Two Wyoming authors takes home High Plains Book Awards

This news comes from a press release from the High Plains Book Awards in Billings, Mont.:

Winners of the prestigious 2012 High Plains Book Awards, a project of the Parmly Billings Library, were announced Saturday, October 20, in Billings, Mont., at a banquet held at the Yellowstone Art Museums. Award winners included Shann Ray's American Masculine, which won in two categories: Best First Book and Best Short Stories. Each winner received a $500 cash prize.  Other winners included Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana by Chere Jiusto & Christine W. Brown for Best Nonfiction, The Ringer by Jenny Shank for Best Fiction, Songs of Unreason by Jim Harrison for Best Poetry, Married Into It by Patricia Frolander for Best Woman Writer, and Arapaho Journeys: Photographs and Stories from the Wind River Reservation by Sara Wiles for Best Art & Photography. Emeritus Award winner was Tom McGuane.

Eighty-eight books were nominated for the 2012 High Plains Book Awards in seven categories from publishers in the United States and Canada. Finalists were selected after each nominated book war read and evaluated by community readers. Winners were selected by a panel of published writers with connections to the High Plains. Many finalists and winners participated in a day-long series of readings at the Yellowstone Art Museum as part of the High Plains BookFest. All nominated books were published for the first time in 2011.

Award sponsors include the Parmly Billings Library, Friends of the Parmly Billings Library, Montana State University-Billings, the Parmly Billings Library Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, the Writer's Voice of the Billings Family YMCA, the Yellowstone Art Museum, and the Zonta Club of Billings.

More information about the High Plains Book Awards is available at: http://highplainsbookawards.org.  Nominations for the 2013 High Plains Book Awards will be accepted January 14, 2013-March 15, 2013 for books first published in 2012.

About the High Plains Book Awards
The Parmly Billings Library Board has established the High Plains Book Awards to recognize regional authors and/or literary works which examine and reflect life on the High Plains including the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

Here are details about the Wyoming winners:

MARRIED INTO IT by Patricia Frolander
Best Woman Writer
Married Into It
Patricia Frolander
High Plains Press

What happens when a young urban woman marries into a fourth generation rural ranching family and must learn the traditions, customs, and lifestyle of the land, all under the scrutinizing eye of its close knit community? Author Patricia Frolander's clear-eyed poems chronicle her years of challenges and triumphs, bruises and breakthroughs, as she moves from outsider to neighbor.

Patricia Frolander, Wyoming's poet laureate, tries to balance family, ranching, and writing and have a passion for each of them. She and her husband own his family ranch in the Black Hills of Wyoming where ties to land and livestock have provided a wonderful variety of subjects to journal and pen.

ARAPAHO JOURNEYS: PHOTOGRAPHS AND STORIES FROM THE WIND RIVER RESERVATION by Sara Wiles
Best Art & Photography
Arapaho Journeys: Photographs and Stories from the Wind River Reservation
Sara Wiles
University of Oklahoma Press

Award-winning photographer Sara Wiles captures that life on film and in words in Arapaho Journeys, an inside look at thirty years of Northern Arapaho life on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming.  Through more than 100 images and 40 essays, Wiles creates a visual and verbal mosaic of contemporary Northern Arapaho culture. Depicted in the photographs are people Wiles met at Wind River while she was a social worker, anthropology student, and adopted member of an Arapaho family.

Wiles's essays weave together tribal history, personal narratives, and traditional knowledge to describe modern-day reservation life and little-known aspects of Arapaho history and culture, including naming ceremonies and cultural revitalization efforts. This work broaches controversial topics, as well, including the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians.

Sara Wiles is an independent photographer, writer, and scholar who holds a master s degree in anthropology from Indiana University. Her photographs, including the images published here for the  first time, have been exhibited nationally. She is the recipient of a Wyoming Governor's Arts Award.

Spotted at the Equality State Book Festival: Poetry fellowship recipients

From the 2012 Equality State Book Festival at Casper College (from left): Michael Shay, Wyoming Arts Council; fellowship recipients W. Dale Nelson (Laramie), Matt Daly (Jackson), Claudia Mauro (Jackson), and fellowship judge and poet Brian Turner. Nelson, Daly and Mauro read their award-winning work with Turner on Sept. 14 at the bookfest. Shay served as emcee.

