Save the date for the Mad Hatter Tea Party at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

FMI: Darcee, at Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, 307−637−6458

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.

"Reading Rocks" Saturday at City News in downtown Cheyenne

Meet "The Lunch Box Lady" March 24 at the Paramount Cafe

Carbon County Library System promises "boot-stompin' good time" with new reading program

http://carbonlibraries.org

"Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" Jan. 27 in Casper

ENCHANTMENT THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE
January 27, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.
John F. Welsh Auditorium, Natrona County High School, Casper
Stage adaptation based on the book by William Steig, author of Shrek

When Sylvester, a winsome young donkey, picks up a shiny red pebble, its magic spins a heart-warming story that reveals to him the true importance of family and friends. With life-size puppets, masked actors, magical illusions, innovative sets and costumes, and original musical score, Enchantment Theatre transforms this Caldecott Medal-winning book into a delightful adaptation for the stage. Who will love Sylvester? Everyone from young children all the way up to their grandparents – anyone who believes in happy endings and that there is no place like home. The last production Enchantment Theatre brought to Casper was HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON.

Enchantment Theatre Company has produced original theater for school groups and families since 2000, when it was established as a non-profit arts organization in Philadelphia. The company presents only original work based on classic stories from children's literature. Building on the more than 30 years of theatrical experience of its artistic directors, Enchantment has quickly become known for high quality imaginative productions, not only in its home city but throughout the United States and the Far East.

Enchantment has toured its original productions all over the world, appearing each year in more than 30-40 states. It has performed in such sophisticated urban arts venues as Lincoln Center in New York and the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, as well as in small town high school auditoriums and even performance tents. In Philadelphia, Enchantment has appeared at the Kimmel Center and the Annenberg Center. The company has also toured Asia six times.

Tickets: http://www.artcorewy.com/tickets.php

"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.

Helen Schmill announces publication of three books

Helen Schmill

Casper writer Helen Schmill announces publication of three books through Xlibris:

"A Morning with God," an illustrated children's book
"Paradise Lost 2011," described as "a reading play for churches and schools"
"A Grandmother's Old Testament Hymns," a living autobiography

Order copies of Helen's books through amazon.com, xlibris.com or through http://www.wix.com/helenschmill/books#!contact

Lynn Friess wins IPPY Award for "Western Lullaby"

From a press release:

A Jackson Hole picture book, Western Lullaby, written by Lynn Estes Friess (shown in photo) and illustrated by Barbara Leonard Gibson (Mariposa Ranch Press, 2010), has won a gold medal in the national 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Launched in 1996, the “IPPY” Awards are designed to bring increased recognition to deserving but often unsung titles from independent publishers.  Western Lullaby by Jackson Hole resident Lynn Friess took first place in the category of “Children’s Picture Books (7 & Under).”

Author Friess, a grandmother of 10 and avid art collector, wrote the award-winning Western Lullaby as a bedtime story focusing on the nocturnal sights and sounds of the West, combining the dreamy tale of a little cowgirl’s nighttime surroundings with vivid illustrations by Gibson of the Western outdoors.  An audio CD of the lullaby that inspired the book is included, performed by Wyoming singer-songwriter Marilee Gordon.

This year’s “IPPY” Awards presented gold, silver and bronze medals to winners in 69 national categories as well as regional awards and 12 Outstanding Books of the Year.  Western Lullaby tied for the gold in its category with Henry! You’re Late Again! by Mary Evanson Bleckwehl, illustrated by Brian Barber (Beaver’s Pond Press).  According to Independent Publisher, the 346 medal-winning books for 2011 came from a pool of 3,907 total entries, representing 45 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, seven Canadian provinces, and seven countries overseas.  A full listing of the 2011 “IPPY” Award winners is available here on the Independent Publisher website.

Western Lullaby was the first picture book written by Friess, a close friend and supporter of the Jackson Hole-based National Museum of Wildlife Art.  In September 2010, Friess published her second picture book, Jackson Hole’s Carl Discovers Wildlife Art, illustrated by John Potter, and written as an engaging way to introduce children to wildlife art and the museum.  The Carl title is the first in a planned series, and proceeds from the book help sponsor programs, exhibits and operating support for the museum.

Media Contact: Ponteir Sackrey, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 307.732.5444, psackrey@wildlifeart.org

"Where the Wild Things Are" -- Cheyenne celebrates Maurice Sendak

Author Gene Gagliano to sign books at Wyoming State Museum on Oct. 30

Children’s Author Eugene Gagliano will hold a book signing at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne, Saturday, October 30, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Gagliano, a Wyoming Arts Council roster artist, has written several children’s books including “C is for Cowboy: A Wyoming Alphabet,” and “Four Wheels West: A Wyoming Number Book.”

