Main Menu
Center Menu

Mountain Words Literary Festival

MWLF: Literary Death Match

by Leave a Comment

Mountain Words Literary Festival: Literary Death Match
Saturday, May 28 | doors 7 pm, show 7:30 pm | Steddy Theatre

As part of your festival pass, or pay what you can

Starring:

Judges:

Literary Merit: Rachel Monroe
Performance: Sam Robards
Intangibles: Jason Antoon

Readers:
Kaveh Akbar
Suzi Q. Smith
Steven Dunn
Claire Boyles

Part literary event, part comedy show, part game show, Literary Death Match (called the “greatest reading series ever” by the LA Times) brings together four of today’s finest writers to compete in an edge-of-your-seat read-off who are critiqued by three all-star judges. It concludes with a slapstick showdown to decide the ultimate champion.

 

MWLF: “Learn World-Building from Rappers” workshop with Steven Dunn

by Leave a Comment

Learn World-Building from Rappers

With a sense of urgency, rappers often build three-dimensional worlds in small spaces. We will listen to songs and discuss what we notice. We will study the rhetorical and poetic strategies rappers use, and discuss possibilities to use those strategies in our own work, whether it’s fiction, poetry, hybrid, and anything else.

Steven Dunn

A 2021 Whiting Award winner, and shortlisted for Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” Steven Dunn is the author of two books from Tarpaulin Sky Press: water & power (2018) and Potted Meat (2018), which was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award, and has been adapted for a short film entitled The Usual Route, from Foothills Productions. Steven was born and raised in West Virginia, and after 10 years in the Navy, he earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Denver and an MFA from Stetson University. He teaches in the MFA programs at Regis University and Cornell College.

Included in your festival pass, or $25 single entry

Adult Storytime; festival authors read

by Leave a Comment

 

Relax and enjoy the ultimate luxury of being read to by festival authors who will read their best for your listening pleasure. Readers include Jason Antoon, Chelsey Johnson, Leath Tonino, Rachel Monroe, Anna Fenerty, Teow Lim Goh, and others. Mimosas, and special bubbles tasting with Buckel Family Wines, juice bar + coffee included.

As part of your festival pass, or $20

Jason Antoon: Among his television work, Antoon starred on the short-lived TV series Kings, in addition to numerous guest roles on various programs such as Modern Family in the episode Game Changer. On the big screen, he had a featured role in Minority Report, cast when Steven Spielberg discovered him in Contact. In 2008, he had a cameo in Taking Woodstock and he was seen in two 2010 George Gallo films, Columbus Circle and Middle Men. Antoon voiced the role of Garrison “Knobs” Butler in the web series Electric City, and portrayed 35-year-old struggling actor Alowisus Hewson who is a vampire in the web series Vamped Out.

Author of The Cursed Frog: and Other Modern Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups, Antoon’s modern fables are like the classic ones except funnier and nobody ever learns anything. Ten weird and wonderful tales of pickpockets, putzes and philandering politicians. Not for kids!
“Jason Antoon is funny as hell.” — Topher Grace
“His one-of-a-kind view of human behavior makes the rest of us writers cringe with envy. Damn his eyes.” — Kevin Pollak

MWLF: Panel – “The Story of the Century; how we’re writing about climate change”

by Leave a Comment

As part of your festival pass, or Pay What You Can 

“The Story of the Century; how we’re writing about climate change” panel discussion with Mario Alejandro Ariza, Helen Santoro, Ben Goldfarb. Chaired by Gretchen King.

Mario Alejandro Ariza is an investigative reporter for Floodlight news, where he writes about climate change and the people responsible for it. Previously, he was an investigative reporter at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. You can also find his byline in places like The New Republic, The Atlantic, Audubon Magazine, and the Huffington Post. In 2020, he published a book called Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe. His essays have been featured in The Believer and selected for Best American Essays. He lives in South Florida with two cats, a dog, and a sturdy pair of waterproof boots.

Helen Santoro is a science journalist based in Gunnison who focuses on health, medicine and LGBTQ+ communities. More specifically, her passion lies in deep-dive and investigative pieces on health issues, along with transgender experiences and discrimination in health care. Her work has appeared in Kaiser Health News, High Country News, Slate, Smithsonian Magazine, WIRED, and more.

Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, National Geographic, Orion Magazine, and High Country News, and has been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing. His first book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, received the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post. His next book, on the ecology of roads, will be published by W.W. Norton & Co., and received the Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant for a manuscript in progress. He lives in Buena Vista, Colorado, with his wife, Elise, and his dog, Kit — which is, of course, what you call a baby beaver.

Gretchen King is the managing digital editor at High Country News (HCN), the nation’s leading source of reporting on the Western U.S. Here she oversees the magazine’s workflow, website, social media, newsletters and a variety of other duties. HCN is known for its award-winning environmental coverage. Previously, Gretchen co-owned and operated Revolution Brewing in Paonia – known as Colorado’s first nanobrewery. She lives in Gunnison, Colorado, and in the winter you’ll find her at Mt. Crested Butte ski area enjoying the high lift. (Hey, enjoy snow while it still exists!) In other months, find her on the local trails with her two dogs, husband and 16-year-old son.

MWLF: “The Wound is the Well. The Ghost is the Bucket” workshop with Aaron Abeyta

by Leave a Comment

The old saying, what’s in the well comes up in the bucket, is intended to speak of a person’s character, resolve, and ambitions. This can hold true in terms of poetry as well, but we will focus on the particular “ghosts” of the poet’s past, both ancestral and those haunting; the themes, images, ideas, and recurring subjects a particular poet (you) tend to explore over and over – the well-source of what makes each of us write.

Our workshop will focus on techniques and concepts which will make us better readers, able to identify in others’ work what we are searching for in our own; writers will be offered a wide range of tools, effective in all genres, for incorporating what they have learned into their own poems and writing.

At the heart of the workshop is the notion that we, writers, are here to heal, repair and make whole, not just for our own sake but for our readers. One of my favorite quotes is from Wallace Stevens’ “Large Red Man Reading;” it encapsulates, for me anyway, the magic of a poem, the power of a poem to make the reader feel and be healed, even when, perhaps, they were unaware of what they sought yet were healed, nonetheless, but what they found therein,

Which in those ears and in those thin, those spended hearts,

Took on color, took on shape and the size of things as they are

and spoke the feeling for them, which is what they had lacked.

Included in your festival pass, or $20 single entry

MWLF: “Bardic Poetry, Talking Gourds and Dolores LaChapelle: A Writer’s Playground (aka workshop)”

by Leave a Comment

Mountain Words Literary Festival: “Bardic Poetry, Talking Gourds and Dolores LaChapelle: A Writer’s Playground (aka workshop)” with Art Goodtimes

Friday, May 27

10:30 am – 12 pm

As part of your festival pass, or $20 single entry

Riffing off LaChapelle’s Way of the Mountain teachings, we will explore poetry’s bardic tradition of speaking for place & speaking deeply in place. We will get a taste for the handy un-American tool of learning by listening. And we will get to experience first-hand the West Coast style of poetry performance.

Art Goodtimes is an American poet, farmer and politician in Colorado. Goodtimes was first elected to the San Miguel County Board of Commissioners in 1996 as a Democrat. He switched to the Green Party of Colorado in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.

Retired in 2016 after five terms as Colorado’s only Green Party county commissioner, Art Goodtimes has won numerous awards for his political activism including from the Dept. of Interior, the Forest Service, conservative Club 20 of Grand Junction, as well as serving on dozens of boards and commissions on the local, regional, state and national levels. He co-founded the Sheep Mountain Alliance, Telluride’s local environmental group, in 1988.

MWLF: “Research & The Novel” with S Kirk Walsh

by Leave a Comment

What is the creative interplay between research and writing a novel? Do you research before you write? Or can you write and research simultaneously? When do you know you’ve completed enough research to fictionalize a specific world and time period? Whether you’re writing historical or contemporary fiction, often a significant amount of research can go into imagined characters and landscapes. How much do you need to know in order to set your characters into motion on the page? This workshop will answer these questions and offer strategies for fiction writers of different levels.

Based on her experience of writing her debut novel, The Elephant of Belfast, S. Kirk Walsh will share her process of researching and writing this novel, which included travel to Belfast, interviewing Blitz survivors, research with the elephants at the Houston Zoo, and working with a historian who specialized in this time period and place. She will share documents, artifacts, and historical photographs that inspired the writing of The Elephant of Belfast.

