Authors! Here! From all over Wyoming!

CWC Library is excited to announce the first Wyoming Author Showcase, to be held here on Sept. 7. Writers from all over Wyoming will be here to discuss their work with you. They will also have copies of their books to autograph and sell. Every purchase is a contribution to the library - 10% will go to our new endowment.

Best-selling authors Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear, former Wyoming Poet Laureate Robert Roripaugh, mystery writer Craig Allen Johnson and children’s book author Eugene Gagliano are among seasoned and new Wyoming authors who converge at Central Wyoming College in Riverton Friday, Sept. 7 for the first Wyoming Author Showcase.

CWC Library has invited writers from around the state who have published book-length works in a wide assortment of genres, including photography, cowboy poetry, fiction, wilderness medicine, romance, memoirs, nature, history and many more.

During the 5-7 p.m. event at the CWC Library, the authors will share their work and talk about their creative processes, said Assistant Librarian Coralina Daly.

The Gears are known for their novels on North American prehistory, which includes a series that melds the latest archaeological findings with dramatic narratives and strong Native American tradition. The couple has combined to write 33 novels with historical and anthropological themes. In addition to writing, the Gears raise bison on a ranch that borders the Wind River Indian Reservation and are principal investigators for Wind River Archaeological Consultants.

Among the participants are Tom Bowen of Lander, author of Backcountry Pilot: Flying Adventures with Ike Russell; Carolyn Lampman Brubaker of Riverton, author of many historical romances and Beating the LD (Learning Disability) Monster; Barbara Foote Colvert of Cody, author of Resolutions: A story of transformation through the process of loss; William Day of Riverton, author of The Running Wounded: A personal memory of the Korean War; Eugene Gagliano of Buffalo, author of several children’s books including C is for Cowboy: A Wyoming Alphabet; Cathleen Galitz of Riverton, author of many Wyoming-themed romance novels; Rebecca Hein of Casper, author of A Case of Brilliance about her children; Ron Howard, Jody Rae Boyd and Micki Hanser of Riverton, authors of the Prairie Fairy series of children’s books; Butch Hudson of Lander, author of Sunrise Over the Rim, a historical novel about central Wyoming’s version of Johnny Appleseed; Joe Hutto of Lander, author of Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey; photographer Jack Jeffers of Riverton, author of Appalachian Byways; Craig Allen Johnson of Ucross, author of the popular Walt Longmire mystery series; Theodore Judson of Riverton, author of Fitzpatrick’s War and Tom Wedderburn’s Life; Jeffe Kennedy of Laramie, author of the collection of personal essays Wyoming Trucks, True Love and the Weather Channel; Elaine King of Casper, author of a book chronicling her Alaskan hunting adventure honeymoon; cowboy poet Echo Roy Klaproth of Shoshoni; photographer Mike McClure of Lander, author of Artifact; Betty Schmidt of Douglas, author of an award-winning collection of Meeteetse pioneer stories; Wyoming Arts Council Arts Specialist Mike Shay of Cheyenne, author of fiction and essays, Holly Skinner of Lander, author of Eye of the Blackbird: A story of gold in the American West and Only the River Runs Easy: A historical portrait of the upper Green River Valley; Bill Sniffin of Lander, author of two books of stories about Wyoming; Jack and Diantha States of Lander, author of Wildflowers of Wyoming; Dr. Kent Stockton of Riverton, author of The Campfire Ain’t Quite Out; Abby Taylor of Sheridan, author of romance novel We Shall Overcome; Buck Tilton of Lander, co-founder of the Wilderness Medicine Institute and author of over 25 books about life and safety in the great outdoors; Cat Urbikigt of Pinedale, author of several children’s books about agriculture, including Brave Dog, Gentle Dog; Garry Wallace of Powell, author of Biography of a Bird Dog; John Washakie of Fort Washakie, author of Yuse: The bully & the bear, a story; University of Wyoming professor of history Cheryl Wells, whose book Civil War Time showed how America’s sense of time changed during the 1860s; Jeannette Woodward of Lander, author of several business and trade books; and Karol Griffin Young of Riverton, adjunct English instructor at CWC and author of the highly-acclaimed memoir Skin Deep: Tattoos, the Disappearing West, Very Bad Men and My Deep Love for them All.

