Henry Real Bird will conduct "Shadow of Home" writing workshop March 3 at the Laramie County Public Library

In conjunction with Wyoming's Poetry Out Loud state competition, guest judge and Native-American poet Henry Real Bird will be facilitating a public workshop on Sunday, March 3, at the Laramie County Library, from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m., in the Cottonwood Room on the main floor.

Henry's theme for the workshop, "Shadow of Home" will "take participants beyond reflection and past the stars, sending our thoughts in search of rhyme, exploring realms of dreaming in sound and tunes of a life." 

This workshop is free and open to the public.

How about a WWInc membership for that writer on your gift list?

I've been attending the annual conference of Wyoming Writers, Inc., since I first came to Wyoming in 1991. I've been to June conferences in Cody (twice), Casper (many times), Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Sundance (Bear Lodge Writers home turf), Riverton (the year after the hotel caught fire) and Thermopolis (with my teen daughter). In 2013, the conference will be in Laramie for (I think) the first time. This June 7-9 conference is shaping up to be a fine one despite the fact that I am one of the presenters. You've been forewarned! I'll be talking about short stories and will be shilling my new book which, I hope, will be hot off the presses come May. I'll also address blogging and social media for writers.

Who are some of the writers, editors and agents featured at WWInc conferences? Glad you asked. Performance poet M.L. Liebler, mystery writer Margaret Coel, novelist Tim Sandlin, Graywolf Press editor Katie Dublinski, Coffee House Press publisher Chris Fishbach, Hollywood screenwriter Ben Garant, father/daughter poetry team Robert and Lee Ann Roripaugh, poet and musician David Romtvedt, western novelist Johnny Boggs, essayist Teresa Jordan, folklorist Hal Cannon, romance novelist Amanda Cabot and scores of others. 

Wyoming Writers, Inc. (WWInc) has had its ups and downs over its 38 years. Some of its founders remain active members, and one of the challenges is attracting and keeping new members. Here's one way to do this, taken from the new and improved WWInc web site:

WHAT DO YOU GIVE A WRITER? If you're looking for a special Christmas gift for your favorite writer, or perhaps there's a birthday coming up that deserves something more than another book, lunch out or a gift certificate to the same ol' place... Consider giving a membership to Wyoming Writers, Inc., the oldest statewide, multi-genre writers' organization in Wyoming! Go to the "Become a Member or Renew Your Membership" page and either fill out the form online or print and mail it, with the appropriate payment (add student ID information if needed) to: Wyoming Writers, Inc., P. O. Box 999, Sundance, WY 82729 Help us increase our membership and give a wonderful gift to a writer at the same time!

I'm a member so this is not the appropriate gift for me. A much better gift would be a Kindle or perhaps that beard trimmer I have been looking at with envy. No neckties, thank you very much! And especially no Wyoming neckties (know what I mean?)

Did I mention that WWInc is a recipient of a Wyoming Governor's Arts Award?

Anyway, it's a great group. Its members are accomplished and friendly, and always find a way to put on a smashing conference.

Give the gift of membership. You'll be glad you did.

News from the Equality State Book Festival

Most states have at least one statewide book festival. Some, such as Arizona, have several. Wyoming's Equality State Book Festival has been held every other year since 2006 in Casper. It's organized by a committee made up of Casper College faculty and staff and members of the community. And me, Mike Shay of Cheyenne, fiction writer and the individual arts specialist at the Wyoming Arts Council. This year's co-drectors are Holly Wendt and Laurie Lye of Casper College. They just sent me this exciting news:

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.

Gathering of writers and fellow travelers in Cheyenne

Last night the Wyoming Arts Council held its annual Governor’s Arts Awards event. A record crowd was on hand in the Little America ballroom in Cheyenne to celebrate the awardees and to hear Gov. Matt Mead’s first “State of the Arts” speech.  For more on that, go to Karen Cotton’s article in this morning’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle at http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2011/02/12/news/19local_02-12-11.txt

It also was old home week for artists and arts supporters from around the state. This was especially true for writers because Nancy Curtis, proprietor of High Plains Press, was one of the awardees.  Nancy runs the press from her working ranch near Glendo. In the video that accompanied her award, Nancy is shown tending to her books and her cattle, not always in that order. She also showed off her and her husband Doug’s homestead, including the room where she grew up. I never knew that Nancy lived in the same house she grew up in. She showed off the old sign on the bedroom door that said “Nanci” in big letters. Underneath that was “Press.” Guess she always knew she was getting into the publishing biz.

