Call for applications: Bard Fiction Prize

The Bard Fiction Prize, established in 2001 by Bard College, is given annually to an emerging writer who is an American citizen and under the age of 40 at the time of application. The prize includes a $30,000 cash award and appointment as writer-in-residence at the College for one semester, during which the winner is asked to give at least one public lecture and meet informally with students but is not expected to teach traditional courses. Eligible writers should apply with a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard, a CV, and three copies of the published book (manuscripts are not accepted) that they feel best represents their work. For more information, click here. 

One week and counting: Postmark deadline June 20 for creative writing fellowships

Postmark deadline for the 2012 creative writing fellowships in fiction is Monday, June 20.

Judge for this year's fellowships is fiction writer and essayist Pam Houston.

FMI: Mike Shay at the Wyoming Arts Council, 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov

Cheyenne author Josh Mitchell signs copies of his new book June 10 at City News

Cheyenne newspaper reporter and author Josh Mitchell will be signing copies of his new book, My Life in Executive Session, from 4-6 p.m. on Friday, June 10, at City News, 1722 Carey Ave., in downtown Cheyenne.

A blurb from the book's promo material:

When investigative journalist Warren Bradley goes to work for a newspaper in Jupiter, Arkansas, he wants to report the truth about the corrupt politicians in the small town. But his boss is part of the local good-ol'-boys system and censors the real news. Bradley uncovers too much and is fired in an attempt to make him leave town. Instead of hitting the road, Bradley starts an online newspaper and is finally able to report the truth. Set in the rural South, the novel has many colorful characters and unforgettable scenes.

Find out more from the publisher at www.westsouthpublishing.com

When fiction reflects real life

Richard Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, ca. between 1885-
1900 (Library of Congress)

New insights into the story behind Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" will be the focus of the University of Wyoming's President's Speakers lecture, Thursday, April 14, at 4:10 p.m. in Room 129 of the UW Classroom Building.


Caroline McCracken-Flesher, a professor in the UW Department of English and a widely-published specialist in 19th century British literature, will explain how Stevenson's universally-popular work reflects his own sickly childhood and contemporary societal beliefs about medicine and drugs.

"The tale of the doctor and doubleness could well be titled ‘Mr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde,' for Hyde reveals the dark side of 19th century doctors, linking medicine and murder, drugs and dreadful deeds," she says.

McCracken-Flesher researched the 19th century scandals in which scientists paid for corpses to use as research subjects, which often led to documented incidents of murder for profit and grave-robbing.

Stevenson, argues McCracken-Flesher, retells the stories of some of the era's infamous scandalous figures, including a murderous dentist, Horace Wells, and a notorious dissectionist, Scotland's Dr. Robert Knox. Their stories shaped how the public viewed medicine and science, and influenced popular perceptions about accomplished scientists who followed, such as Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister.

Since its publication in 1886, Stevenson's novel has been made into dozens of movies, and McCracken-Flesher has published work showing how each generation changed Stevenson's text to reflect its own fears and desires. She contributed a chapter, "Cultural Projections: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and Cinematic Response," in "Narrative and Culture," (University of Georgia Press).

The President's Speaker Series encourages and honors individual faculty members who have been especially successful in balancing the research, educational, and service goals of the university. The series calls attention to some of the individuals who have made important, well-rounded contributions to the university's standing.

A committee comprising the speaker series' previous honorees nominates candidates for the series. Selection criteria include a long-term national recognition for research and/or creative activity and the ability to communicate with all members of the university community.

McCracken-Flesher has an M.A. degree from Edinburgh University, Scotland, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University. She also spent two years at Oxford University as a graduate student.

She has received numerous awards for teaching and research, including two Extraordinary Merit in Research awards, two Mortar Board Top Prof awards, recognition for excellence in both advising and teaching, and UW's highest teaching honor, the John P. Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award.

UW Prof Brad Watson finalist for PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

From a UW press release:

University of Wyoming English Associate Professor Brad Watson is a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America's largest peer juried prize for fiction.