The event is free and open to all.

For more information, contact Daly at 307-855-2141 or at 800-735-8418, ext. 2141.

New book: Artifact

Artifact: A Cultural Geography of Wyoming
By: Michael McClure
Wyoming F 762 .M166 2007

Lander photographer Mike McClure's 2003 exhibit, "Artifact: A Cultural Geography," which captured many of the disintegrating relics across the state in graceful black and white photographs, is now available in book form.

With a foreward by University of Wyoming history professor Phil Roberts and passages from other authors, McClure's photographs document the "history of man's imprint on the landscape of the American West."

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

The CWC Library received fantastic news today: an anonymous donor gave our newly-established endowment fund a tremendous kick-start with the $5,000 we needed to make sure the funds would be matched by the state. We are tremendously grateful and look forward to putting the money to good use!

New Book: The Places in Between

The Places in Between
By: Rory Stewart
DS 352.S74 2006


You've heard about the man who walked across Afghanistan relying on the kindness of strangers. Now read his story.

Stewart began his journeyin in January 2002. Along the way he met heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers.

Through these encounters Stewart makes tangible the forces of tradition, ideology, and allegiance that shape life in the map's countless places in between.

What we're reading: Sue Thompson

Academic Services Administrative Assistant Sue Thompson is reading Alma Mater, by P.F. Kluge, a member of the faculty of Kenyon College in Ohio.

Sue is reading Alma Mater in preparation for CWC August staff book discussion, which will be led by CWC Vice President J.D. Rottweiler and Chief Information Officer John Wood.

In case you missed it, January's staff book discussion was a great hit. The book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon, is still available (PZ 7 .H1165 CU 2003) and we're keeping our eyes peeled for word of a movie version.

Come discuss Here, Bullet on July 12

How can anyone wrap their mind around what is happening to U.S. soldiers in Iraq? Three-minute news clips hardly do justice to such an enormous situation. In "Here, Bullet," Brian Turner gives us a chance.

Turner, who has a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Oregon, wrote most of the poems while serving as an infantry team leader in Iraq. He joined the Army in 1998 and served in Bosnia-Herzegovinia before being deployed to Mosul, Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division in 2003.

“Here, Bullet,” which contains 47 poems, was published by Alice James Books in 2005 and has since earned several prestigious awards and attracted the attention of national media.

During one interview, Turner explained his title poem, “Here, Bullet,” was a “taunt toward death” as much of a tangible expression of fear.

“That poem came out in an outburst,” Turner told The News Hour’s Jim Lehrer. “What I did was I wrote it and I don't know what this means, but I folded it up and I put it in a Ziploc bag and I put it in my left breast pocket, and I kept it with me for the remainder of my time there in my uniform.”

Here, Bullet

If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta's opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you've started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel's cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue's explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.

The book discussion about “Here, Bullet” will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the CWC Library’s upstairs conference room on Thursday, July 12. For more information, call 855-2141.

Read all about it!

The CWC Library regularly receives 19 newspapers. The current issues are available next to the new book shelf and back issues are across from the college catalogs.

The local Riverton Ranger, Lander Journal and Wind River News are there, along with the Casper Star-Tribune and Jackson Hole News and Guide. We also have Indian Country Today, Indian Life and Sho-Ban News.

Going to Denver? Billings? We get the Sunday issues of the Denver Post and Billings Gazette. Drop by and see what is happening before your visit.

Other titles you can find at the CWC Library: UW Alumnews; Christian Science Monitor; Community College Times; Community College Week; Eagle (Chadron); High Country News; Ute Bulletin; WEA News; and Wyoming Business Report.