Young artist from Afton blends the arts of ceramics and gardening

Kira Call is a young artist from Afton and is spending summer break from Utah State University working at Afton's Hi Mountain Floral. Some of her recent artwork blends her interests in ceramics and growing fruits and veggies. You can see her work on her Facebook page. I would post samples here but Blogger is not letting me post photos today. What gives, Blogger?

Here's Kira's artist's statement from Facebook:

Art is my life. I honestly have no idea where I would be without it. I love drawing, CERAMICS, painting, sculpting, and pretty much anything else that I can get my hands on. I love to play guitar-- but more specifically, I can get lost in the world of classical guitar music. I love the intricacy and emotion in it. I have become literally obsessed with ceramics... and making teapots, to be more specific-- I don't think my first teapots look too terrible. The best way to learn is to keep challenging myself to go further ;) I believe in doing things for my own reasons. I enjoy walking alone in the forest, drinking tea, bike riding, and surprising people. I dare you to try and find someone just like me ;)

Fractured Atlas visits the Wyoming Arts Council

Adam J. Natale from Fractured Atlas in NYC dropped by the Wyoming Arts Council this week. After a weekend on the road working with arts groups in Denver and Fort Collins, he decided to make the short drive up I-25 to Cheyenne.

As is the case with many artists, Adam found himself working in arts administration. After a five-year stint at the National Endowment for the Arts, he joined Fractured Atlas. It's a non-profit organization that helps artists and arts organizations with fund-raising, insurance, advocacy, technology and education, among other services.

It keeps overhead low with a heavy Internet presence. But Adam said that it's expanding its presence outside of the East Coast arts corridor, working with South Arts in Atlanta, the Utah Arts Council in Salt Lake City and Colorado Creative Industries in Denver. Organization staffers also work with individual artists all over the U.S.

Fractured Atlas provides helpful "pocket guides," such as "Insurance for Film Makers" and "Insurance for Dancers and Dance Companies." The user-friendly 12-page guides address insurance issues relating to liability, health care, disability, etc.

Wyomingarts thanked Adam for dropping by, and invited him to return to Wyoming for a presentation about his organization.

Meanwhile, check out the org's web site at www.fracturedatlas.org

"One of the most admired novelists in the world" addresses Mountain West Arts Conference

Not in Wyoming, but within striking distance:

As a teen, Chris Abani was imprisoned by the Nigerian government for his writings. Abani now teaches at University of California Riverside and will be the keynote speaker at the 2011 Mountain West Arts Conference May 5 at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, West Valley City, Utah. The event includes the Governor’s Leadership in the Arts Awards ceremony. FMI: 801-236-7550, kwoslager@utah.gov, http://artsandmuseums.utah.gov/resources/professional_development/conferences/index.html

More about the keynote speaker:

Chris Abani is one of the most admired novelists in the world today. He is also an evocative speaker whose talks -- near musical in their fluidity, heartbreak and joy -- mix the personal and the political. His luminous and very funny insights are a vital statement on the redemptive power of art to battle tyranny and to remind us of our common humanity. "Happiness," he has said, "is learning to live with difficulty and grace." Abani is the recipient of the PEN Freedom-to-Write Award and many other prizes. His bestselling novel, Graceland, about an Elvis impersonator in Lagos, won the Hemingway/PEN Prize. His other works of fiction include The Virgin of Flames, Becoming Abigail, and the award-winning Song For Night, about a child soldier who has lost his voice. All three were named a New York Times Editor's Choice.

Author Karen Brennan reads from her work March 25 at WWCC in Rock Springs

Karen Brennan, author of five books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, will read from her work on Friday, March 25. The event will take place at Western Wyoming Community College in Room 1302 at 7:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Brennan’s books include The Garden in Which I Walk, a collection of stories published by University of Alabama Press in 2004; The Real Enough World, a collection of poetry from Wesleyan University Press in 2006, and the memoir Being With Rachel: A Story of Memory and Survival, published by WW Norton in 2002 and nominated by the publisher for a Pulitzer Prize. Her fiction, poetry and nonfiction have also appeared in numerous anthologies and journals.

Of the stories in The Garden in Which I Walk, writer Kevin McElvoy says, “They are ten triumphs in a single volume. Karen Brennan's jazz-infused fiction demoniacally crashes us into our delusions, our states of despairing satiation and of happy hungering.”  A reviewer for The Compulsive Reader adds, “Her constant question is ‘where do men and women go when they have reached the end?’ The answer may be bleak but there is no doubt about the seriousness of the quest or the authority with which the writer describes it.”