Watson's collection, "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives," 12 stories of family strife, personal loss, physical trauma and emotional reckoning, is among five books published in 2010 selected as finalists. The other nominees are Jennifer Egan for "A Visit From The Goon"; Deborah Eisenberg for "The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg"; Jaimy Gordon for "Lord of Misrule"; and Eric Puchner for "Model Home."

"It's a surprise and a real honor to be among this distinguished group of finalists in fiction. I feel fortunate, lucky and happy just to be one of the five, whoever is named first," Watson says. He adds that he's also grateful to the UW Department of English for giving him some crucial time during the Fall 2008 semester to, "really pull the book together."

"I am lucky, also, to work every day among such a group of very smart, very talented and very pleasant-to-be-around colleagues and students in the MFA Program and the department as a whole," Watson says.

Beth Loffreda, UW MFA Program in Creative Writing director, says the nomination is a major recognition for Watson.

"The PEN/Faulkner Award is easily one of the most prestigious honors in American fiction, right up there with the National Book Award," she says. "To be named a finalist is to be recognized as one of the most important fiction writers working in the country today. It's marvelous to see one of our own, Brad Watson, receive that recognition."

Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation say the winner, who will receive $15,000, will be announced March 15. The remaining four finalists will be awarded $5,000 each. In a ceremony that celebrates the winner as "first among equals," all five authors will be honored during the 31st Annual PEN/Faulkner Award ceremony Saturday, May 7, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

Judges considered approximately 320 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the United States during 2010. Submissions came from more than 125 publishing houses, including small and academic presses. There is no fee for a publisher or writer to submit a book.

"Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives" is steeped in the Southern gothic tradition. Watson steps beyond the borders of the traditional south to inflect even southern California with the lush trauma of its influence and the absurdity of its humor. "His prose is sure enough to carry this mantle and his plots are brutal enough to earn it," the judges wrote.

One of "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives" stories, the wrenching "Water Dog God," tells about a teenage girl in Alabama who was raped by her brothers and impregnated by her father. She flees their tortured company in the wake of a tornado to seek refuge in the house of her cousin and the company of a pack of stray dogs.

Stories such as this prompted the New York Times to identify Watson's "great gift to be his portrayal of the hardscrabble lives of odd but everyday people, their relationships to the surrounding land freighted with privately held histories and traumas."

Earlier this year, the Boston Globe named "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives" among the year's best fiction books.

"And yet, Watson's real gift is the humor and restraint that accompany these portrayals. His characters come to their own slow terms with life, providing us a reading experience both searing and hilarious," the judges say.

Watson is the author of a previous short story collection that won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction, as well as a novel, "The Heaven of Mercury," that was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Originally from Mississippi, Watson teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at UW. He previously taught at the University of Alabama, Harvard University, University of California-Irvine and University of Mississippi, and has held fellowships through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation.

The other PEN/Faulkner Award finalists' and their work:

-- Egan's "A Visit From The Goon Squad" is a novel comprised of 13 interlocking chapters, each a self-contained story, which spans 40 years from 1979 into the scientifically futuristic 2020. She is a journalist from Brooklyn, N.Y.

-- "The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg" brings together four volumes of Eisenberg's work -- "Transactions in a Foreign Currency"; "Under the 82nd Airborne"; "All Around Atlantis"; and "Twilight of the Superheroes." Eisenberg has taught at the University of Virginia since 1994.

-- Gordon's "Lord of Misrule" novel is set in the ramshackle world of a second-rate racetrack, Indian Mound Downs, downriver from Wheeling, W. Va. Saturated in racetrack idiom; the novel's world is ominously decrepit, peopled with con men, loan sharks, mystical grooms, trainers and jockeys. Gordon teaches at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

-- Puchner's debut novel "Model Home" tells the tragicomic story of the disintegrating Ziller family in 1980s southern California and their foray into a failed real estate development plan. The novel is also about family in a nutshell, a fusion of nuanced daily observation, pained hilarity, absurd circumstance and heartbreaking dislocation. Puchner lives in Los Angeles and teaches at Claremont McKenna College.