Nancy has been a huge supporter of writers in Wyoming. This is through her press but also through her early work organizing the statewide organizations for writers – Wyoming Writers, Inc., and WyoPoets. Both organizations have annual gatherings that are energizing, informative and fun. WyoPoets will meet during the last weekend in April in Casper and WWInc will meet the first weekend in June, also in Casper. I’ve been a WWInc member for at least a decade and plan my summer schedule around the conference. I just volunteered to run the late-night open mike sessions which are a blast. Last year in Cody we heard some intriguing new voices, one of whom (Jayme Feary) won a Wyoming Arts Council creative writing award later that summer. Another newbie, Reid Rosenthal, just published the first in his “Threads West” series of historical westerns.  To see the line-up of presenters for this year’s conference, go to http://www.wyowriters.org/conference.html.

Last night, Nancy and Doug were surrounded by long-time friends from around the state. Among them were Pat Frolander, Gaydell Collier, Katie Smith and Jeanne Rogers from Sundance, Midge Farmer from Gillette, Barb Smith from Rock Springs, Wyoming Poet Laureate Emeritus Bob Roripaugh from Laramie, Linda Hasselstrom from Hermosa, S.D. (lived in Cheyenne for a decade), Page Lambert, a one-time Crook County resident and Bear Lodge Writers members who now lives in Colorado. I know there were more but you can’t see everybody at an event with 500 people.

I sat with my wife Chris and daughter Annie. Also Joy Thompson, who hired me at the Arts Council 20 years ago and was my first mentor in the world of arts administration. She now lives in Lakewood, a suburb of Denver, and hope we can visit again soon. One thing’s clear – it’s great to see old friends. I’ve lived in so many places during my six decades. I’ve met many people and had some good friends that I’ve let drift away.

We connect occasionally via e-mail and Facebook. But it’s a real treat when you get to sit down with someone and just talk. It may be a sign of age or a byproduct of our frenetic e-lives (or both). We all ache to spend time with family and friends and even colleagues. I find it strange that this shy and withdrawn kid now has a public life. Chris will tell you that one of my catch-phrases is “I hate the living.” Yes, it’s a movie quote, this one by the quirky woman coroner in “Men in Black.” I usually say it in relation to some talentless media star who materializes on the plasma TV screen. I’ll have to amend that to “I hate or at least strongly dislike some of the living.” That means you, Lindsay Lohan and Glenn Beck!  

Merwin poem fitting close to Arizona memorial

University of Arizona President Robert Shelton at Wednesday’s memorial for the Tucson shooting victims:

SHELTON: I know conclude the program tonight by reading a poem that was written by W.S. Merwin who is the current poet laureate of the United States of America. Mister Merwin has a long history with the Poetry Center here at the University of Arizona.

To the New Year

With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible

W.S. Merwin
from Present Company, Copper Canyon Press

Thanks to Joshua Robbins for posting the poem at http://againstoblivion.blogspot.com

History of book festivals in Wyoming, part two

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 that year, too.

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. Kathy Murphy, secretary to Wyoming Dept. of Commerce Chief 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.

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 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 Wyoming writers. For the life of me, I can’t understand how he can be a booklover and also tolerate some of the Know Nothing views of his Republican Party.

Sen. Enzi also was in town for a very somber event. This was the funeral of one of the first G.I.’s killed in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Spec. Jonn Edmunds of Cheyenne was on a helicopter bringing 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. We had some of the best anthology editors in Wyoming 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 on 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.

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 downtown Cheyenne. It’s 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 people, especially the co-chairs Laurie Lye and Holly Wendt.

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 from 9/11 was still in the air.

The Hitch was not officially an historic site, just the place of many memories for many people. It fell on hard times, then sold to new owners and then closed by the health department. Nine years ago it was the place where some concerned citizens constructed the foundation for bookfests to come. Part of the state's creative economy, you might say.

Now it’s smoke and ruins.

See you in Casper as we keep building bookfest traditions.

Poet wraps up 2009 Wyoming Legislature

The Wyoming Legislature ended its 2009 session with a reading -- and a bit of accordion playing -- from our poet laureate, David Romtvedt of Buffalo.

David's one of those multi-talented guys who writes great poetry, plays an assortment of musical instruments (solo and with his band, Fireants), teaches a broad array of college courses and is bilingual. He's attempting to become multilingual, taking courses in the Basque language. It's not an easy language, having roots back to Europe's earliest (and now defunct) tongues. David just returned from the Basque County and had a new song for the legislature.

It was a fandango, which he played on a new Basque accordion and sang in the native language. Members of the Wyoming House and senate were attentive as David performed, and then read a new poem, "The Age of Risk." He also thanked the legislature for their ongoing support of the arts, arts education and the Wyoming Arts Council.