S. Kirk Walsh is a novelist, editor, and teacher based in Austin, Texas. Her national bestselling novel, The Elephant of Belfast—inspired by true events that took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during World War II—was published by Counterpoint Press in April 2021. The novel has generated praise from The New Yorker, The Christian Science Monitor, and other publications as well as being selected for several top reading lists. The Elephant of Belfast was also published by Hodder/Hachette (the UK, the Commonwealth, and Ireland) and has been translated for foreign editions in Norway and Iran. Walsh is now working on a second novel inspired by events that occurred in Detroit during the 1940s. She is the founder of Austin Bat Cave, a writing center for young writers in Austin.

Included in your festival pass, or $25 single entry

MWLF: Wild Film Screening

by Leave a Comment

Mountain Words Literary Festival: Wild film screening

Wednesday, May 25 7:30 pm

As part of your festival pass, or pay what you can

Check out the full festival lineup

Join us directly following Cheryl Strayed’s discussion + book signing for a very special screening of the Oscar-nominated movie adaptation of her book Wild starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl and Laura Dern as Cheryl’s mother, Bobbi.

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild, the New York Times bestsellers Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough, and the novel Torch. Wild was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as her first selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. Strayed’s books have been translated into nearly forty languages around the world and have been adapted for both the screen and the stage.

MWLF: Festival Kick-off with Cheryl Strayed

by Leave a Comment

Join us in kicking off the 2022 Mountain Words Literary Festival with Cheryl Strayed!

In conversation with a special surprise guest, Cheryl will discuss her work and incredible career followed by Q&A and book-signing.  A special screening of the Oscar-nominated movie adaptation of Wild starring Reese Witherspoon to follow event.

*Proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours prior to the event required for entry. Masks required for the book signing.

Order your book now from festival bookseller Townie Books. Check out the full festival lineup

Wednesday, May 25 | 6 – 7:30 pm

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild, the New York Times bestsellers Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough, and the novel Torch. Wild was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as her first selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. Strayed’s books have been translated into nearly forty languages around the world and have been adapted for both the screen and the stage.

The Oscar-nominated movie adaptation of Wild stars Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl and Laura Dern as Cheryl’s mother, Bobbi. Tiny Beautiful Things was adapted for the stage by Nia

Vardalos, who also starred in the role of Sugar/Cheryl. The play was directed by Thomas Kail and debuted at The Public Theater in New York City.

Strayed is the host of the New York Times hit podcast, Sugar Calling and also Dear Sugars, which she co-hosted with Steve Almond. Her essays have been published in The Best American Essays, The New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, The Sun, Tin House, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. Strayed holds an MFA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Portland, Oregon

 

“Wild Reading” hike + discussion with Leath Tonino

by Leave a Comment

Celebrated nature writer and essayist Leath Tonino leads you on a gentle hike exploring the intersection of text and place. Read classic and contemporary nature prose while contemplating your own writing. Good shoes, hat, and water recommended. Meet at the Center.
As part of the Mountain Words Literary Festival. $20 or part of your festival pass.

“Author Deep Dive: Jhumpa Lahiri” with Candace Nadon

by Leave a Comment

Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories – from those contained in her Pulitzer Prize-winning debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies, to her most recent New Yorker story, “Casting Shadows,” are quietly transformational and manage to be both micro and macrocosms of modernity. Lahiri’s work offers a master class in fiction craft, and in this workshop, we’ll discuss what we can learn as writers from Lahiri’s technique. We’ll specifically look at Lahiri’s use of point of view to drive narrative in Lahiri’s stories “Hell-Heaven,” “Year’s End,” and “Casting Shadows,” and we’ll conclude with exercises for practicing the craft techniques we discuss. ​Reading Lahiri’s stories prior to the workshop is recommended but not required. For copies of the stories, email brooke@crestedbuttearts.org

“Capturing Voice and Rhythm in Your Writing” with Manuel Aragon

by Leave a Comment

In this seminar, we’ll examine the trick of pace, the landscape of silence, and percussive elements of voice using
examples from Jesmyn Wards, Bryan Washington, Tommy Orange, and the music of Bad Bunny. Writers of all levels welcome.
As part of the Mountain Words Literary Festival. Included in Festival Pass, or $30 single entry. At the Center. Masks required.

