist. It allowed you to take the story to a lot of beautiful wilderness settings throughout the West, and to describe them in an active way that involved the plot. How did you come up with this idea?

Douglas Kurtz: For a couple of years in my twenties I worked as a tour leader taking foreign travelers on trips around the US, Canada and Mexico. I knew when I started Mosquito that I wanted the story, or part of it at least, to revolve around this kind of travel, but I didn’t know until I was well into the writing that a cross-country tour would become the vessel for the entire thing. Setting is very important to me, in fiction and in my life, so I wanted it to play a big role. Wilderness settings are full of opportunities for combining action and danger and beauty, and this was appealing to me—the idea that I could get a fast-paced plot happening in these scenic places, without using a lot of static description, which tends to bog down the pace. [more]

local food

The leaves are turning. If you're in Sheridan and it's Thursday, it's time to hie yourself to the Farmers' Market.

But Sheridan, luckily, is not alone in offering fresh produce. Wyoming has 27 farmers' markets. They're still small potatoes, so to speak, but they're starting to make a place for themselves among Wyoming's food options.

Moreover, farmers' markets have caught the state's attention. The Wyoming Department of Agriculture website, under its, "Current News About Wyoming Agriculture," has a link to developments in Wyoming farmers' markets.

Ten years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Angus and artichokes? Nah. [more]

Western Book Roundup

It seems like every week I have some new information to mention about bestselling Colorado writer David Wroblewski, so here's today's tidbit: Rachel Deahl of Publishers Weekly reports: "…48-year-old debut author David Wroblewski has made an unusual request—he's asked would-be producers to pitch their film ideas to him in person so he can choose who’s most deserving of the film rights. The unusual (and demanding) move, if nothing else, will make a quick acquisition unlikely." This seems to be characteristic of Wroblewski, who took over a decade to craft his hit novel. He continues to be more concerned with quality than speed. (Via Texas Pages.)

The September 11 edition of The Economist reported that libraries and reading are thriving in Wyoming. (Via The Book Bench.) The article featured Burns, Wyoming's library, noting, "This town of just 300 people has a public library containing 11,500 books."

Also in the Roundup: Casper College hosts the 22nd annual Equality State Book Festival, The Wasatch Journal sponsors a Western short story contest, and the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association's annual trade show hits Colorado Springs. [more]

Edra Blixseth and the other top owner of the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky have retained an Arizona-based company to manage the private club and complete its long-overdue construction projects, according to an item on PR-inside.com.

Over the past year and more, the Yellowstone Club, the world's only private skiing and golf community, has been in and out of the news, thanks to the public divorce of owners Tim and Edra Blixseth as well as legal battles between owners and Tim Blixseth. Also, the club missed loan payments to creditor Credit Suisse and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Earlier this year, Edra won control of the club and vowed to get its overdue construction back on track and to keep its business out of the public eye. [more]

News of Note

Wyoming's oil and gas industry is responsible for one in five jobs in the state and about one-third of the state's total economic output, according to a report detailed in today's Casper Star-Tribune

Business editor Tom Mast rounds up the highlights of the report, most of which confirm that while the direct economics of the industry are predictable, the "downstream" effects are even more staggering than one might expect.

As one investigator says, "It shows vulnerabilities associated with oil and gas in that it's such a large portion of Wyoming's economy." [more]

Western Book Roundup

Idealistic optimism in the book world is not dead: David Jasper of the Bend Bulletin reported that Kilns Bookstore, a nonprofit enterprise, opened in Bend over the holiday weekend. (Via Shelf Awareness.) Jasper writes, "The opening comes just more than a month after The Book Barn, a 35-year-old shop in nearby downtown, closed due to declining sales and stiff competition from online retailers such as Amazon."

Rick Bass recently reviewed Stephen Trimble's new book, Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America for the Boston Globe.

Denise Hill at the NewPages blog noted the arrival of the premier issue of a new literary magazine called The Oval, published by University of Montana undergraduates.

Also in the Roundup: the Virginia Quarterly Review publishes a new story by a Casper author, the Colorado Book Award finalists are announced, and Denver's David Sirota tours. [more]

New West Book Review

Wifeshopping
By Steven Wingate
Houghton Mifflin, 208 pages, $12.95

The men in Steven Wingate's engrossing, entertaining debut story collection Wifeshopping are looking not just for love, but for marriage. They're not adverse to commitment, but they are particular, seeking the ideal woman for whom to forsake their days of youthful flings. This ultimate woman never quite materializes for Wingate's protagonists, who reject their girlfriends and fiancées because they don't like used clothes or don't agree that they should get rid of a stranger's mementos found buried in the backyard. But more often, their women reject them for being too pompous, for proposing marriage too early or for trying to rush them out of their rituals of mourning for past loves. Wingate, who lives in Lafayette, Colo. and teaches at the University of Colorado, sets his stories across the country, from Denver to Thermopolis, Wyo., to Rockport, Mass., to Miami (and vividly evokes each of these varied settings), but the problems that plague his characters are the same everywhere—they're not-quite-perfect guys trying to create something lasting and meaningful with not-quite-perfect women.

Steven Wingate will discuss his book at the Tattered Cover (LoDo) on July 30 at 7:30 p.m., and at Poor Richard's Bookstore in Colorado Springs on August 7 at 5 p.m.
[more]