National Book Festival Sept. 22-23 in D.C. features NEA Literature Fellows

The National Endowment for the Arts sends this info about this weekend's National Book Festival:

At this year's National Book Festival, many of the poets and writers at the Poetry & Prose Pavilion will celebrate their roles as NEA Literature Fellows, one of the nation's most prestigious competitive awards for new and established authors. The Poetry & Prose Pavilion, sponsored by the NEA, is part of the Library of Congress’s twelfth annual literary festival, which takes place on September 23-24, 2012, on the National Mall in Washington, DC. 

This year's lineup at the Poetry & Prose Pavilion includes T.C. Boyle (San Miguel), Giannina Braschi, (United States of Banana), Junot Díaz (This Is How You Lose Her), Stephen Dunn (Here and Now), Jeffrey Eugenides (The Marriage Plot), Nikky Finney (Head Off & Split), Paul Hendrickson (Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost: 1934-1961, Laura Kasischke (Space, In Chains), Philip Levine (News of the World), Margot Livesey (The Flight of Gemma Hardy), Thomas Mallon (Watergate), and Colson Whitehead (Zone One).

Nine of this year's presenters are NEA Literature Fellows (Boyle, Braschi, Dunn, Eugenides, Hendrickson, Jones, Kasischke, Levine, and Livesey); Jones and Hendrickson just received their Fellowships in 2012.

"[This] program ... I feel is essential to fostering the arts -- particularly for beginning or out-of-the-way artists whose work is not immediately apprehended in a commercial way," said author and Creative Writing Fellow (78, 83) T.C. Boyle in the NEA Literature Fellowships publication.

Also at the Poetry & Prose Pavilion, student state champions from the 2012 Poetry Out Loud National Finals.  Kristen Dupard, who earned both the 2012 Poetry Out Loud National Champion and Mississippi State Champion titles, along with second-place winner and Vermont State Champion Claude Mumbere, and third-place winner, Utah State Champion MarKaye Hassan will recite classic and contemporary poetry that earned them titles during this year’s national poetry recitation contest. Poetry Out Loud is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. 

Visit the National Endowment for the Arts and Library of Congress websites for interviews with current and past Book Festival authors, audio clips, downloadable materials, and interactive features. The NEA (@NEAarts) will live-tweet from the NEA Poetry & Prose Pavilion via Twitter. Look for #natbookfest – the official National Book Festival hashtag – to follow news from the festival.

The Poetry & Prose Pavilion is one of several pavilions where more than 100 writers and illustrators will discuss their work. Pavilions include Children, Teens, Fiction & Mystery, History & Biography, Contemporary Life, Poetry & Prose, SciFi Fantasy & Graphic Novels and Special Programs pavilions, plus the Family Storytelling Stage featuring authors and musical acts popular with young children. Last year, more than 100,000 book fans attended the festival.

The 12th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held on the National Mall between 9th and 14th Streets on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Sept. 23 from noon to 5:30 p.m., rain or shine. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the National Book Festival Information Line at 888-714-4696 or visit the National Book Festival website.

"Active Duty, Active Voices" book festival panel teams up Iraq War soldier-writers Brian Turner and Luis Carlos Montalvan

Luis Carlos Montalvan, author of "Until
Tuesday" with his service dog, Tuesday

The Wyoming Arts Council has been a partner in the Equality State Book Festival since its launch in 2006. The 2012 edition makes for an action-packed two days in Casper. Most of the events will be held in Casper College's shiny new Gateway Building. I urge you to attend for the many reasons spelled out in this line-up of events.

 Here are some of the highlights:

A craft talk by David Romtvedt, poet and musician, gets things going on Friday. David, who was Wyoming Poet Laureate for eight years, will speak about "Invisible Craft, Ordinary Language." I'll be introducing him in my role as Wyoming Arts Council literature guy. I'll also be sticking around to learn some things, as poets have much to teach us prose writers about craft and language.

Current Poet Laureate Pat Frolander will discuss revising, Rebecca O'Connor conducts a craft talk about "Finding your writing through blogging and journaling, and Renee d'Auost explores writing and dance. 

Readings by Romtvedt and Linda Hasselstrom enliven the afternoon. Things get started with a 1 p.m. reading by the Wyoming Arts Council's poetry fellowship winners Matt Daly and Claudia Mauro of Jackson and W. Dale Nelson of Laramie. They'll be joined by soldier-poet and fellowship judge Brian Turner, author of "Here, Bullet" and "Phantom Noise."