Fierce Writing from the Heart

by Leave a Comment

“Let’s get fierce on the page! I help people who don’t fancy themselves writers, to go ahead and write. Let’s revel in the mess and wriggle free from the ego. One part creative practice, one part connecting-with-others practice, my weekly writing circles help us explore our hearts and lives on the page. No judgment. No criticism. Just writing and listening to each other in deep ways.” — DK HAWK

DK Hawk: Taking photos, sketching, collaging and putting words on the page make me feel alive. Connection with kindred spirits is the cinnamon on my apple pie. Through these creative practices, I’ve learned to speak my truth and find my voice. I allow myself to be seen for who I truly am – not what I thought the world wanted me to be. I’ve also learned that my story is important and I never know who may need to hear it.

More on DK.

 

“Book Length Considerations” with Laura Pritchett

by Leave a Comment

Book Length Considerations (a.k.a. Actually Thinking Through Your Book and Thus Save Supremely Important Things Such As Time, Energy, and Backaches from Typing)

Half-day workshop with Laura Pritchett

This half-day intensive class (limited capacity) is for those who are working on book-length projects—and need to think through structure, point of view, scope, arc, themes, and pacing of a longer work—as well as the psychology of wedding oneself to a long-term project. The class is appropriate for fiction and nonfiction, although be aware that some discussions will pertain more to one genre than the other. It is most helpful for those in the beginning or middle stages of writing a book (it does not focus on generating initial ideas, nor does it focus on final revision and submission) and is meant for writers who have been seriously engaged with their craft for some time.

If you can, please bring the first 3 pages of your work, a one-paragraph synopsis, and a rough 1 page outline—enough copies for everyone (approx 10 copies).

Included in Mountain Words Literary Festival Pass, or $75 single entry ($300 value).

At the Center.
Masks required.

Saturday Night Festival Readings

by Leave a Comment

Join us for some heavy-hitting readings by Rachel Monroe, Nick Arvin, Laura Pritchett, and Nate Marshall. Drinks available.

Rachel Monroe’s writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Wired, and the Atlantic, where she is a contributing writer. Her first book, Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession (Scribner) was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and named a best book of the year by Esquire, the Chicago Tribune, and Jezebel. More on Rachel.

Nick Arvin’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Ploughshares, Electric Literature, Missouri Review, and elsewhere. His writing has been honored with awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Library Association, the Isherwood Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a two-time winner of the Colorado Book Award, and his novel Articles of War was selected for the One Book, One Denver program. More on Nick

Laura Pritchett is the author of five novels and two nonfiction books and editor of three anthologies. Her work has been the recipient of the PEN USA Award, the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, the WILLA, the High Plains Book Award, and others. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Sun, Salon, Orion, High Country News, The Millions, Publisher’s Weekly, The Normal School, The Pinch, The Cincinnati Review, and many others. She directs the Nature Writing concentration for the MFA in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University. She lives in her native Colorado. www.laurapritchett.com

Nate Marshall is a writer, rapper, and educator from the South Side of Chicago. He is the author of FINNA (One World, Penguin Random House, 2020), Wild Hundreds (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), winner of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s award for Poetry Book of the Year and The Great Lakes College Association’s New Writer Award. Marshall is also an editor of The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket Books, 2015) and the co-author, with Eve Ewing, of No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. His rap album, Grown came out in 2015 with his group Daily Lyrical Product. Marshall is a member of The Dark Noise Collective and co-director of Crescendo Literary. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The Poetry Foundation, and The University of Michigan. More on Nate.

“[American Journal] Entries” workshop with Nate Marshall

by Leave a Comment

Using Robert Hayden’s classic Colorado-influenced poem as a guide, we will use this workshop to generate poems, rants, stories, and narrative experiments. In Hayden’s [American Journal] he embodies an extraterrestrial speaker to observe, praise, and critique his country. We will use various personas to consider the places and people that have had an impact in our lives.

Nate Marshall is a writer, rapper, and educator from the South Side of Chicago. He is the author of FINNA (One World, Penguin Random House, 2020), Wild Hundreds (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), winner of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s award for Poetry Book of the Year and The Great Lakes College Association’s New Writer Award. Marshall is also an editor of The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket Books, 2015) and the co-author, with Eve Ewing, of No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. His rap album, Grown came out in 2015 with his group Daily Lyrical Product. Marshall is a member of The Dark Noise Collective and co-director of Crescendo Literary. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The Poetry Foundation, and The University of Michigan. More on Nate.

Live Theater at Lunch: “Indiana” by Steven Cole Hughes

by Leave a Comment

Indiana by Steven Cole Hughes

On the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Justine, who just lost her job and her boyfriend in New York City, goes back to her parents’ house in Indiana. Old patterns and arguments emerge, and all she wanted was to go home so her voice could be heard.

