BTC & WPL: Pam Houston & Amy Irvine, 9/23!

16 Sep BTC & WPL: Pam Houston & Amy Irvine, 9/23!

“Authors Uncovered,” an ongoing collaboration between Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library and Between the Covers Bookstore presents award-winning authors Pam Houston and Amy Irvine for two readings from their new book “Air mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics, and Place” (Torrey House Press, 2020). The event takes place Wednesday, September 23, 2020 on the library’s lower terrace, a space re-created into a distance-respecting outdoor space to gather and celebrate the literary arts. The first reading will be at 12:30pm; the second, at 5:30pm. Per Town of Telluride ordinance, masks will be required. Seating is limited and is available by registering at www.telluridelibrary.org.

Between the Covers will be on-hand for book sales and a post-Q&A signing. Even though the book does not officially publish until October 13, the slim pocket-sized read is on its way to Telluride and available for pre-order at the bookstore. For those not able to attend in-person but wanting a copy signed by the duo, contact the bookstore with your inscription request (970-728-4504) by Tuesday, September 22, 4pm.

About “AIR MAIL”:

“This book is fierce love in motion.” —LIDIA YUKNAVITCH.

“Air Mail is the record of an epistolary friendship forged in a time of political peril, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. These letters are pure outpourings of deep thought and daily life. Houston and Irvine reveal the ferocity of women who have made their lives in the wilderness and by the pen, the depths of wisdom hard-won, survival and what it cost, and all of this in a language where horse hooves can be heard thundering.”— CAROLYN FORCHÉ

When the state of Colorado ordered its residents to shelter in place in response to the spread of coronavirus, writers Pam Houston and Amy Irvine—who had never met—began a correspondence based on their shared devotion to the rugged, windswept mountains that surround their homes, one on either side of the Continental Divide. As the numbers of infected and dead rose and the nation split dangerously over the crisis, Houston and Irvine found their letters to one another as necessary as breath. Part tribute to wilderness, part indictment against tyranny and greed, “Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics, and Place” reveals the evolution of a friendship that galvanizes as it chronicles a strange new world.

About PAM:

PamHouston
©MikeBlakeman

Local note: Although her ranch is near Creede and she teaches English at UC Davis, Pam is no stranger to these parts. Aside from penning the Foreword for the last two editions of “Tomboy Bride”— Telluride’s bestselling book  —she was the Featured Author for Telluride’s Literary Art Festival in 2014 and 2019.

Official bio: Pam Houston is the author of the memoir, “Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country,” as well as two novels, “Contents May Have Shifted” and “Sight Hound,” two collections of short stories, “Cowboys Are My Weakness” and “Waltzing the Cat,” and a collection of essays, “A Little More About Me.”

Pam teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and cofounder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers. She lives at nine thousand feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

About AMY:

Amy Irvine by Susie Grant

Local note: Amy is the co-founder of Telluride’s Literary Burlesque.

Official bio: Amy Irvine is a sixth-generation Utahn and long-time public lands activist. Her memoir, “Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land,” received the Orion Book Award, the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award, and the Colorado Book Award.

Irvine teaches in the MFA program of Southern New Hampshire University. She lives and writes off the grid in southwest Colorado, just spitting distance from her Utah homeland.

About TORREY HOUSE PRESS:

Torrey House Press publishes books at the intersection of the literary arts and environmental advocacy.

THP authors explore the diversity of human experiences and relationships with place. THP books create conversations about issues that concern the American West, landscape, literature, and the future of our ever-changing planet, inspiring action toward a more just world. The publishing house believes that lively, contemporary literature is at the cutting edge of social change and seeks to inform, expand, and reshape the dialogue on environmental justice and stewardship for the natural world by elevating literary excellence from diverse voices.

UPCOMING “Authors Uncovered”:

Featured in October will be author David Gessner, author of the new book, “Leave It as It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness.” The exact date is yet to be confirmed, but it will be a Zoom event with a very special guest crashing the party—Teddy himself!