The happenings head downtown that evening with a reception at The Corridor Gallery, a reading by Frolander at 7:30 at Metro Coffee Company followed by a poetry slam at 8:30. The slam is always the highlight of the bookfest as you never know who's going to show up. It's been rumored that there will be music as well as poetry.

Brian Turner, author of "Here, Bullet"
 and "Phantom Noise"

Saturday is panel discussion day. Two biggies go head-to-head at 10 a.m. "Active Duty, Active Voices" features Iraq War veterans and writers Brian Turner and Luis Carlos Montalván talking about writing and war. The panel will be moderated by Casper College Professor and miltary veteran Patrick Amelotte. If you write children's books (or are thinking about it), you'll want to catch the publishing panel with Cat Urbigkit, Zak Pullen, Karla Oceanak and Kendra Spanjer.

Fiction writer and UW Creative Writing Program Professor Alyson Hagy will be the luncheon speaker -- this is the only event that has a fee.

The afternoon features a number of readings. At 3:30 p.m., there is a panel discussion, "Writing Nature, Writing Self," with four writers who know both subjects well: Frolander, Hasselstrom, O’Connor and Urbigkit. The events wrap up with a 5 p.m. book signing.

This is the fourth edition of Wyoming's statewide book festival, held each even year. It's a fantastic event with something for everyone who loves books.

Equality State Book Festival presenter Zak Pullen illustrates cover of new album by The Wiyos

Cover illustration by Casper's Zak Pullen.

Casper artist and illustrator Zak Pullen will participate in a panel discussion about children's book publishing on Saturday, Sept. 15, 10 a.m., during the Equality State Book Festival in the Casper College Gateway Building. Also on the panel are Cat Urbigkit, Karla Oceanak and Kendra Spanjer. Zak is the co-owner of the The Corridor Gallery in downtown Casper where the bookfest's author reception will be held on Friday, Sept. 14, 5:30 p.m. Zak is branching out to do cover designs for music CDs. His latest is a cover illustration for The Wiyos newly-released album, "Twist." Zak is releasing 100 CD/book combinations at $55 each. That includes a meet-and-greet jam and story session and two tickets to the Sept. 14 The Wiyos' concert at the Wolcott Galleria Theatre, 136 S. Wolcott in Casper. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Also playing will be Ten Sleep's Jalan Crossland and John Kirlin and the High Plains Drifters. A great line-up! We hate to tell you all this because we want you to attend the free bookfest events that continue that same evening at 7:30 p.m. with a reading by Wyoming Poet Laureate Pat Frolander followed by a poetry slam (with emcee George Vlastos) at 8:30. Both events are at the Metro Coffee Company downtown.

Welcome to the fall line-up of literary events around the state

Temps are still in the 90s and it may still seem like summer but fall is just around the corner. As we get ready to swing into fall, it's time to give our readers a head's up about some new and continuing Wyoming events that feature writers and books.

Michael Lanza

Central Wyoming College will wrap up the summer with its first-ever Wind River Outdoor Writers Conference Aug. 24-25 at Sink's Canyon Center. Presenters include blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, who has climbed the summit of the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. He will be the keynote speaker for the conference with a free public presentation at Lander Valley High School Auditorium on August 25 at 7 p.m. Other presenters are outdoor writers Michael Lanza and Shelli Johnson and editor Max Phelps.

Wyoming has two big fall literary events. The first has a long title: the Casper College/ARTCORE Equality State Book Festival and Literary Conference. The book festival takes place during even years, such as this one, offering readings, book signings, craft talks, panels, school visits by writers and a poetry slam. In odd years, Casper College and ARTCORE continue a decades-long partnership by putting on the literary conference, a series of workshops and craft talks by notable authors.