Brennan’s memoir, Being with Rachel, recounts her daughter’s efforts, with her own devoted help, to recover from a brain injury suffered in a motorcycle accident. According to writer Antonya Nelson, the book “advocates illustrates and demonstrates the superhuman power of family, its ability to triumph in the face of worst-case scenarios, institutional aloofness, bad luck, and the evil influence of conventional wisdom.” Charles Baxter praises it as a book that explores “the mystery of an unbreakable love between a mother and her daughter.”

In a review of The Real Enough World, Brennan’s most recent book of poetry, Sue Butler of Poetry Salzburg Review writes, “This is a compelling book that mines the hurt of human life to great effect. It contains tragedy and irony, splashes of humor, failure, love, insight and song…but mostly it contains bravery.”

Brennan comments on the diverse nature of her work thusly: “I am a believer in hybrid forms, fictions that shade into nonfiction, poetry that becomes story or essay. What's exciting to me is working in-between genres, not being ‘trapped’ in one genre with all its conventional expectations. I like to think that my teaching liberates my students to try new things, to find their own paths to their very distinctive and idiosyncratic materials.”

Karen Brennan holds a PhD from University of Arizona and an MFA from Goddard. She is a Professor of English at the University of Utah where she teaches in the graduate creative writing program, and has served as faculty at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers since 1992.  Among her awards are a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship and an Associated Writing Program award. 

In addition to her public reading, Brennan will give a three-hour writing workshop on Friday afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m., as part of a one-credit Visiting Writers course.

The event is sponsored by the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation and by the WWCC English Department. It is the last of four readings in the Spring 2011 Visiting Writers series, which also included journalist and historian Tom Rea, Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt, and Colorado poet and editor Maria Melendez. 

For more information, contact Rick Kempa at rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu.

Photo – Karen Brennan, author of five books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, will read from her work at Western Wyoming Community College on March 25 at 7:30 p.m. Brennan’s visit is part of the annual Visiting Writers Series sponsored by the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation and the WWCC English Department.

Call for entries: UVU Woodbury Art Museum

Amanda Luker sends this call for entries from the Woodbury Art Museum:

The Utah Valley University’s Woodbury Art Museum announces a call to artists for a juried art competition June 3-Sept. 23, 2011. Up to $5,000 in purchase awards. Juror is Erin Linder, Director of Exhibitions at the Kimball Art Center. Art of OUR CENTURY engages the aesthetic dialog of today and reflects contemporary visual imagery, ideas and experience. Entry deadline is May 6, 2011. Rules and application can be found at www.uvu.edu/museum. Call the museum at 801-863-4200 with any questions.

Wyoming native Teresa Jordan joins Brenda Miller for reading at Salt Lake City Main Library

Author and Wyoming native Teresa Jordan ("Riding the White Horse Home") joins Brenda Miller for a reading of their work on Wednesday, April 13 at 7 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Main Library, 210 East 400 South. Held in partnership with City Art at the Library.

On Saturday, Brenda Miller will conduct the following:

It’s time to re-boot your writing and refresh your screen, and Writers@Work has just the right software: The W@W re-Boot Camp for writers of personal story and memoir, featuring Brenda Miller, will provide a full day of good work with a top-notch writer/teacher to challenge the mind and good food to sustain the body.

re-Boot Camp will be held Saturday, April 16, at the SLC Main Library.

To register: Pay by check, reserve space by email to Lisa lisa@writersatwork.org AND send check to P.O. Box 540370, North Salt Lake, UT 84054-0370. Or register on line using Pay Pal.

The W@W re-Boot Camp will be limited to fifteen persons.

Utah's Repertory Dance Theatre performs Jan. 22 in Pinedale

The Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah will conduct a performance on Saturday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m., in the Pinedale Auditorium in Pinedale.

Prestigious dance company will perform "Time Capsule: A Century of Dance," a guided tour through a 100-year legacy of dance paying homage to 20th-century choreographers.

For more info, contact the Pinedale Fine Arts Council.

Help wanted: Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is looking for people to take tickets and check credentials and several other tasks at the event in nearby Park City, Utah, from Jan. 20-30. Get more info at http://webapp.sundance.org/jobs/index.asp. Film festival updates now on Facebook.  