Celebrating the 31st year of the award, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation is committed to building audiences for exceptional literature and bringing writers together with their readers. This mission is accomplished through a reading series at the Folger Shakespeare Library by distinguished writers who have won the respect of readers and writers alike.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is an outgrowth of American novelist and short story writer William Faulkner's generosity in donating his 1949 Nobel Prize winnings, "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers."

Photo: University of Wyoming English Associate Professor Brad Watson is a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his collection of short stories, "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives." The PEN/Faulkner Award is America's largest peer juried prize for fiction. (Photo courtesy of Nell Hanley)

Call for entries: Wyoming Writers, Inc., writing contest

Wyoming Writers, Inc., announces contest guidelines:

Hard copy entries much be postmarked by April 9, 2011.

Entry fee:  $10.00 for each entry from members of Wyoming Writers, Inc., $15.00 for non-members,

Member fee for poetry is $10.00 for 3 poems, non-members $15.00 for 3 poems. We encourage non-members to join the organization. Information and membership form are available on www.wyowriters.org. Contest entry forms are also available on the web site, and from flyers in libraries and bookstores, and in the WyoWriters newsletter.  You may photocopy an entry form.

No limit on the number of entries, but there is an entry fee for each manuscript and every 3 poems. Include one check for the total amount. No entry fees will be refunded. 

Eligibility: The contest is open to all writers. All works must be the unpublished and the original work of the   submitter. All works must be in English. Work accepted or under consideration for publication elsewhere, or entered in another contest simultaneously is not eligible. Work that has previously placed or received an honorable mention in a Wyoming Writers, Inc. contest is not eligible. Work may be submitted to other contests or for publication after the contest deadline.

Categories

Adult Fiction: (No horror or erotica) 3000 words maximum

Fiction for Children/Juveniles:  3000 words maximum

Non-fiction:  Personal experiences and Memoirs3000 words maximum

Non-fiction:  Articles and Essays., 3000 words maximum

Traditional Poetry:  28 lines maximum; up to 3 poems per submission.

Free Verse Poetry:  28 lines maximum;  up to 3 poems per submission

Prizes:   First place: $50, Second place: $30,  Third place $20. Each will get a certificate. There will be no Honorable Mentions.  Winners will be notified the latter part of May. Winners will be announced at the WWInc 2011 Conference to be held at the Ramada Plaza Riverside,Casper, WY June 3-5, 2011.

Online article: "How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I"

This looks like an easy tutorial for those writers in Wyoming interested in publishing a Kindle book. Go to How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I

C.J. Box's COLD WIND debuts March 22

Cheyenne mystery writer C.J. Box soon will hit the road with his new book, COLD WIND, set for a March 22 release. The book tour features 20 stops so far. C.J. gets an early start with a March 4 presentation at the Teton County Public Library in Jackson and a swing through Arizona, including sessions at the Tucson Festival of Books March 11-13 in Tucson.

The tour:

Laramie, WY
Tuesday, March 22

Cheyenne, WY
Tuesday, March 22

Denver, CO (two locations)
Wednesday, March 23

Orange, CA
Thursday, March 24

Houston, TX
Friday, March 25

Dallas, TX
Saturday, March 26

Oklahoma City, OK
Sunday, March 27

Lexington, KY
Monday, March 28

Cincinnati, OH
Tuesday, March 29

St. Louis, MO
Wednesday, March 30

Minneapolis, MN
Thursday, March 31

Des Moines, IA
Friday, April 1

Phoenix, AZ
Saturday, April 2

Albuquerque, NM
Sunday, April 3

Fort Collins, CO
Monday, April 4

Casper, WY
Tuesday, April 5

Billings, MT
Wednesday, April 6

Sheridan, WY
Thursday, April 7

Cheyenne, WY
Friday, April 8

Longmont, CO
Monday, April 11

Boulder, CO
Monday, April 11

For details, visit http://www.cjbox.net/appearances and check back in coming weeks for changes and additions.