Pat Frolander

Among the Sept. 14-15 bookfest participants are state and regional favorites: Pat Frolander, current Poet Laureate for Wyoming; Zak Pullen, Cat Urbigkit, Kendra Spanjer and Karla Oceanak who will be making school visits; Alyson Hagy and David Romtvedt, faculty from University of Wyoming’s MFA program, who will give readings and lead craft talks; and essayist and poet Linda Hasselstrom. From further regions, we are also joined by Rebecca O’Connor and Renee d’Aoust. The Wyoming Arts Council presents the Creative Writing Fellowship awards, which were judged by soldier-poet Brian Turner, and celebrates poetry this year. The 2013 fellowship recipients, Matt Daly, Claudia Mauro and W. Dale Nelson, will read from their award-winning work with Turner on Friday, Sept. 14, 1-3 p.m., in the Goodstein Foundation Library. Our friends at the Natrona County Library are sponsoring a visit from Iraq War veteran and author Luis Carlos Montalvan. Turner will join Montalvan at a panel about soldier-writers on Saturday, Sept. 15, 10 a.m.

Speaking of soldier-writers.... One of America's best writers, Tim O'Brien, will be a featured presenter at the annual Literary Connection at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne Oct. 5-6. O'Brien is a Vietnam veteran best known for his novel, “The Things They Carried.” He will conduct a free writing workshop on Friday, Oct. 5, entitled “The Things We Carry.” John Calderazzo, a nature writer and essayist from Fort Collins, Colo., and fiction writer Cat Valente, will conduct other free workshops.

Every county library sponsors a series of events throughout the year. Connect with your local library through the Wyoming Library Asssociation. 

Mark Nowak

UW's creative writing program has a full slate of visiting writers, including Maggie Nelson, Mark Nowak, CA Conrad and Brian Leung. The program's fall schedule culminates on Nov. 9 with “Listening to Nature: an Evening of Readings and Visual Art by Scientists and Artists” features great writing and art focused on nature and the environment. Readers will include Chris Madsen, Emilene Ostlind, and Kristen Gunther. 

Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs sponsors its “Friday Night Live” literary series sponsored by the Louise Wesswick Foundation. English Professor and writer Rick Kempa does a great job coordinating these events. In February, WWCC hosted Utah author Katharine Coles who will also serve as judge for the 2013 Blanchan/Doubleday writing awards sponsored by the WAC (more info coming soon).

We have two statewide writing groups – WyoPoets and Wyoming Writers, Inc. – and they each sponsor annual conferences. WyoPoets conducts a writing workshop each spring and the WWInc conference launches the summer season the first weekend in June. The 2013 conference will be in Laramie.

The Jackson Hole WritersConference is held in late June and has become one of the foremost conferences in the country.

These are but the highlights of the Wyoming literary year. We’ll keep you posted as new events arise, and as conferences and events solidify their plans for 2013. If you have a literary event to publicize, let us know here at the WAC. We'll spread the word via this blog, Facebook, Twitter and our print newsletter. 

Cat Urbigkit's "The Guardian Team" chosen as Wyoming book for National Book Festival

Pinedale's multitalented writer and photographer Cat Urbigkit has some great news:

The Guardian Team has been selected as the Wyoming book for this year's National Book Festival, which will be held Sept. 22 & 23 in Washington, D.C.

Congrats, Cat. It's been a good year. In March, she received an honorable mention in the Wyoming Arts Council's visual arts fellowship competition.

2012 Equality State Book Festival announces confirmed slate of authors and illustrators

Holly Wendt & Laurie Lye, co-directors of the 2012 Equality State Book Festival, send word that the bookfest web site has been updated with some exciting news to share about September's event in Casper:

The Equality State Book Festival organizers are pleased to announce this year's festival date has been set for Sept. 14-15 in Casper. This celebration marks the 26th anniversary of the annual Casper College/ARTCORE Literary Conference, which has been called "The Equality State Book Festival" every other year since 2006, this being our fourth venture in that spirit.

For the two-day event, more than 15 authors and illustrators will share their talents, giving readings, leading craft talks, emceeing a poetry slam, visiting local schools, and participating on panels. This year's group includes poets, novelists, memoirists, essayists, illustrators, and publishers. 

Among the participants slated are state-wide and regional favorites: Pat Frolander, current Poet Laureate for Wyoming; Zak Pullen, Cat Urbigkit, Kendra Spanjer and Karla Oceanak who will be making school visits; Alyson Hagy and David Romtvedt, faculty from University of Wyoming's MFA program, who will give readings and lead craft talks; and essayist and poet Linda Hasselstrom. From further regions, we are also joined by Rebecca O'Connor and Renee d'Aoust.

The Wyoming Arts Council will be announcing their annual Creative Writing Fellowship awards which celebrate poetry this year and will be judged by Brian Turner. Our friends at Natrona County Public Library are sponsoring a visit from Luis Carlos Montalvan. 