This is the fifth year David's been a guest at the legislature. Usually he performs earlier in the session in order to charge up its members for any arts-related bills on the docket. He may be a good luck charm, as the Wyoming Arts Council's budget has gone up during that same time. And it has nothing to do with multimillion-dollar budget surpluses due to taxes on extractive energy projects. Just a coincidence...

This evening, David was set to talk poetry and accordion at Hobbs Elementary School's "Night of Arts," along with Aussie storyteller Paul Taylor from Laramie and several other artists. That's the school my kids attended. While there, they received a good background in the arts. My son played the trumpet and my daughter, the violin. Lots of writing in the classroom, as well as Young Authors and "Letters About Literature" contests.

After David's legislative appearance, I asked him about the Basque song. He said it was a song by a Basque songwriting team. The subject was the first woman Palestinian suicide bomber who died during the Arab-Israeli clashes. He translated the words, and noted that there is no judgement in the song, no taking sides on whether the bomber was good or bad. Just the story of her dying. It seemed an odd song to be playing to our very conservative legislature. David said he would have told them what it was about, but nobody asked.

Don't miss Wyoming's Equality State Bookfest 9/18-9/20 in Casper

Wyoming boasts two successful statewide book festivals. Not bad for the least populated state in the nation. During odd years, the Wyoming Book Festival lights up Cheyenne. During even years, the Equality State Book Festival brings thousands of readers to events throughout Casper.

The 2008 Equality State Bookfest kicks off this Thursday with writing workshops, readings, history presentations and school visits by writers. The Wyoming Arts Council's creative writing fellowship winners will read with Colorado fiction writer Laura Pritchett at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Casper College Library. Jack Gantos, author of the "Rotten Ralph" series of children's books, will offer some tips (and a taste of his wild humor) on becoming a children's book author at 4 p.m. in Casper College's Wold Physical Science Center. The University of Wyoming's top-notch creative writing faculty offers workshops on Thursday and Friday. That includes fiction writer Alyson Hagy, nonfiction writer Beth Loffreda, and poets David Romtvedt and H.L. Hix. Bookfest co-director Laurie Lye tells me that there's still room in some of these workshops. Register now at http://www.equalitystatebookfest.org!

Friday's highlight will be Alexandra Fuller's 7:30 p.m. talk about her new book, "The Legend of Colton H. Bryant," a 2008 Book Sense selection. This nonfiction account of one young man from Wyoming and his tragic death in the oil patch has generated a flurry of controversy. It also takes the reader inside a dangerous occupation, one that's claimed a record number of workers' lives in the state this year.

Friday offers a continuation of the writing workshops and tips on oral history projects from Nebraska's Twyla Hansen at the National Historic Trails Center on the ridge above Casper. The evening features a banquet with keynote speaker Gary Ferguson of Montana. A poetry slam follows at the Metro Coffee Company.

Saturday is the big day, with a book fair at the Nicolaysen Art Museum downtown, a trout-fishing panel with national expert authors, and an array of panels on poetry, publishing, and "stories of the West." Laramie's Mark Jenkins will be there. A real treat, since he spends most of his time climbing mountains in Chile and kayaking Africans rivers -- and then writing about it.

One bit of friendly advice: don't miss the bookfest in Casper Sept. 18-20. If you have any questions, ask me, as I'm on the planning committee -- and have been from the beginning.

"What is the role of the writer?"

Charles Simic has been named the new Poet Laureate of the U.S., or PLOTUS, as Simic's predecessor, Donald Hall, used to call himself.

The actual title is even longer: Poet Laureate Consultant to the U.S. Library of Congress. No great acronym in that.

Simic has always been outspoken, especially when it comes to war. In October 2002, he signed on to a display ad in the New York Times opposing Pres. Bush's plan to invade Iraq. If only POTUS had listened...

According to the NYT:

Born in Belgrade in 1938, he knew war as a child. “Germans and the Allies took turns dropping bombs on my head while I played with my collection of lead soldiers on the floor,” Simic told The Cortland Review. “I would go boom, boom, and then they would go boom, boom.”

“I’m sort of the product of history; Hitler and Stalin were my travel agents.”

War and morality are subjects Simic has spoken about often, and according to a 2005 interview in The Paris Review, they are always on his mind: “The use of murder to improve the world, for instance, is popular in American intellectual circles as if there had never been any historical precedents. I think about these things all the time.”

He bridles at the suggestion that writers should march in lockstep on this issue -- or any other. When asked if his personal beliefs would enter into his very public role as PLOTUS, he replied:

“That reminds me so much of the way the young Communists in the days of Stalin at big party congresses would ask, ‘What is the role of the writer?’ But isn’t that question -- “What is the role of the writer?” -- one we are still asking? Do we know the answer yet?"

We don't know the answer yet. Each of us need to keep asking the question.