Western Book Roundup

Mountains & Plains Indie Booksellers Host New Workshop for Writers

By Jenny Shank, 8-12-10

The annual Mountains & Plains Independent Book Award Trade Show includes a new component this year, a writers’ workshop called “Writers & The Independent Marketplace” on Saturday, September 25 at the Marriott Denver Tech Center.  According to the brochure: “The industry experts at this conference will prepare you to assess the publishing opportunities currently available and provide step-by-step guidelines that will help you get your book into print, into bookstores, and into the hands of readers.”

There will be sessions on pitching books to agents, “Getting Your Book Into Print,” “Getting Your Books into Our Stores,” and “Working with Our Stores to Reach your Readers.” Admission includes a ticket to the Author Banquet for Literacy, featuring Ian Frazier, Nevada Barr, and Connie Willis.  Writers can register at a discounted rate of $175 through September 1; after that the admission cost is $225.

•NPR recently featured Montana Poet Laureate Henry Real Bird, who “is on a 500-mile horseback trip, halfway across the state, handing out books of his poetry along the way.” He told Michelle Norris he wants people “to move along in thought.” NPR caught up with him in Havre.  He stops in towns across Montana, distributing copies of his poetry books.  Some people come right up to his horse and ask for a book, and in turn, Real Bird said, “people come by and feed me,” giving him meat, bread, and chokecherries.

•The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City reminds its patrons to check the skies on August 12 and 13 for a sight of the Perseid meteor shower, and they suggest a good book to read at this meteor-shower time of year is Christopher Cokinos’ The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars.  Cokinos will discuss his book at The King’s English on, Saturday, August 28, at 2 p.m.  Traci J. Macnamara interviewed Cokinos for New West last year.

• Oregon writers who published a book over the past year are encouraged to apply for the 2010-2011 Oregon Book Awards in the categories of Poetry, Fiction, General Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, Children’s Literature, Young Adult Literature and Drama.  Applications are due by August 27.

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