William Kittredge and Patty Limerick are among 10 well-known Western authors scheduled to give public readings in Boulder Oct. 1-4 as part of Western Literature Week.
The University of Colorado's Center of the American West and the Western Literature Association are co-sponsoring the series of events celebrating contemporary Western writing, all of which are free and open to the public.
All presentations and readings will be held at the Millennium Harvest House Hotel at 1345 28th St. with the exception of the Oct. 4 closing talk at Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus. The events are being held in conjunction with the Western Literature Association's 43rd annual conference in Boulder.
Also appearing will be Acoma Pueblo poet and essayist Simon Ortiz; Chickasaw essayist, poet and novelist Linda Hogan; Chicano poet Aaron Abeyta; writer, artist and producer Teresa Jordan; Colorado novelist Laura Pritchett; poet and writer and CU-Boulder Professor Emeritus Reg Saner; Coeur d'Alene tribal member Janet Campbell Hale, an author and essayist; and writer and filmmaker Annick Smith.
Kittredge and Smith were co-producers of the movie "A River Runs Through It" and co-edited "The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology." Kittredge is the author of "Hole in the Sky: A Memoir," "The Nature of Generosity" and "The Willow Field," and has received numerous awards.
Kittredge and Limerick, professor of history and chair of the board of the Center of the American West, are the 2008 WLA Distinguished Achievement Award recipients and will appear together on Oct. 2. Limerick is the author of numerous books including "The Legacy of Conquest" and "Something in the Soil" and is the winner of a MacArthur Fellowship in addition to CU's highest award for teaching and research.
"Just a couple of decades ago, lots of people thought that Western American literature was an unsophisticated backwater of a field," Limerick said. "The upcoming Western Literature Week celebrates the renaissance of regional writing that now earns national and international respect."
Following is a complete list of scheduled events:
Thursday, Oct. 2
o Aaron Abeyta and Linda Hogan, "Western Poetic Landscapes," 4 to 5:15 p.m., Outdoor Pavilion, Millennium Hotel
o William Kittredge and Patty Limerick, "Western Collaborations," 7 to 9 p.m., Grand Ballroom, Millennium Hotel
Friday, Oct. 3
o Teresa Jordan and Laura Pritchett, "Women Write the Range," 12:15 to 1:15 p.m., Outdoor Pavilion, Millennium Hotel
o A Tribute to Jean Stafford, "Huck Finn Joins the Camp Fire Girls: Jean Stafford's 'Bad Characters'," 12:15 to 1:15 p.m., Century Room, Millennium Hotel
o Simon Ortiz and Reg Saner, "Reflecting the Sacred and Sacrificed West," 5 to 6:15 p.m., Outdoor Pavilion, Millennium Hotel
Saturday, Oct. 4
o Annick Smith, "A Reading and Conversation," 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., Century Room, Millennium Hotel;
o Janet Campbell Hale, "An Evening with Janet Campbell Hale," 7 to 9 p.m., Old Main Chapel, CU-Boulder campus
Western Literature Week is sponsored by Colorado Humanities, the CU-Boulder Center for Humanities and the Arts, the CU President's Fund for the Humanities, Chevron and the Charles Redd Foundation.
For biographies of each of the authors and additional information visit the Center of the American West's Web site at / or contact the center at 303-492-4879.