Tim Sandlin's fourth book in the GroVont saga due out in April

Tim Sandlin sends news "that the GroVont Trilogy is back in action in anticipation of Lydia, the fourth GroVont book, which will be out in April. After a long coma, Sex and Sunsets, Western Swing, Skipped Parts, Sorrow Floats, and Social Blunders may be once again bought at your local bookstore. Buy a set from Valley Books in downtown Jackson and receive a signed copy of The Pyms: Unauthorized Tales of Jackson Hole for free." 

Reviewers praise new collection of stories by UW prof Brad Watson

From a University of Wyoming press release:

Southern literature in the tradition of Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty is alive and well and living in -- of all places -- Wyoming.

Come again? Wyoming?

Reviewers are praising the southern literature heritage found in "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives," the recent collection of stories written by University of Wyoming English Professor Brad Watson.

The book's popularity comes as no surprise to Watson's readers, who got a taste of his unique southern perspective in Watson's previous works, "Last Days of the Dog-Men," and "Heaven of Mercury," for which he was nominated for the 2002 National Book Award in Fiction.

Writing in Esquire, Daniel Torday notes, "Brad Watson's third book is a clear reminder that Southern literature will always rise again."

Torday continues, "Watson's South is modernized, but it breathes the same gothic, aesthetically precise breaths as the finest Southern writing. The ability of a writer like Watson to emigrate from his South and migrate his Southern sensibility into his writing keeps Southern literature breathing. It's not lost on a reader that Watson himself lives and teaches in Wyoming today, not Alabama or Mississippi."

Boston Globe book reviewer John Freeman ranks Watson's work among the year's best fiction books.

"They (the stories) plainly depict the importance of resilience in a world determined to undermine it," he writes. "Brad Watson's characters foul up their lives, as fathers, as sons, but they keep on."

But Freeman thinks too much is made of Watson writing about the South.

"The setting is the American South, but ... like Welty and O'Connor before him, he simply writes -- and that's why he gets it right."

Originally from Mississippi, Watson teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at UW. He previously taught at The University of Alabama, Harvard University, The University of California-Irvine and The University of Mississippi, and has held fellowships through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation.

For more information and links to additional reviews, visit http://www.bradwatsonfiction.blogspot.com/ 

Photo: Author Brad Watson plays with his dog Maji at a ranch near Laramie. (Katie Watson Photo)

Next "First Friday" reading series Dec. 3 at Second Story Books in Laramie

C.J. Box's "geezer noir" story in new anthology

News from Cheyenne writer C.J. Box:

A new short story by C.J. Box will be published in December 2010.

"Damn Near Dead 2: Live Noir or Die Trying"

Edited by Bill Crider.

Introduction by Charlaine Harris.

Trade paperback original / $18 (Canada $21.95) December 2010 / 978-1-935415-21-3)

Features original "geezer noir" stories by Ace Atkins, C. J. Box, Christa Faust, Ed Gorman, Carolyn Haines, Joe R. Lansdale, Denise Mina, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Cornelia Read, Kat Richardson, S. J Rozan, Don Winslow, and more!

C.J. Box's contribution is called "The End of Jim and Ezra."

FMI: http://www.cjbox.net/

Owen Wister looking for submissions

Luling, who I met at the Gretel Ehrlich writing workshop this past August, is this year's non-fiction editor for the Owen Wister Review, the University of Wyoming's art and literary journal, and has recently sent this notice out. Access their blogsite down below, to submit online.