We hope you can join us to appreciate the good company of fellow readers and writers and help celebrate books and the written word Sept. 14-15, 2012, at Casper College and a few other Casper locations, all to be detailed on this web site soon.

For more book festival information, please contact Laurie Lye at llye@caspercollege.edu or 307-268-2639.

WY performer and poet laureate emeritus David Romtvedt featured at High Plains BookFest

The High Plains BookFest begins Oct. 13 at the Babcock Theatre in Billings, MT.

The Big Read kicks off Thursday, October 13, with the High Plains BookFest. This year’s theme: “The Nature of Poetry, the Poetry of Nature.” The Billings YMCA Writer’s Voice and Parmly Billings Library hosts The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The Big Read in Billings will focus on the selected poetry of Robinson Jeffers.

Join us for two gala evenings at the Babcock Theatre! On Thursday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m., David Caserio hosts “Poetry and Performance” featuring Bozeman poet, humorist and musician Greg Keeler; and Wyoming poet and accordion player, David Romtvedt performing Cajun, Brazilian and world music with his wife and daughter. Caserio will also perform some of his work accompanied by local musicians. Tickets are $10 and valid for Thursday and Friday evening. Tickets may be purchased at the door.

On Friday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. the High Plains BookFest features a gala reading by four poet laureates from three states: Sheryl Noethe and Henry Real Bird of Montana, Larry Woiwode, North Dakota, and David Romtvedt, poet laureate emeritus of Wyoming.


RSVP on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260083724029846&notif_t=event_invite

"Dee and the Mammoth" going to the National Book Festival

Dee Susan Vittitow Mark sends this: "Dee and the Mammoth" by Gene Gagliano and Zak Pullen has been selected by the Wyoming State Library to be the featured book for Wyoming,at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. in September. Wyoming has a booth in the Pavilion of States tent on the National Mall. Gene and Zak will be part of the Wyoming Book Festival Road Show this fall. Dee and the Mammoth recently received the Wyoming State Historical Society Book Award for fiction.

Enter the S.D. Festival of Books Getaway Contest

Our neighbors at the Oct. 7-9 South Dakota Festival of Books is giving away prizes. Details at http://www.facebook.com/sdbookfestival

Nina McConigley writes about bookfest for New West

Nina S. McConigley writes about Casper's 2010 Equality State Book Festival in the 10/20 New West. Read the entire article at http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/equality_state_book_fair_celebrates_regional_writers_in_wyoming/C39/L39/

Nina now teaches at UW in Laramie. She's the winner of a 2010 Blanchan/Doubleday writing award from the Wyoming Arts Council.

Author Diana Kouris earns laurels for her High Plains Press book

This comes from Nancy Curtis at High Plains Press in Glendo: Diana Kouris (left), author of Riding the Edge of an Era, has been doing High Plains Press proud. She was a finalist for both the Zonta Best Woman Writer Award at the Billings Book Festival and the Willa Award which was presented in Wickenburg, Arizona. Diana and I went to both events and had a great time. My friend and former co-editor Linda Hasselstrom (right) traveled with us and came home with the top award at both events. Here we are.

Remembering the 2010 Equality State Book Festival

Lee Gutkind, author and founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine, reads from his work during the WAC creative writing fellowship reading Sept. 24 at the 2010 Equality State Book Festival in Casper. Gutkind served as judge for the fellowships. The reading, held in the Goodstein Foundation Library at Casper College, included fellowships winners Pam Galbreath, Joel Burdess and Jayme Feary and 2010 Blanchan/Doubleday award winner Nina McConigley. Photo: Jane Young

Mammoth good time had by all at book festival

Saturday began with Australian Aboriginal creation stories, and then moved to Hawaiian shark mythology. In the afternoon, Wyoming's 11,000-year-old mammoth was stomping through the Tate Geological Museum and prehistoric armored Hell Pigs were hot on my imaginary trail.

Wish all Saturdays could be as exciting.

But that was bookfest Saturday in Casper. The Casper College/ARTCORE Equality State Book Festival is an extravaganza of books and writers and myths and legends and poetry and fun.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I've been on the bookfest planning committee since its inception six years ago. This makes me slightly biased, yet still wildly enthusiastic.