Many of the Buffalo-based writer's books will be available for purchase.

The Wyoming State Museum is located in the Barrett Building, 2301 Central Avenue in Cheyenne.

FMI: 307-777-7022.

Gene Gagliano signs latest children's book July 8 at State Museum

The newest children’s book about Wyoming will be available at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne on Thursday, July 8. Wyoming author Gene Gagliano wrote “Little Wyoming,” which is in board book form for the youngest book lovers.

Gagliano will sign copies of his books from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and again from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 8, at the State Museum.

The event is free and open to the public.

"Get Your Troop in a Group" book signing

Sheridan Stationery, Books & Gallery, 206 N. Main in downtown Sheridan, will be holding a book signing on Saturday, March 6, 11-1 p.m., for Kari Massie McLaughlin, author of "Get Your Troop in a Group".

"So many groups of animals; now tell me, what's the scoop? What's a group of kangaroos called: a herd, a band, a troop?"

People form a group, but what do animals form when they gather together? With delightful rhyme, this book answers just that. Travel with the animals to "Get Your Troop in a Group!"

The author grew up in Sheridan but now lives in Gillette.

FMI: 1-888-266-5730

Maurice Sendak illustrations come to National Museum of Wildlife Art

From a press release:

Show me wild new ways,” a wolfish Max commands in an early draft of Where the Wild Things Are. That early vision of the award-winning 10-line story that came to life as an $80-plus million Hollywood movie is just one of 30 original illustrations celebrating Sendak’s animal artistry on view in a new family-friendly exhibition, “Wild New Ways: Maurice Sendak’s Animal Kingdom,” at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyo., May 15-Sept. 19. Works for the exhibition, drawn from the Rosenbach Museum & Library’s collection of over 10,000 Sendak drawings, manuscripts and working materials, demonstrate the range of styles with which the artist captures textures of fur, feathers, and scales – from the precisely drawn pen and ink bats of The Bat-Poet to the soft watercolors of Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present.

From wild things to domestic animals, and mythical beasts to common farm animals, Maurice Sendak has included animals of some kind in almost every one of the 108 books he has illustrated. In addition to his nuanced rendering of the animals themselves, he famously delves into themes involving the wild and tame in all of us – in keeping with the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s mission of using original art to probe humanity’s relationship with nature.

Over a 60-year career that includes the classic 1964 Caldecott Medal-winning Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak has found that “each book demands an individual stylistic approach.” While his artwork references both artists of the past and pop culture, his driving motivation has always been to satisfy the child in himself.” One of the best-known creators of contemporary children's books, Sendak has won every important prize in children's literature, including the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration (1970), the National Medal of Arts (1996), and a Library of Congress "Living Legend" medal (2000).

Media Contacts: Darla Worden, WordenGroup Strategic Public Relations, 307.734.5335, darla@wordenpr.com; Zeenie Scholz, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 307.732.5437, zscholz@wildlifeart.org

Children's lit writing workshop at Fishtrap

Plenty of writing workshops and literary conferences and bookfests scheduled for the region in September and October. But here's one more, this one in eastern Oregon near scenic Lake Wallowa:

Now is the time to sign up for Fishtrap's sixth annual Children’s Literature Writing Workshop, which will be held September 11-13 at the Fishtrap house in Enterprise, Ore. Featured are two outstanding Pacific Northwest writers, Meg Lippert (http://www.storypower.net/) and Rosanne Parry (http://www.rosanneparry.com/), who will lead 24 participants on a “Voyage of Discovery: Exploring Setting and Character in Story.”

Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, and berths on board are already going. For more information and to register, go to www.fishtrap.org/children.shtml. Cost is $215, including all meals except Saturday breakfast.

Cat Urbigkit: "Perros guardianes, perros valientes" due out in August

Pinedale writer and photographer Cat Urbigkit sends this news:

I wanted to share news about the bilingual (Spanish) edition release of my "Brave Dogs, Gentle Dogs" ("Perros guardianes, perros valientes") book. It's featured in the Boyds Mills Press fall 2009 catalog. The new edition was honored as a Junior Library Guild selection in Spring 2009 before its August release date, and will be featured in the September 2009 issue of Junior Library Guild Monthly.

Just in case you wanted to buy a copy at your favorite Wyoming independent bookstore, here are details about the book:

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press; Bilingual edition (August 2009)
ISBN-10: 1590786742
ISBN-13: 978-1590786741
Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.8 x 0.2 inches

New children's book by Colo. author explores plight of "The No-No Boys"

The following Dec. 7 event is happening just down I-25 in Fort Collins, Colo. Bailiwick Press in Fort Collins has published a new book by Teresa Funke called "The No-No Boys." It's a children's book about the Japanese-American young men in the West's World War II internment camps who said "no" to serving in the U.S. armed forces. As you probably know, the Heart Mountain camp was located in Park County, Wyoming, and Camp Amache was located in southeastern Colorado.