Submission Guidelines:
Accepting unpublished

• Manuscripts in creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and art.
• Reading period is from September 1 through January 15. Submissions received outside that time frame will be recycled.
• One prose piece (4,000 words or less) or up to six poems at one time. You may submit in multiple genres, but please submit each genre separately.
• Up to 4 pieces of art, which includes, but is not limited to, sculpture, sketches, photography, painting, and graphic designs. Art should be submitted digitally at a printable quality, typically 300dpi or higher, in either JPEG or TIFF format. Postal submissions need to be recorded onto a CD-R that is readable in any computer. All art submis-sions will be considered for the forthcoming OWR cover.
• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please indicate in the cover letter that you are submitting simultaneously and do notify us promptly if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere. Reporting time is generally one to three months.
• For interviews, book reviews, longer prose submissions (4,000+ words), or general questions please send a query letter first to owr@uwyo.edu.

Formatting Guidelines:

• All written submissions should be typed on one side of the page. Please double-space prose submissions.
• You may submit online through Submishmash by visiting our website or by sending postal submissions to the ad-dress below.
• Address submissions to the specific genre editor and include a cover letter. Cover letters should include author’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. If mailing post submissions, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for replies regarding your submission.

Owen Wister Review [Genre] Editor Dept. 3625 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071

http://www.owenwisterreview.com/

Tina Welling reads from "Cowboys Never Cry" Oct. 16 at Valley Bookstore

Tina Welling will deliver a brief talk and read from her new book, COWBOYS NEVER CRY, at Valley Bookstore in Jackson on Saturday, October 16, 7 p.m. Book signing to follow. Wine and cheese served.

Bell, Box and Jenkins at Albany Co. Library Oct. 13

Laura Bell of Cody, C.J. Box of Cheyenne and Laramie's Mark Jenkins are featured at "Wyoming Writers" event on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 5-6:30 p.m. at the Albany County Public Library in Laramie.

The event is free but pre-registration is required.

FMI: Marjorie Daley at 307-721-2580 x5456.

Tina Welling's new novel to be released Oct. 5

"Cowboys Never Cry," a new novel by Jackson writer Tina Welling, will be released tomorrow -- Oct. 5.

Tina is a long-time faculty member for the Jackson Hole Writers Conference, the recipient of a Frank Nelson Doubleday writing award and is on the Wyoming Arts Council's artist roster. Wyoming organizations may want to write an Arts Across Wyoming grant to bring Tina to your community for a reading, presentation and/or writing workshop. Get more info at http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org/.

Here's some background on the new book, as well as some reviews:

Cowboys are not Cassie's weakness...until the most famous cowboy on the planet sets his boots in her path. In truth, Robbin's far different from the image he projects. Disillusioned with fame, he has retreated to his dad's ranch to reconnect with the land and people he loves...and something about Cassie stirs deeper changes than he'd bargained for.

As much as Cassie tries to avoid Robbin, she's drawn to his struggle to become a better man. Are they about to play out a classic romance, with the glorious Teton mountains as a backdrop? Or will their notions of each other prove as false as the cowboy mystique once the charm has worn off?

"As satisfying as sage in summer rain." Sandra Dallas

"A novel of richness and depth. Cowboys Never Cry is a poignant story of love and loss and the healing that can come from the most unexpected people in the most unlikely circumstances. Looming over the story are the beauty and grandeur of Wyoming's Grand Tetons and the almost magical influence that nature exerts on human lives. If you haven't yet read Tina Welling, you don't know what you've been missing. Start here! Start now!" -- Margaret Coel, author of The Spider's Web

"Tina Welling has done it again. Cowboys Never Cry is a big-hearted romp set against the gorgeous landscapes of the American West. Cassie Danner is a tough, generous, grieving protagonist. She also has a sense of humor as grand as the Tetons. This novel is a heady gallop through the tangled thickets of love." -- Alyson Hagy, author of Ghosts of Wyoming

Read more about Tina and her books at http://www.tinawelling.com/

Hiking the nonfiction trail with Lee Gutkind Part 1

It all started with french fries in my chef’s salad. I thought maybe a couple had unintentionally fallen off another plate, unnoticed by the cook or the waitress, and landed at the edge of the contents of my bowl. But as I ate, I realized the french fries throughout were mixed in too flawlessly to be accidental.