Western history writers gathering in Kanab, Utah

This info was passed along by our old pal at the Utah Arts Council, Guy Lebeda:

Kanab will reach back to its literary roots when it hosts the first Writers of the Purple Sage retreat for Western history writers on October 8-9. In 1907 and 1908, struggling writer Zane Grey visited Kanab to gather information for his earliest Western novels and left armed with everything he needed to write Riders of the Purple Sage, perhaps the greatest novel of the Old West ever written. Now writers of historic fiction and non-fiction from throughout the region will travel again to Kanab and Utah’s redrock country to learn how to get their works published from award winning authors, publishers, editors and researchers.

One of the keynote speakers will be Will Bagley who has written and edited more than twenty books on overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and the Mormons. He lectures widely and has appeared in more than a dozen films, including the American Experience episode of “The Mormons” on PBS. Between 2000 and 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune published more than 200 of his columns and articles. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows won Best Books awards from the Western History Association, the Denver Public Library, Westerners International, and the Western Writers of America Spur Award. So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Oregon and California Trails, 1812–1848, the first of four volumes of “Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails,” is his most recent book.

Also keynoting the writers retreat will be Jana Richman, the award-winning author of two books. The first is The Last Cowgirl, a novel about a woman and her relationship with her family. The novel is set during the years leading up to and following the nerve gas leaks near Dugway Proving Ground that poisoned local livestock and blighted the rural lifestyle of local ranching communities. This novel won the 2009 Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction and the 2009 Utah Artys Award for Best Fiction. Her other book is Riding in the Shadows of Saints: A Woman’s Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail, a memoir that chronicles her emotional connection to pioneer women of her family who travelled this route from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City.

Also presenting will be James M. Aton, author of John Wesley Powell- His Life and Legacy; John R. Alley, Executive Editor of Utah State University Press; Kent Powell, Managing Editor of Utah Historical Quarterly; Janet Seegmiller, Special Collections Librarian at Southern Utah University’s Gerald R. Sherratt Library and Guy Lebeda, Literary Arts Coordinator for the Utah Arts Council.

Writers of the Purple Sage is a joint endeavor of Utah State History and the Center for Education, Business and the Arts with generous support from Canyon Book, Willow Canyon Outdoor, Dixie State College, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Kanab Chamber of Commerce, Kanab City, Kane County Office of Tourism, Southern Utah University, Southwest Applied Technology College, Utah Arts Council, Utah Cultural Heritage Council, and the Utah Humanities Council.

Existing or aspiring writers can register online at http://www.cebakanecounty.org/. For more information, contact Kelly Stowell at (435) 819-0443 or by email at stowell@dixie.edu.

Call for entries: Failbetter Novella Contest

From Guy Lebeda's LitOps newsletter:

Failbetter Novella Contest
Deadline: May 15, 2010
Web site: failbetter.com/newsandnotes/wordpress/?p=1
E-mail address: novella@failbetter.com.

A prize of $500 and publication in Failbetter will be given for a novella. All entries will be considered for publication. Submit the first 5,000 words of a manuscript by May 15. There is no entry fee. Visit the Web site for complete guidelines. Failbetter, Novella Contest, 2022 Grove Avenue, Richmond, VA 23220. Thom Didato, Editor.

Arts education in Mountain West one of hot topics at May 13 conference in Salt Lake City

One of the intriguing sessions at the "Mountain West Arts Conference: Risk and Reward" on May 13 in Salt Lake City is one on arts education:

The Status of Arts Education in Utah and the Mountain West, with Tim Bothel, Ph.D. of Bothell Assessment and Research

The Utah Arts Council, in partnership with the Utah State Office of Education, Montana Arts Council, Idaho Commission on the Arts and the Wyoming Arts Council with their sister education agencies conducted a survey about the status of arts education, K-12 in all four states. Tim Bothell will share with the audience the key findings of that survey, where Utah stands, how we compare to the other states, what educators want and how they perceive the role and importance of arts education. We all acknowledge the future of arts organizations and how we prepare kids to navigate a complex and global society is highly impacted by the quality of arts education children and youth receive. Join us as we explore where we are and where we want to go.

To register for the conference, go to http://artsandmuseums.utah.gov/resources/professional_development/conferences/index.html

Call for entries: Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize

Utah's Guy Lebeda writes the excellent LitOps e-mail newsletter. This contest opportunity was in the April issue. If you'd like to subscribe, e-mail Guy at gwl1973@gmail.com.

Here's the info:

University of Utah Press: Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry

Deadline: April 15, 2010

Entry Fee: $25

Web site: http://www.uofupress.com/

A prize of $1,000, publication by University of Utah Press, and an all-expenses-paid trip to give a reading in the Guest Writers Series at the University of Utah is given annually for a poetry collection. Submit a manuscript of 48 to 64 pages with a $25 entry fee by April 15. Send an SASE or visit the web site for complete guidelines.

