My Page: Allen M. Jones
A New West Interview
Five Questions for Michael Finkel
Former staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of the memoir and true crime narrative, True Story Bozeman author Michael Finkel responds to a set of questions from New West. Among other things, he describes what it's like to have close contact with a convicted murderer (Christian Longo, the subject of True Story), the qualities that make for a good journalist, and the avenues toward professional redemption. [more]
Author Reading and Signing
Doug Peacock and Hamilton’s Chapter OneOur friends at the Chapter One Bookstore, in Hamilton, Montana, have let us know that Doug Peacock, author of the memoirs Grizzly Years and the newly released Walking it Off (an account of Peacock's friendship with Edward Abbey, among other things), will be giving a reading and book signing at their store on September 23rd. [more]
Publishers, Writers, Book Publicists...
An Open Call For Review CopiesIf you’re a book publisher in the West, or if you publish books relevant to the western region, New West would like to consider reviewing from your list. While we are most interested in books with a certain, issue-oriented topicality, we are open to almost any title of extraordinary quality, be it regional fiction, memoir, biography, or poetry. [more]
A New West Book Review
True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, by Michael Finkel
About the time that Bozeman writer Michael Finkel was being fired from The New York Times Magazine for certain massive errors in professional judgment (he cobbled together, from half a dozen different sources, the character of an African child, and then presented this fictional creation as an actual person), a man named Christian Longo was being arrested in Cancun for the murder of his wife and three children. Longo had been touring Mayan ruins, telling people that he was none other than the New York Times journalist Michael Finkel. If you’re a writer, especially if you’re a hot-potato freelancer seeking professional redemption, it’s hard to imagine a story being handed to you on a tidier plate. [more]
Books For Folks
A Literary Relief Effort For New OrleansRich Wandschneider, of Oregon's Fishtrap writer's community, has passed along notice of a unique opportunity to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. "Books For Folks," begun by former New Orleans resident and author, Janis Owens, posts as its mission statement, "To provide books and literature for refugees of Hurricane Katrina and to serve as a clearinghouse for temporary employment opportunities & information about needs for displaced writers." [more]
New West's Featured Author
Jim Harrison Around The Web
To mark the occasion of Jim Harrison's fifth collection of novellas, reviewers from around the country have come out of the woodwork to fling accolades his way. From The New York Times to The Oregonian, the level of attention received by The Summer He Didn't Die leaves little doubt that Harrison has to be considered one of the most highly acclaimed authors of literary fiction in America. [more]
A New West Review
The Summer He Didn’t Die, a trilogy of novellas by Jim Harrison
From Jim Harrison's first novel, Wolf, to his masterpiece, The Road Home, it seems that the final, distilled subject of Harrison's fiction, poetry and essays is the author himself. This ain't a bad thing. Given the variety of Harrison's cultural referents, his wide-ranging curiosity (Kierkegaard to Keats), it makes for a complex and entertaining edifice of art. His newest trilogy of novellas, The Summer He Didn’t Die, slips comfortably into this enormously respected body of work.
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A New West Interview
Paul Zarzyski: “Poetry is the bloodiest of the arts.”
Recent recipient of the Montana Governor's arts award for literature, a Spur Award winner for his most recent book, Wolf Tracks on the Welcome Mat, poet Paul Zarzyski responds in writing to a set of five questions posed by New West. From the origins of his poetry and the variety of his influences ("the beauty-'n'-truth" of his "black leather jacketed youth") to a philosophy of success and failure, Zarzyski is a man of strong opinion and thoroughly artistic sensibility. [more]
Hayduke, Writing, Grizzly Bear Delisting...
Doug Peacock: ‘The World Needs an Ed Abbey Now’
Author or two conservation-minded memoirs (the much lauded Grizzly Years and the upcoming Walking it Off), model for Edward Abbey's character Hayduke from The Monkey Wrench Gang, an iconic figure for an entire generation of environmentalists, Doug Peacock recently sat down with New West to sound off on everything from grizzly bear delisting to his ongoing conservation work in British Columbia to his favorite writers. [more]
A New West Book Review
Walking it Off, by Doug Peacock
It can’t be easy being Doug Peacock. A Vietnam vet diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (he served in the Green Berets as a medic), model for one of the more renowned characters in American fiction (Hayduke, from Ed Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang), an iconic environmentalist to an entire generation of green activists, the psychic weight this guy has to shoulder every morning, it’s a wonder he can straighten up out of bed. He’s a thoughtful man, however, and a formidable writer, and his well-considered approaches to these often painful life-convolutions have given rise to two of the West’s most distinctive and poignant memoirs. [more]