More than 20 writers in two days. You can find a full list at the bookfest web site. You may recognize names of the Wyoming writers: Poet Laureate and musician David Romtvedt, writer and "grasshopper guy" Jeff Lockwood, Gene "The Teacher Who Dances on Desks" Gagliano, the didjeridoo-playing storyteller Paul Taylor, Nina Swamidoss "Cowboys and East Asians" McConigley, children's author and illustrator Zak Pullen, and Tom "Mr. Carnegie's Dinosaur" Rea.

Other presenters included authors, poets and book illustrators from Idaho, New York, Alaska, Belgium, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and other exotic places.

John Vernon is an historical novelist from New York who justy spent years exploring a topic that's maybe even more mythic than dinosaurs -- Billy the Kid. Vernon's latest is "Lucky Billy." He read some passages Friday evening and then talked about research on Saturday.

While he agrees with the old saw "write what you know," Vernon likes to add this: "know more." That's where research comes in. He usually starts each book with a trip to the setting. In "The Last Canyon," that was the Green River in Wyoming. For "Lucky Billy," he traveled to Lincoln, N.M., which hasn't changed much in the past 120 years. He then explores the "material culture" of the period. He had to learn volumes about firearms of the 1880s. He read a two-page section heavy with gun lore. He had to be careful not to be a "show off" with all this newfound knowledge.

"You should be subtle with your research," he said. "It should be delivered in passing."

Because his books are heavy on dialogue, Vernon researches slang of the era. Old newspapers, letters and diaries and books are great for this.

"You're building a scaffolding of facts," he said. "But in the end, nothing is possible in a novel without imagination."

And no book festival is possible without imagination. Scaffolding, too.

--Michael Shay

WAC roster artists presenting sessions at bookfest

We are please that four members of the Wyoming Arts Council artist roster will be presenters at the Sept. 24-25 Equality State Book Festival in Casper. They are children's book author Gene Gagliano of Buffalo; Aussie storyteller Paul Taylor of Laramie; Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt of Buffalo; and poet George Vlastos of Casper.

David Romtvedt will present two crafts talks: “What Do You Make?: The Ethics of a Writer’s Work,” from 9-9:45 a.m. on Friday in the Strausner Student Center, Rm. 217, Casper College. Followed from 10-10:45 a.m. by “What You Say and How You Say It: Clarity, Simplicity, Sincerity.” Strausner Student Center, Rm. 217.

From 9-11 p.m. Friday, George Vlastos will serve as emcee and referee at the Bookfest Poetry Slam at Metro Coffee in downtown Casper.

On Saturday, 9-9:45 a..m., Paul Taylor will present "Telling Stories at the Root of It All" in the Aley Fine Arts Center Durham Hall, Casper College.

Later on Saturday, 1-3 p.m., there will be a "Young Authors/Letters About Literature Presentation" with Gene Gagliano at the Natrona County Public Library's Crawford Room.

All of these events are free and open to the public.

These authors will attend the book signings both days and will be available to talk about their work during the festival.

For full list of events, go to http://www.equalitystatebookfest.com/index.php/events/

Tonight at Casper College: "Happily Ever-Aftering on a 1920s Cattle Ranch"

The Equality State Book Festival is holding a "pre-fest" event tonight (Monday), Sept. 20, 7-9 p.m., with a presentation by Montana author John Clayton. He will speak about "Happily Ever-Aftering on a 1920s Cattle Ranch" in the Goodstein Foundation Library Lobby at Casper College.

John’s reading is brought to you by the Casper College Gender Studies program and a Wyoming Humanities Council grant. In his presentation, "Happily Ever-Aftering on a 1920s Cattle Ranch", John will discuss the story of Caroline Lockhart. A best-selling Wyoming novelist of the times, Carolyn decided to retire to her very own homestead, setting in motion a conflict: The happy endings of her romantic fictions and the realities of a single woman running a drought-ridden ranch.

The event is free and open to the public.

The book festival kicks off in earnest on Friday, Sept. 24, 8 a.m. See the web site for more info

As a landmark is destroyed, we remember the short but lively history of book festivals in Wyoming

Smoke is in the morning air. Residue from the fire that destroyed the Hitching Post Inn, a Cheyenne landmark.

The Hitch was the site for the first Wyoming Bookfest on Oct. 26-27, 2001. We remember that fall for the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the anthrax attacks on Congress. Then came the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. forces. Smoke was in the air everywhere that year.

