Maria's Book Shop, Edward Abbey Celebration

Maria's is this really cool book store in Durango, Colorado. Many Write On Authors have come to KSJE's Attention through it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


CONTACT:
Libby Cowles, Staff and Community Relations Manager
Maria’s Bookshop
libby@mariasbookshop.com
(970) 247-1438

ED ABBEY PARTY AT MARIA’S BOOKSHOP CELEBRATES WRITER’S LEGACY 20 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH

DURANGO (Februray 23, 2009)— Calling all Four Corners Ed Abbey fans!

Maria’s Bookshop, at 960 Main Avenue in Durango, will host a celebration of Edward Abbey’s life and work on Monday, March 16th from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, marking the 20th anniversary of his death. The evening will include raucous readings from Abbey’s work as well as discussion about the relevancy of his words and ideas to our modern Western lives today, featuring speakers Ken Wright, M. John Fayhee, Kate Niles, Art Goodtimes, Michael Rendon and B. Frank

When Edward Abbey died in 1989 at the age of sixty-two, the American West lost one of its most eloquent and passionate advocates. Through his novels, essays, letters and speeches, Abbey consistently voiced the belief that the West was in danger of being developed to death, and that the only solution lay in the preservation of wilderness. Abbey authored twenty-one books in his lifetime, including Desert Solitaire, The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Brave Cowboy, and Fool's Progress. His comic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang helped inspire a whole generation of environmental activism. A writer in the mold of Twain and Thoreau, Abbey was a larger-than-life figure as big as the West itself.
Durango-based writer Ken Wright, author of The Monkey Wrench Dad, will serve at master of ceremonies. Wright is a free-lance writer, college instructor, author, and father, although not necessarily in that order. He is also a contributing editor and columnist for Inside Outside Southwest magazine, where his writings take readers on philosophical and often humorous forays into the unique life and land of the Four Corners region. Ken's essays, book reviews, and news features have appeared in a variety of national and regional magazines and newspapers, and he is the author of two essay collections, A Wilder Life: Essays from Home and Why I'm Against it All.
Wright will be joined by M. John Fayhee, Kate Niles, Art Goodtimes, Michael Rendon and B. Frank.
M. John Fayhee is the author of seven books, including A Colorado Winter, Mexico’s Copper Canyon Country, Along the Colorado Trail and Up at Altitude. He was a contributing editor at Backpacker magazine for 12 years, and his work has appeared in many magazines, including the Islands, High Country News, Aspen Sojourner, Forbes-Life MountainTime, Adventure Travel, The Walking Magazine, Family Camping, Summit, Canoe, Outside, Sierra, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Men’s Fitness, America West Airlines Magazine and Horizon Air. In 2000, Fayhee, along with two partners, resurrected the legendary Mountain Gazette, which, back in its previous incarnation in the 1970s, regularly published the work of Edward Abbey, including the first chapter of the book that came to be known as The Monkey Wrench Gang. Fayhee still works as an editor-at-large for Mountain Gazette. He lives in Silver City, New Mexico.
Fort Lewis College professor Kate Niles is the award-winning author of The Basket Maker and Geographies of the Heart and is a regular contributor to Inside Outside Southwest magazine. Her work has appeared in national publications including The Louisville Review, FishDrum, South Dakota Review, and others. She is the winner of the Colorado Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship Award (the state’s highest arts award) and lives outside Durango with her husband and son.
A bioregionalist student of Dolores La Chapelle, Art Goodtimes writes from Cloud Acre on Wright’s Mesa, in the San Miguel Watershed cusp between the Colorado Plateau and the San Juan Mountains. When not serving as Colorado’s only Green county commissioner, he grows organic heirloom seed potatoes, hosts various Talking Gourds performance poetry events, takes his family on vacation to the annual Rainbow Gathering, runs the parade at the Telluride Mushroom Festival and serves as poet-in-residence, as he has for the past 27 years. Goodtimes is a former poetry editor for Earth First! Journal and Wild Earth.
Durango City Councilor Michael Rendon is the former director of The Environmental Center at Fort Lewis College, and a former Maria’s Bookshop bookseller. He currently serves as Executive Director of Sexual Assault Services Organization in Durango.
B. Frank wanders the dry country Abbey wandered, seeking truths and chances to rouse the sleeping rabble for one more try at retaking the empire. Currently listed as a 'senior correspondent' for Mountain Gazette, Frank also contributes regularly to the San Juan Almanac, an on-line blog started by Ken Wright
Other special guests will likely join the event. Audience members are invited to come with their favorite Abbey passages, memories and stories to share.
M. John Fayhee is available for interviews before the event. Contact him at mjfayhee@mountaingazette.com, (575) 538-1273 or (575) 534-4104.
For more information about the event, call (970) 247-1438 or visit www.mariasbookshop.com.

Connie Gotsch www.conniegotsch.com Host Write On Four Corners KSJE FM, Farmington NM www.ksje.com Author two award winning novels Snap Me a Future and A Mouthful of Shell available www.dlsijpress.com

Always in Print ‘Cuz They’re Print on Demand!

Coming in 2009, Belle’s Star,’ a youth novel from Artemesia Press at http://www.apbooks.net