Live performance in the Steddy Theater. Food + drink available for purchase. Included in festival pass, or pay what you can upon registration.

Steven Cole Hughes is a playwright, actor, director and currently Associate Professor and Director of Theatre at Western Colorado University. He is also the faculty mentor for playwriting at Regis University’s Mile-High MFA. His full-length plays include: Indiana, The Presidents!, Slabtown, Billy Hell, The Bad Man, cowboyily, Behold! The Fig Leaf Apron, Dogs by Seven and Poor Devils. His plays have been produced by the Bloomington Playwrights Project, The Coterie Theatre, Creede Repertory Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. He won the 2008 Denver Post Ovation Award for Best New Work for Billy Hell, and the 2011 Denver Post Ovation Award for Special Achievement for his trilogy of plays The Billy Trilogy. He has a BA in Theatre from Indiana University and an MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory.

Including:

Emma Messenger is a Denver based actress having performed at Curious Theatre, The Arvada Center, DCPA Off Center, The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Local Theater Company, and The Edge Theater among others. She is a three time CTG Henry Award Winner for Outstanding Acting having been nominated seven times. She was named to Westword’s Best list three times and has received four True West Awards for her performances. She last appeared onstage in The Secretary at Curious Theatre. Favorite roles include the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Della in The Cake, Kate Keller in All My Sons, Sue Mengers in I’ll Eat You Last, Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Annie Wilkes in Misery.

Cajardo Lindsey is an actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, and attorney.  His theatre credits include: Denver Center Theatre Company: ALL THE WAY, Just Like us, A Raisin in the Sun; Arvada Center: To Kill a Mockingbird, Wait Until Dark, A Raisin in the Sun; Curious Theatre Company: Skeleton Crew, Detroit ’67, The Brother Sister Plays, Fences; The Whipping Man; Local Theatre Company: The Rape of the Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias; Shadow Theatre Company: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Blood Knot; Miner’s Alley Playhouse: The Night of the Iguana, Lobby Hero and Misery. He is a multiple Denver Post Ovation, Best of Westward, Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Award-winning actor.  Film and TV credits include: Deadly Illusions, Infinity Chamber, Shot Caller, Force of Execution, MacGruber, Silver City, Assassins’ Code, Stained Glass Windows, Crash, Easy Money, In Plain Sight, and Medium.  His social media handle is @cajardo, his next film project handle is @blackfacemovie.

Heather Hughes is an actor, director and teaching artist.  Her theatre credits include: SICKS, Walker Space at SOHO Rep, NYC; The Boy at the Edge of Everything, The Duke Theatre, NYC; Rabbithole, Theatreworks, CT; DragOn, Lived/Relived, The Colorado New Play Summit, Denver Center for the Performing Arts; The 39 Steps, Lonetree Arts Center; Tiny Beautiful Things, The Wright Opera House.  Heather’s voice can be heard on numerous radio ads and her face can be seen on numerous commercials.  As a Teaching Artist, Heather has worked with The New Victory Theatre, Lincoln Center, Disney, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering in NYC, and ongoingly with The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Weehawken Center for the Arts, and The Crested Butte Center for the Arts, and Western Colorado University.  Heather is thrilled, THRILLED, to be with you, IN PERSON, at the theatre today.

Panel discussion “Writing in Place, Place in Writing”

by Leave a Comment

Panel: “Writing in Place, Place in Writing” with Nate Marshall, Steven Dunn, Laura Krantz, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Pam Houston in conversation with Arvin Ram

Nate Marshall is a writer, rapper, and educator from the South Side of Chicago. He is the author of FINNA (One World, Penguin Random House, 2020), Wild Hundreds (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), winner of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s award for Poetry Book of the Year and The Great Lakes College Association’s New Writer Award. Marshall is also an editor of The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket Books, 2015) and the co-author, with Eve Ewing, of No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. His rap album, Grown came out in 2015 with his group Daily Lyrical Product. Marshall is a member of The Dark Noise Collective and co-director of Crescendo Literary. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The Poetry Foundation, and The University of Michigan. More on Nate.