Meanwhile, in Cheyenne, a handful of writers and booklovers were organizing what we hoped would become an annual tradition.

If I remember correctly (and I don’t always) the idea started with a meeting of local writers Chip Carlson and Larry Brown with Gene Bryan, who then was in charge of events at the Best Western Hitching Post Inn Resort and Conference Center, a.k.a. “The Hitch.” That’s pretty much what everyone called it, then and now.

The three co-conspirators thought a bookfest was just the thing for Cheyenne. Unlike its surrounding states, Wyoming had yet to have a statewide book festival. It would benefit writers, booksellers and The Hitch.

Linn Rounds, then head of the Wyoming Center for the Book, was pulled into the committee. So was I from the Wyoming Arts Council. Kathy Murphy, secretary to Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources Director John Keck, volunteered to keep track of all the proceedings. She did a great job, Kathy, alas, died a few years later. In the end, we had a great collection of people, including Kathleen Gillgannon of the YMCA Writer’s Voice, and reps from the Laramie County Public Library and the Wyoming Humanities Council.

Warning for anyone planning a book festival – it’s a lot of work. Forty-two poets, writers, editors, storytellers, musicians and at least one wood sculptor participated in the Oct. 26-27 event. That doesn’t include booksellers and presses featured at the book fair. Committee members were running around like crazy people, getting people to the correct rooms and finding more chairs when needed.

It got off to a heady start with a Friday evening reading by four poets laureate: Robert Roripaugh of Wyoming, Mary Crow of Colorado, David Lee from Utah and Bill Kloefkorn of Nebraska. The crowd was SRO, and it was a real thrill to have four great poets reading their work at one event. Just think of how many square miles are represented by these people from four big almost-square states (Nebraska's more of a weird rectangle).

David Lee was fresh from his appearance at the first National Book Festival on the National Mall in D.C. That event was organized by the Library of Congress and First Lady Laura Bush.

We also had a guest speaker that evening in U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi. Sen. Enzi and his staff no longer had access to their offices in D.C. due to the anthrax attacks. So he brought a batch of staffers with him to Cheyenne. He spoke about the recent happenings in the capital, but then launched into one of his favorite subjects – books. He’s a big reader – I’ve watched him buy bags full of books from appreciative Wyoming writers.

Sen. Enzi also was in town for a very somber event. This was the funeral of one of the first American soldiers killed in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Spec. Jonn Edmunds of Cheyenne was on a helicopter ferrying troops to the war zone when it crashed Oct. 19 in Pakistan. All aboard were killed.

Thousands attended the Saturday funeral. We had hoped for thousands that day at the bookfest, but fell a bit short. It wasn’t for lack of trying. We had fantastic sessions on writing cookbooks, westerns, mysteries and poetry in rooms scattered throughout The Hitch. We had some of the best anthology editors in Wyoming – Nancy Curtis, Candy Moulton and Bill Hoagland -- talking about “Editing Western Anthologies.” Local writer C.J. Box, who’s now published more than a dozen mysteries and won the prestigious Edgar Award, talked about “Whodunits on the High Plains.” I was on a panel with writers Teresa Funke and Jeffe Kennedy talking about “Starting (and Maintaining) Your Writing Critique Group.” My group is still intact, as is Teresa’s. Jeffe’s group in Laramie is defunct – and she now lives in Santa Fe.

On the Children’s Stage in the now-destroyed Saddleback Lounge, my son and his pals at East High staged an open mike. It also saw performances by Aussie storyteller Paul Taylor and the Cheyenne Youth Symphony.

We were exhausted by the end of the day. In the ensuing weeks, we went over all the evaluations. Most negative comments were about lack of attendance and lack of book sales. Lots of people had lots of ideas about how to make it better. More publicity. More big-name authors. Bigger book fair. Get more people to do the work. Involve more local organizations and business.

Here’s one comment I liked: “A number of authors travel a great distance to attend — at last give them a sandwich for lunch.”

You want mayo or mustard with that?

Here’s a great comment from C.J. Box: “The bookfest shouldn’t be all things to all people… While musical performances and wood art may bring in some folks, the bookfest should be about books and authors.”

A few months after the bookfest, the committee met for a brainstorming session. We stormed our brains out. We all wanted to have another bookfest, but there wasn’t enough interest to form a solid committee to write grants, enlist sponsors and plan the myriad bookfest details. Not right away, anyway.