Interesting image I found of Lee

I finally mentioned this in the car to my lunch pals, Mike Shay and Lee Gutkind. It was the first day of the Equality State Book Festival, and we were headed back to the Goodstein Library for the Wyoming Arts Council’s Fellowship readings. Non-fiction was the genre this year, and Lee had been the judge. He would also be reading after the fellowship winners had read, staying for the festival and be part of the nonfiction panel discussion, and then he and longtime friend Terry Rasmussen, English instructor at Casper College, were going hiking around Dubois for a day or two before Lee had to get back to Pittsburgh.

Lee had brought with him the first edition of the new magazine format of Creative Nonfiction, of which he was founder and is still editor. The first issue of Creative Nonfiction came out in 1993 as a literary journal--what turned out to be the only place publishing nonfiction exclusively. But subscriptions/circulation had dipped in recent years, and the staff was looking for a way to bring back the readership.

The new design contains features on nonfiction, as well as nonfiction from new sources, such as blogs and science and technology as narrative. As Lee says in his editorial from this revamped first issue, “In fact, creative nonfiction is the fastest growing segment of the academic writing community and is, even in this dismal economic cycle, one bright spot in the publishing world, continually increasing its share of the market.” Subscriptions are now climbing, and their sales are up thirty-five percent.

So back to french fries. “Doesn’t that seem a little counter intuitive, putting french fries in a green salad?” I asked from the back seat.

“I know the name of the restaurant that started that food trend,” Lee says.

“It’s a trend?” I asked skeptically. “So, what’s the name?”

“I will tell you the name of the restaurant if you buy a subscription to Creative Nonfiction.”

It wasn’t quite that quick of a cut-to-the-chase, but you get the idea where this is going. The mystery of the restaurant’s name hung in the air, at least for me.

The next day at lunch, Terry asked me if I wanted to go hiking with her and Lee. I wasn’t sure that I could. I seemed to feel I had things to do. Lee, who overheard the invitation, said, “I will only tell you the name of the restaurant if you go hiking with us.”

“Oh great,” I whined to Terry. “He said he would tell it to me if I bought a subscription, now it’s if I go hiking.” Lee overheard me, and his telling of the name vacillated vaguely back to hinging on me buying a subscription.

At the event’s ending banquet that evening, Terry asked me if I was going. “Yes, I’ve decided to go.” I’d already bought a two-year subscription that afternoon after the nonfiction panel discussion. “Will you tell me now?” I asked him after I handed over my check.

“If you want me to,” he’d said coyly.

“Oh, I can hear it on the trail. I’m patient.”

We left Casper Sunday morning under a clear autumn sky and summer-like temperatures. The region had been (and still is as of this writing) under a high-pressure weather system for the previous month-and-a-half, and the weather was going to hold for at least the next seven days.
Sometime around Powder River, Lee suggested that we should tell a collaborative story, upon which the ending would lead to his revealing the name of the restaurant in question. Terry began the story, and knew enough that it should include french fries, but wasn’t fully aware just yet of why.
 

We, well they, covered a lot of ground with (some of the names have been changed to protect the unaware) Claudia, Jack and the Sheriff getting to the chopping up of a potato as well as Jack, and both being thrown into a pot on the stove, heated by wood that Claudia had to split (my contribution, as well as something about carrots). The Sheriff became worried about Jack’s whereabouts, knocking on Claudia’s door, where he could finally let loose his hidden attraction for her, and she for him. A stranger named Joe appeared while Claudia was unconscious in the garden while picking vegetables for the salad she was going to serve the Sheriff, and Jack’s skull was offered, or asked for, as some kind of souvenir to take back home, after Joe and Claudia recognized themselves as long-ago-separated mother and son in a fluke of identity. 

 
Fortunately for the story’s sake, we had gotten to Dubois and it was time for lunch at the Cowboy Café. Lee ordered a chef’s salad and I asked the waitress if they put french fries in their salad. She gave me an odd look and shook her head no. Lee and I laughed, and Terry wanted to know more about the french fry/salad thing.

