Western Book Roundup

Western Books I Can’t Wait to Read

By Jenny Shank, 8-20-08

Jane Ciabattari at Critical Mass, the National Book Critics Circle’s blog, recently interviewed one of my favorite writers, ZZ Packer, in advance of her August 28 appearance at a fundraiser for Katrina victims.  They discussed Packer’s links to New Orleans, but what interested me most was this tidbit: “The novel I’m finishing (yes, finally, finishing!) concerns the Buffalo soldiers, and the regiment whose storyline I follow were mustered in just outside of New Orleans and the whole first third is set there, so I’ve been NOLA-centered for quite some time.”

Packer has been working on this Buffalo soldier novel for a while—when I interviewed her for The Onion back in 2003 during her tour for her story collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, she said she already had written several hundred pages, and she was planning to spend some time in New Mexico writing and researching some settings. 

Ever since then, I have been waiting for word of when this novel was going to be published.  But, impatient as I am to read it, I respect her for taking all the time she’s needed when other writers might have rushed a manuscript in such hot demand through completion.  Packer’s forthcoming Buffalo soldier novel tops my list of books with western settings that I am most eager to read. 

Also on my list is the eventual debut book of Daniel Orozco, a short story writer who teaches at the University of Idaho.  I first read his work in the Best American Short Stories 1995, which featured his story “Orientation,” a hilarious account of office cubical life.  I encountered his work periodically, such as in the late, great Story magazine which featured Orozco’s story “Hunger Tales” in one of its final issues back in 1998.  Since then, Orozco has won awards from the NEA, the Lannan Foundation, and the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and I’ve been expecting a collection, but I haven’t heard anything about it.  I guess I’ll just keep waiting and snap it up as soon as possible when it does appear.

Is anyone else out there waiting impatiently for a new book by your favorite writers?  If so, leave a comment and let me know what book you can’t wait to read.

Sarah Bultema of the Loveland, Colo. Reporter-Herald recently profiled local bibliophile Jane Mirandette, who “established the first lending library in [Nicaragua], created a traveling reading program to schools and helped found 25 more libraries around Central America.” Bultema writes:

“[Mirandette] and her partner, Loveland’s Mike Iacoboni, were searching for a possible vacation home in the country when they ended up buying a hotel.  ‘I really fell in love with it,’ she said.  And it was while she was working at the hotel that Mirandette made a strange observation: There simply weren’t any books to be found in the community.  So she decided to do something about it.  Collecting a few hundred books, Mirandette began lending them out to children and adults from the hotel’s patio.  It caught on so fast, she soon moved the project to its own building — and created the first lending library in the country: San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Movil.  Although there were other libraries in the country, Mirandette said, readers were not allowed to take the books home with them.”

Mirandette went on to establish the Hester J. Hodgdon Libraries for All program, which helps other communities start their own libraries.

Finally, Carl Lennertz of HarperCollins recently wrote about this year’s Denver Publishing Institute for Shelf Awareness.

Lennertz writes:

“ I think I am correct to say that the Denver Publishing Institute is the longest-running book-only publishing course in the land…
An amazing woman, Elizabeth Geiser, started the Denver program 30 years ago and recently retired, handing over the reins to the one-and-only Joyce Meskis, owner of the one-and-only Tattered Cover Bookstore. Denver’s Jill Smith and Sandra Bond keep the intense schedule on track, and that sked is two weeks of editorial workshops (kicked off by a keynote speech from a publishing dynamo like Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks), a week for marketing and finally, a week of career focus, including interviews with HR folks from several publishing houses, small and large.”

Have some regional literary news or events to share?  If so,

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