The Spragg & Bell book barnstorming tour travels to Utah

Cody's Mark Spragg and Laura Bell interviewed by Doug Fabrizio for Salt Lake City's KUER http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/news.newsmain/article/0/184/1625146/RadioWest/31810.Writing.the.West

Blurb from KUER:

Wyoming writers Mark Spragg and Laura Bell are both inspired by the West - though they are writing from different perspectives. Spragg is a novelist. His books include "An Unfinished Life" and his latest "Bone Fire." Bell has just published a memoir called "Claiming Ground." They're on tour together, talking about the influence of the land on their characters and stories. Spragg and Bell are coming to Utah this weekend, and Thursday, they'll join us.

Friday, March 19th at 7:00 p.m., the King's English Bookshop and the Stegner Centerwill host Mark Spragg and Laura Bell at the Rowland Hall Upper School (843 Lincoln St, Salt Lake City). Their reading will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. For more information, call the store at 801-484-9100 or click here

"The Toll of War" hits stages in Utah

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

James Svendsen believes works of art about warriors from thousands of years ago might be used to serve warriors of today. The University of Utah dramaturge is helping produce a series of staged readings of "The Toll of War," two short one-act performances cut from Sophocles' 2,400-year-old plays "Ajax" and "Philoctetes."

"Ajax" tells the story of a suicidal warrior who takes his own life after struggling to come to terms with the unjust spoils of war. "Philoctetes" is a play about a disabled soldier who is abandoned by his commander.

Svendsen said it's not hard to find modern resonance in either play. And he hopes military members and veterans of recent wars -- the performances will be staged at Fort Douglas, the Salt Lake City VA hospital and other locations where they are likely to draw a military-oriented crowd -- will walk away understanding they are connected to generations upon generations of past warriors, who also struggled to "come home" from war.

Free performances of "The Toll of War" will be staged in these Utah locations:
Wednesday, 7 p.m. » Main Library Auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City
March 6, 2 p.m. » Universe City, 2556 Washington Blvd., Ogden
March 8, 11:50 a.m. » Fort Douglas Post Theater, east of the University of Utah Campus
March 13, 7 p.m. » VA Hospital, Bldg.8, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City

FMI: http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_14493842

Call for entries: Central Utah Art Center

CALL TO ARTISTS!

Current Utah residents and artists with ties to Utah can apply to the "Utah Ties Juried Art Exhibition" at Central Utah Art Center in Ephraim.

All media are accepted.

Deadline: Feb. 24, 2010

Notification: March 3

Opening Reception: March 12, 6-8 p.m.

Prizes: $500/$300/$200

Juror: Tim Hawkinson: James Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles

To Apply: Submit 3-plus images, artist statement, CV

Fees: $20 for 3 images, $5 per each additional image.

Apply online

"Life, the Universe and Everything" writers' conference at BYU Feb. 11-13

The “Life, the Universe & Everything” writers conference is coming up and all are invited to attend. It is a conference geared toward genre writers, mostly fantasy and science fiction, but also focuses on young adult fiction and epic poetry. Guests of honor for the 2010 LTUE are authors Brandon Sanderson, Marty Brenneis, and James C. Christensen. Comic writer Jack Black will also be in attendance. The dates are February 11-13 at the BYU student center, on the BYU campus in Provo. The event is free. For more information, click here http://ltue.org/LTUE2010.html

This listing comes from Guy Lebeda's "LitOps" e-mail newsletter. To subscribe to LitOps, send an email to gwl1973@gmail.com with “subscribe” in the subject line.

Thanks, Guy.

"Riding the White Horse Home" -- from the written page to the CD

Grady Kirkpatrick on KUWR's "New Music Wednesday" featured a song with a familiar-sounding name. It was "Riding the White Horse Home," written and performed by Salt Lake City musician Kate MacLeod. Wondered if it was based on the fantastic memoir of the same name by Laramie County, Wyoming, native Teresa Jordan (now in SLC). Grady noted on-air that indeed this was the case. But wyomingarts needed more info so looked up Kate MacLeod, which is the kind of stuff the Internet is for. We found this:

The song Riding the White Horse Home is based on the book by the same name. It is a memoir about rural family life in Wyoming, written by artist and author Teresa Jordan.

The song is on MacLeod's new CD, Blooming. Another amazing fact: the cover art was done by Denver artist William Matthews who also illustrated the first edition of Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx, back when she lived in Wyoming.

What would we do without real books by real writers?

