Western Literature Week Kicks Off in Boulder

By Jenny Shank, 10-01-08

Western Literature Week, a collaboration between the Center of the American West and the Western Literature Association, kicks off today in Boulder.  Public readings by Western authors will be held from October 1 through 4, including the October 2 presentations of Aaron Abeyta and Linda Hogan ("Western Poetic Landscapes,” 4 p.m.) and William Kittredge and Patricia Limerick ("Western Collaborations,” 7 p.m.). 

Other highlights are Teresa Jordan and Laura Pritchett’s discussion entitled “Women Write the Range” (October 3, 12:15 p.m.) and Simon Ortiz and Reg Saner’s “Reflecting the Sacred and Sacrificed West” (October 3, 5 p.m.).  All events are at the Millennium Harvest House Motel, except for the October 4 Janet Campbell Hale presentation, which will be held at the Old Main Chapel on CU Campus (7 p.m.).  Check out the complete schedule here.

In the ongoing saga of former Missoulian Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina, a novel written from the perspective of one of the wives of the prophet Muhammad, the New York Times reports that an arson at U.K. publisher Gibson Square may be linked to the controversial content of the book.  The home of Martin Rynja, Gibson Square’s publisher, was attacked this weekend.

Sarah Lyall writes: “Early Saturday morning, Mr. Rynja’s house in North London, which doubles as Gibson Square’s headquarters, was set on fire. Three men were arrested on suspicion “of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism,” the police said.”

Gibson Square picked the novel up after Random House dropped it, citing the potential for just such retaliation from extremists.  The book is due to hit bookstores in Britain on October 30, and a small U.S. publisher, Beaufort Books, plans to publish it here.

The writing of Denver novelist Nick Arvin has been featured in several newspapers recently.  The New York Times “asked four writers from swing states to file dispatches about the presidential campaign during its final weeks,” and Arvin’s first op-ed about the political situation in Colorado ran recently.  He wrote about how things look from the cubicle at the engineering firm where he works in downtown Denver.  The Rocky Mountain News ran Arvin’s contribution to its Denver fiction series, ”Armistice Day,” last week.

Finally, last week the National Book Foundation announced the recipients of its “5 Under 35” award, and Matthew Eck, who earned his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana, was among the honorees.  Five established writers picked five up-and-comers under the age of 35 for the award, and Joshua Ferris selected Eck’s book, The Farther Shore.  Eck and four others will be feted on November 10 in New York.  Check out Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel’s interview with Eck for New West here.

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