It was five years before there was another book festival. This one was a true statewide book event, the Equality State Book Festival in Casper. It was six years before there was another bookfest in Cheyenne, and that was the Wyoming Book Festival in locales throughout downtown Cheyenne. It continues to be a project of the Wyoming Center for the Book at the Wyoming State Library.

Planning for the first ESBF began in late 2004. It involved a very motivated and dependable planning committee. A big budget too – more than $100,000. Lots of sponsoring organizations in Casper and throughout Wyoming.

The third ESBF will be held Sept. 24-25 at Casper College and environs. I’m on the committee but the real work is done by the Casper organizers, notably co-chairs Laurie Lye and Holly Wendt of Casper College.

Here’s to you, bookfest organizers. Lots of work and little glory. But people come out to see their favorite authors and buy books. Every year, bookfest authors go to local schools to get kids excited about reading. Bookstores sell books. Authors read from their books. There’s a late-night slam for poets. Workshops for striving writers and poets.

We’ve all learned some lessons since that first bookfest when the smoke and ashes from 9/11 were still in the air.

The Hitch was not officially an historic site, just the place of many memories for many people. Nine years ago it was the place where we constructed the foundation for bookfests to come. Now it’s smoke and ruins.

See you in Casper Sept. 24-25 as we keep building bookfest traditions in Wyoming.

--Michael Shay

This story was cross-posted (in a slightly different form) from the hummingbirdminds blog

Meet the Equality State Book Festival authors: John Vernon

Another distinguished author appearing at the Equality State Book Festival Sept. 24-25 in Casper:

John Vernon is a Massachusetts native who now lives in Colorado. He was educated at Boston College and the University of California at Davis, and has taught at the University of Utah and Binghamton University (S.U.N.Y.) He is the author of eleven books, including the book of poems Ann, the memoir A Book of Reasons, and the novels La Salle, Lindbergh's Son, Peter Doyle, All for Love: Baby Doe and Silver Dollar, The Last Canyon, and Lucky Billy. His work has appeared in Harper's, Poetry, American Poetry Review, The Nation, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Book Review, and many other magazines, journals, and newspapers. Two of his books have been named New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and he has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts grants.

Vernon is the 21st faculty member at Binghamton University to be named a Distinguished Professor and now teaches there each spring semester. For the rest of the year, he lives in the mountains of northern Colorado and combines a routine of writing and mountain climbing. In Colorado, he is also affiliated with the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

John Vernon will be on stage for “Imagining Billy the Kid: A Reading from Lucky Billy” on Friday, Sept. 24, 7:30-8:30 p.m., in the Aley Fine Arts Center Durham Hall at Casper College. The event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Meet the Equality State Book Festival presenters: Jaimee Wriston Colbert

Jaimee Wriston Colbert is one of the presenters for the Equality State Book Festival Sept. 24-25 in Casper.

Here's some info about Jaimee:

Jaimee Wriston Colbert is the author of a new novel, Shark Girls, nominated for the ALA Notable Books of 2010 List and a finalist for the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Awards; a linked stories collection, Dream Lives of Butterflies, which won the gold medal in the 2008 Independent Publisher Awards; a novel in stories, Climbing the God Tree, winner of the Willa Cather Fiction Prize; and the story collection Sex, Salvation, and the Automobile, winner of the Zephyr Publishing Prize. Her stories have appeared in numerous journals, including TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Tampa Review, Connecticut Review and New Letters, broadcast on “Selected Shorts,” archived in “New Letters on the Air,” and anthologized. Two recent stories won the Jane’s Stories National Short Story Award, 2008, and the Isotope Editors’ Fiction Prize, 2009. Originally from Hawai’i, she is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at SUNY, Binghamton University.

Jaimee will wrap up the festival with “Stories that Bite Back: A Reading from Shark Girls” from 8-9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25, in the Aley Fine Arts Center, Durham Hall, Casper College. The event is free and open to the public.

Shark Girls has been nominated for the ALA Notable Books of 2010 List and as a finalist for the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Awards. The novel takes place in Hawai’i and follows the lives of two sisters, from Hawai’i to Maine, in the aftermath of a shark attack in Oahu. Books will be available for purchase and signing at this event.

For a full schedule of bookfest events, go to http://www.equalitystatebookfest.com/