Here's the info from a press release:

Bring your family and friends to a fun party for our new book, "The No-No Boys." We'll have refreshments, drawings for free books, displays on WWII and the Japanese internment camps, hands-on activities for kids, a reading and book-signing.

Buy any Teresa Funke book on the day of the party and receive a free latté at the Reader's Cove coffee shop!

All the activities happen on Sunday, December 7, which is Pearl Harbor Day, noon-4 p.m. Teresa will give a short talk about the internment camps and read an excerpt at 1 p.m. at the Reader's Cove bookstore, 1001 E. Harmony Road, Fort Collins.

Questions? E-mail Teresa: teresa@bailiwickpress.com.

Next Jackson Hole Writers Conference set for June 25-28, 2009

The seventeenth annual Jackson Hole Writers Conference will be held June 25-June 28, 2009, at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson.

While the full line-up of presenters hasn’t been announced the conference will feature these special tracks for 2009:

Travel and outdoor writing: Learn how to craft your adventure writing to tell the perfect story of discovery, and get paid for your traveling addiction.

Young adult fiction: Explore the burgeoning field of fiction for young people.

Poetry: Hone your skills in workshops and critique sessions with one of America’s premier poets.

Jackson Hole Writers Conference will also be offering tracks in both creative nonfiction and fiction.

FMI: http://www.jacksonholewritersconference.com/

WAC fellowship winners read at bookfest

Doug Reitinger of Sheridan, Kevin Holdsworth of Green River, and Valerie Pexton of Laramie will join Colorado's Laura Pritchett in a fiction reading on Thursday, Sept. 18, 1:30-3:30 p.m. in the Goodstein Foundation Library on the Casper College campus. The reading is part of a three-day schedule of Equality State Book Festival events, and is free and open to the public.

Reitinger, Holdsworth and Pexton were selected by Pritchett as winners of the 2009 Wyoming Arts Council creative writing fellowships in fiction.

So come to the fellowship reading -- and stay for wacky children's writer Jack Gantos at 4 p.m. in the Wheeler Auditorium, and Thursday's featured speaker Alexandra Fuller who'll be talking about her latest book, "The Legend of Colton H. Bryant," at 7:30 p.m. in the Aley Fine Arts Center's Durham Hall. These events are also free. Both authors will be signing books after their presentations.

Get a full schedule of events at the bookfest web site at http://www.equalitystatebookfest.org.

For more info on fellowships, contact Mike Shay, WAC, 307-777-5234.

Parton presented National Medal of the Arts at annual NASAA Conference

On Thursday, Dolly Parton became the first person from Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to be awarded the National Medal of Arts.

She also became the first person to ever receive the nation's highest medal for artistic achievement out of the annual White House ceremony in D.C.

Parton couldn't attend the D.C. ceremony because she's extremely busy with a few small projects, such as a new album and a Broadway musical. So NEA Chair Dana Gioia flew from D.C. to Chattanooga to present her the medal personally at the annual gathering of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, an organization that represents those that work at 56 state (and territorial) arts agencies. That includes the Wyoming Arts Council (and your intrepid correspondent, wyomingarts).

Parton's dress sparkled in the spotlights. She was pretty sparkly herself, wearing one of her "Book Lady" dresses, more modest than her well-known low-cut attire. She talked about her favorite subject -- free books for young children.

"I've been trying for a long time to get this medal," she said after an introduction by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. "I just flew in from Los Angeles because they're making a musical of '9-to-5' and I'm writing all of the music."

"9-to-5" was one of the most successful movies of the 1980s. It featured Parton and other working women being stepped on by an overbearing boss. Her title song was a top-ten hit the year the movie came out. It also won a Grammy.

She said that someone asked her if she was reprising her role in the musical. "I said no -- it's called '9-to-5' not '95'."

She's most energized about her "Imagination Library." It began as a county-wide project to give free books to every child from birth to five years old. It's expanded all across Tennessee, the U.S. and into the U.K.

"We've mailed out 15 million books since it started," Parton said. "Call us greedy or crazy, but we do whatever it takes to help a child read more, learn more and be more."

The project has garnered a lot of partners along the way, including the Tennessee Arts Commission and United Way.

Parton's inspiration came from her father who couldn't read or write. He went to work as a young boy and kept on working to feed his own 12 kids in backwoods Tennessee.

"He's the smartest man I ever knew," she said. "My dad was still alive when I started this program. He's the one who started calling me Book Lady."

Fifteen million volumes later, the Book Lady is still at it.