Tom Rea speaks about "Martin's Cove Controversy" in Rawlins Nov. 10

"The Martin's Cove Controversy: Public Land, Sacred Land," featuring author Tom Rea (pictured above), will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m., at the Carbon County Education Center, Rawlins. This event is free and open to the public. It's part of the award-winning "Power of Place" series. FMI: Dave Throgmorton, 307-328-9204

Here's a description:

Bad weather, bad planning and their own zeal killed about 150 members of the Martin Handcart Company as they trekked across Wyoming in 1856. Today, the spot on the Oregon trail near Devil’s Gate where some of these Mormon pioneers died lies on BLM land--and at the center of controversy over religious freedom and the right of public access. Tom Rea explores the history of Martin’s Cove, using historical and contemporary photographs, and describes its later transformation into “holy ground” for the LDS Church. His presentation raises questions about who owns the past and how we preserve a balance between public and religious rights.

Tom Rea grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., and has lived in Wyoming for 35 years. He holds degrees from Williams College and the University of Montana, and worked for many years as a reporter and editor on the Casper Star-Tribune. His books include Devil’s Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story (Oklahoma, 2006), winner of the 2006-07 nonfiction book award from the Wyoming State Historical Society, and Bone Wars: The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie’s Dinosaur, (Pittsburgh, 2001, paperback 2004) winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for contemporary nonfiction. He lives with his family in Casper.

Congratulations to our fellow writers in Utah

This announcement comes from Guy Lebeda at the Utah Arts Council:

The Utah Book Festival presents the Third Annual Utah Literary Awards Ceremony, honoring winners of the annual Utah Book Award (Utah Center for the Book), the Annual Original Writing Competition (Utah Arts Council), the May Swenson Poetry Award (Utah State University Press), and the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry (University of Utah Press).

Who: Utah Book Festival, Utah Arts Council Literature Program, Utah Center for the Book, USU Press, U of U Press.
What: Third Annual Utah Literary Awards Ceremony
Where: Salt Lake City Public Library, 210 E 400 S, Salt Lake City
When: Thursday, October 22, 2009, 7 p.m.
Why: To honor Utah's finest writers and celebrate our state's literary culture.

For more info: Utah Arts Council's Writing Contest page: http://arts.utah.gov/funding/competitions/writing_competition/index.html
Utah Book Festival: http://www.utahhumanities.org/

Congrats to our fellow writers in Utah

Guy Lebeda at the Utah Arts Council sends this news:

2009 Winners of the Utah Arts Council's annual Original Writing Competition
Class A: Novel
First Place: Nancy L. Roberts, Park City, "Deep Water Moon"
Second Place: Michael Gills, Salt Lake City, "Go Love"
Class B: Biography/Autobiography
First Place: Jennifer Sinor, Logan, "Rogue Wave"
Second Place: Lynn Zaristsky, Mount Pleasant, "In One Piece"
Honorable Mention: M. Dane Picard, Salt Lake City, "Field Book of a Geologist"
Class C: Collection of Short Stories
First Place: Adrian Stumpp, Ogden, "All the Variables"
Second Place: Michael Palmer, Salt Lake City, "Bodies, Water"
Class D: Young Adult Book
First Place: J. Corey Willis, Centerville, "Fair Forever"
Second Place: Darlene Young, South Jordan "Inside Out"
Class E: Poetry
First Place: Susan Sample, Salt Lake City, "Terrible Grace"
Second Place: Nancy Baird, Salt Lake City, "Kukui"
Honorable Mention: Markay Brown, Springville, "Eve’s Child"
Class F: Short Story
First Place: Stephen Tuttle, Provo, "In California"
Second Place: David Pace, Salt Lake City "Flying Bishop"
Class G: Essay
First Place: Michael Palmer, Salt Lake City, "Dark Blue Biology"
Second Place: Patrick Madden, Lehi, "The Great Escape"
　
About the Annual Original Writing Competition: Started in 1958, the Annual Original Writing Competition identifies and awards Utah writers for works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in the form of short stories, essays, poems, and full-length manuscripts. Submissions must be original works and unpublished at the time of entry. Entries will be reviewed in a blind process by seven judges selected from outside of Utah. Past award winners have included Ron Carlson, David Lee, Katharine Coles, Ken Brewer, Pam Houston, Lyman Hafen, Margaret I. Rostkowski, Lance Larsen, John Bennion, Scott Cairns, Rod Carney, and Susan Howe.

If you have any questions about Utah's Annual Original Writing Competition, contact Guy Lebeda, glebeda@utah.gov, (801) 236-7553.