Kali Fajardo-Anstine is the author of the widely acclaimed Sabrina & Corina (One World, 2019), a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Bingham Prize, The Clark Prize, The Story Prize, the Saroyan International Prize and winner of an American Book Award. She is the 2021 recipient of the biennial Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Steven Dunn is the author of the novels Potted Meat (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2016) and water & power (Tarpaulin Sky 2018) He was born and raised in West Virginia, and after 10 years in the Navy, he earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. He teaches Creative Writing at Regis University’s Mile High MFA. Some of his work can be found in Columbia Journal, Granta Magazine, and Best Small Fictions 2018.

Laura Krantz is a journalist, editor and producer, in both radio and print. The first season of her podcast, Wild Thing received critical acclaim, including from The Atlantic, which named it one of the best podcasts of 2018.Laura is a founding partner of Foxtopus Ink, where she runs the audio division and oversees the creation and development of shows such as Wild Thing and The Syndicate. Laura has been in audio for well over a decade – she recently served as the interim science editor for PRX, which included editing work on the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor and Air/Space podcasts. Prior to that, she edited and produced for NPR in Washington, DC and for KPCC in Los Angeles.

Pam Houston is the author of the memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, which won the 2019 Colorado Book Award, the High Plains Book Award and the ReadingThe West Advocacy Award and even more recently, Air Mail: Letters of Politics Pandemics and Place coauthored with Amy Irvine.  She is also the author of Cowboys Are My Weakness as well as five other books of fiction and nonfiction, all published by W.W. Norton.

“From Prose to Song”with Joshua Mendrala

by Leave a Comment

Bring your prose and poetry to life in song! We’ll examine what differentiates song from poetry, and what the two have in common, and reference “How to Write One Song” by Jeff Tweedy. After going over some basic understanding of songs, we will open up to discussion on what song is and what creates lyrical form. Joshua will introduce basic chord structure, rhythm and cadence in songwriting.

We will briefly look at the operatic and baroque genre, of which has been adapting poetry to song since pre-Romantic era,  and will look at how this has moved to modern song. Come with three or more pieces of prose or poetry you’re interested in adapting into music and we’ll experiment with the pieces that will most adequately translate to song.

Audience: Those interested in song and lyric writing who already have poetry experience. No music experience required, just a desire to learn and experiment!

Pre-requisite: Must come to workshop prepared with three or more pieces of prose/poetry you are interested in adapting to song. If possible and you’ve got one, bring your keyboard or guitar along.

$35 or included in festival pass

Joshua Mendrala is the author of The Unity Disorder, a poet, songwriter, and recorded musician with a degree in Writing from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. He has spent the last few months as an intern with the Crested Butte Center for the Arts, and is currently a gigging and recording musician, as well as a contracted ghostwriter and copywriter. Mendrala spends his time in the playground of the Colorado mountains, playing with creative new sounds and lyrics, or venturing into the fantastical realm of the written word.

“The Physical Stuff of Your Life” writing workshop with Pam Houston

by Leave a Comment

The Physical Stuff of Your Life (and how to use it to gain access to the emotional stuff); A Generative Workshop with Pam Houston.

In this generative workshop we will focus on all the ways the sensory details that surround us—the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures—can give us access to that much more elusive interior landscape we are always trying to access when we write. If we write those details all the way down to the bone. If we sit in the dark with them and let them distill up from the swamps of memory. We will focus on what I believe to be the real artistry of prose writing: the way we dip our ladles into the bottomless pot of metaphor soup of our lived and witnessed experience and pull out what we need; the way we pick up hunks of the physical world and bring them back to the page, translated into language.

We will be aiming for work in which the language is always working in at least two ways at once, where metaphors dance between meanings like beads of water on a too hot grill. We will work toward demystifying some of the essential components of prose writing (image, metaphor, structure, dialogue, character, scene, among others) and turning them into comprehensible tools that are at our disposal. We will all, no doubt, be humbled in the face of languages unlimited possibility as well as its limitation. At the same time we will honor (and hope for) the inexplicable flights of creativity (and madness?) that take a good story and make it great.

Pam Houston is the author of the memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, which won the 2019 Colorado Book Award, the High Plains Book Award and the Reading The West Advocacy Award and even more recently, Air Mail: Letters of Politics Pandemics and Place coauthored with Amy Irvine.  She is also the author of Cowboys Are My Weakness as well as five other books of fiction and nonfiction, all published by W.W. Norton. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level on a 120-acre homestead near the headwaters of the Rio Grande and teaches at UC Davis and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is cofounder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing by Writers and the fiction editor at the Environmental Arts Journal Terrain.org.