Seeking Wyoming, Speaking Wyoming
Everyday Joe's Coffee House
144 S. Mason St.
Fort Collins, CO 80524
970.224.4138
Friday, July 20, 7pm
Readings, Conversations, Signings, Pontificating
Julianne Couch - Jukeboxes and Jackalopes
I've sat on a lot of barstools in order to write Jukeboxes & Jackalopes: A Wyoming Bar Journey (Pronghorn Press) I've long been intrigued by life on the other side of those neon beer signs that glow in the windows of Wyoming’s small-town saloons. My photographer husband, Ronald K. Hansen, and I visited thirty little beer joints where locals had no other choice but to hang out, if they wanted to find someone to talk to. And they talked to me, among them mountain lion hunters, over-the-road truck drivers, antique-doll loving bartenders, gas field workers, outfitters, joke-a-minute airline pilots, ditch riders, and grade school teachers. The result is a collection of two dozen essays and photographs that offer glimpses into some of Wyoming’’s most interesting characters and locations, along with explorations of a few of the impulses that prompted me to adopt Wyoming as home.
"Jukeboxes and Jackalopes will delight readers who like to loaf off the beaten path and shows why Wyoming is still like no place on earth." - Kevin Holdsworth, author of Big Wonderful
Jeffe Kennedy - Wyoming Truck, True Love and the Weather Channel
My stats make me a fence-sitter: Post-Baby-Boomer, Pre-Generation-X. I saw the first episode of Sesame Street when I was four, but live in a house without television. I grew up in a city in the West that is no longer considered part of the real West. I live in a state where a square mile holds only one person, only one person represents us to Congress and everyone lives in a one-horse town. I have the hat, the boots, can ride and brand, but a muscular DSL line is my usual steed, carrying me to my virtual office as an environmental consultant. I see with the eye of a biologist and my blood runs with dreams of Celtic poets
"Her ability to reflect insightfully and memorably upon a variety of potent, complex subjects marks her as a writer to watch." - Andrea Hollander Budy, The Georgia Review
RoseMarie London - The Search for an Inappropriate Man
I was born and grown in New York City. I write, sulk and occasionally, I drink. I have put together a collection of stories which I call The Search for an Inappropriate Man. Mostly it’s about these three women, Mona, Natasha and Anna, who either one or the other get shot by accident in a Wyoming bar, or pay for two-hundred-dollars worth of organic groceries for a Scientologist with situational ethics, or wait out a freak hail storm between two ornery horses with an underage wrangler. Or are the only woman in a room filled with Winston Cup drivers, habitually dogs a UPS man, dances to an Eagles’ song with an aging, rock drummer. Or lays her head on the shoulder of a WWE wrestler dressed in chartreuse cashmere.
"You can look for the truth, and you can look for a sense of humor, or you can have both in a good read with The Search for an Inappropriate Man; RoseMarie has a knack for all three, whether it be in Bud's Bar or the written word." - Craig Johnson, author of The Cold Dish
Michael Shay - The Weight of a Body
My themes include displacement and dislocation, states-of-being well known to westerners. But you don't have to be from Wyoming's high plains to realize that people are mischievous creatures and always find new and interesting ways to screw up their lives. There's always at least a glimmer of hope for redemption. I try to bring some humor to my characters' predicaments, sometimes dark humor that flirts with despair.
"Michael Shay understands human strength in all its frailty. His stories can help us believe in each other." - Aurelie Sheehan, author of History Lesson for Girls