Western Book Roundup

New Developments for Ghost Road Press, Krysl, Haruf, and Brown

By Jenny Shank, 1-30-08

Ghost Road Press, the Denver-based publishing outfit founded by Matthew Davis and Sonya Unrein, recently announced its intention to become a non-profit organization.  In a message to Ghost Road fans, Davis wrote that the switch “will allow us to continue to publish the type of literary work that we most believe in.” Davis noted that “there is no quick monetary payoff for our fiction and poetry collections,” and that “my father always says to me, ‘you just need that One Big Book!’ But we know differently. We understand that the work we are most in love with--the work that we live to publish--is a slow and steady road whose dividends will pay off over time.”

To learn more about Ghost Road Press, check out my 2006 interview with Matthew Davis.  Recent notable titles Ghost Road has published include Instant Karma: The Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum, a memoir by Wayne K. Sheldrake (reviewed for NewWest.net/books by Krista Crabtree), and the regional poetry anthology Open Range: Poetry from the Reimagined West.

Next fall, Ghost Road Press will publish a poetry collection by Marilyn Krysl, a skilled Boulder writer who was on the creative writing faculty at the University of Colorado for many years.  The busy Krysl currently has a new short story collection in bookstores, Dinner with Osama, which won the Richard T. Sullivan publication prize sponsored by my other alma mater, the University of Notre Dame.  Krysl will read from Dinner with Osama at the Boulder Bookstore on February 12.

Another Colorado writer you’ll be hearing a lot about in the coming months is novelist Kent Haruf.  His book with photographer Peter Brown, West of Last Chance, just hit bookstores, and the theater adaptation of his beloved novel Plainsong is taking the stage at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.  Brown and Haruf, as well as playwright Eric Schmiedl, will participate in a couple of symposiums to discuss their work this week, on Sunday, February 3 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (1-3 p.m.), and on Monday, February 4 in the Norlin Library of CU Campus (British Studies Room, 4-6 p.m.).  Both events are free and all are welcome.

This Roundup has been Colorado heavy, so I thought I’d mention an upcoming Montana event.  Missoula-based author Greg Patent will present his new cookbook, A Baker’s Odyssey at Hamilton’s Chapter One Book Store on February 7 (7 p.m.).  Patent won the prestigious James Beard Award for his previous book, Baking in America, so you know his family eats well.  For those on the fence about whether to go to Paten’s reading or not, here’s the clincher: according to Chapter One, “Yes, we will have baked goods here for those who show up to hear ‘Food Guy’ Greg Patent talk about his new book.” So eat while the eating’s good!

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