After lunch, Terry driving, we arrived at the trailhead at Brooks Lake that would lead us to Jade Lake, ranked an “easy” hike by trail standards. All along the mountains, Aspen stands uttered their brilliant yellow color with certainty, no matter that the temperature was still in the upper seventies or low eighties.

Early afternoon. A few hikers and a string of packhorses were making their way down the trail that we were headed up. We were at the north end of Brooks Lake and a few gusts had kicked up. A couple of dogs wandered around, half wet from wading into the lake. We were finally ready. It was a five-mile hike up to the first of the two Jade Lakes.

Soon, we were up the first hill of the trail, and into the coolness of the pine forest, stopping occasionally to catch our breath after a steep climb, or just to take in some stunning vista. A woodpecker had found what sounded like a hollow tree and was beating out a message that echoed around the tops of the trees. We reached upper Jade Lake about 4:30 PM. The lake is so named because the water is just that color, which is not an illusion; nor does the color of the water change depending on how the sun is hitting it. A deep lake, you can see the shore drop away just two feet from the water’s edge.

Upper Jade Lake

We pulled out our cameras and took some pictures. Alas, there is not one with all three of us. I didn’t know how to operate my time delay, and by the time Lee figured his out, Terry was ready to get going, reminding us that bears liked to nap during the hot afternoon, but rouse when it begins to cool off. We’d also heard there’d been a carcass discovered on the south trail, which would be attracting scavengers. She had bear spray, but would only use it if she were about to be attacked. “Well, I guess we’re out of luck, Lee,” I laughed uneasily.

Terry wanted to see where lower Jade Lake was, so we hiked just a short distance and saw it rather far below from our vantage point. It would have been a heck of an uphill hike out, and we just didn’t have the time before it would be dusk.
 
Read Part 2 herre:  http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2010/10/hiking-nonfiction-wyoming-trail-with.html
 
Linda Coatney

Brooks Reeves: "Why I Love Interactive Fiction"

At Wyomingarts, we know Brooks Reeves as a theatre guy. He's written plays and melodramas for the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players. One of his plays, "The City that Cried Wolf," was produced for the 59E59 Theaters in Manhattan and received a favorable review in the New York Times. He's acted in productions in Wyoming and Colorado, currently involved in a reader's theatre put on the Bas Bleu Theatre in Fort Collins.

He also participates in interactive fiction.

What is interactive fiction?

Since Wyomingarts bloggers know next to nothing about it (except what we read online), we shall let Brooks the blogger tell it at The Quiet Sunday: Why I Love Interactive Fiction

Call for entries: NPR's "Three-Minute Fiction"

Enter your story (600 words or less) to NPR's "Three Minute Fiction" contest.

Each round, our judges throw out a challenge. This time, your story must begin with the line, "Some people swore that the house was haunted." It must end with, "Nothing was ever the same again after that."

Author Michael Cunningham is the judge (and he also came up with the opening and closing lines.

FMI: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129752769

Call for entries: Matter Journal's "Animal" issue

Matter Journal is looking for writing, photography, and artwork that speaks to the animal in all of us. We like well-written stuff best, especially if it comes with something interesting to say and strives for deeper meaning. Prose that howls us into seeing the world a new way. Poems that knock our zebra-striped socks off. Photographs, illustrations, and paintings to drool over.

See our submission guidelines on our web site and then send your best work to Matter, P.O. Box 814, Fort Collins, CO 80522, attn: Matter 14 Animal. It can take 3-6 months for us to respond, so please be patient.

Matter 14: Animal Fiction Prize

If you would like your short story to be considered for the Animal Fiction Prize, include something to that effect in your cover letter and on the envelope, a $5 reading fee, and an SASE or e-mail address for notification purposes. Award is $250, publication, and 2 complimentary copies of the issue in which your work appears. All contest submissions will be considered for publication as well.

Deadline for both submissions and contest: Wednesday, October 15, 2010, postmark date.