Contact: Lisa Consiglio
Executive Director, Aspen Writers’ Foundation
970-925-3122, ext. 1# | Lisa@aspenwriters.org
January 5 Event to be Co-Presented by Aspen Writers’ Foundation and ACES
Aspen, CO, December 21, 2010 – Naturalist Terry Tempest Williams will launch the Aspen Writer’s Foundation’s (AWF) 14th annual Winter Words series in conversation with Colorado writer Daniel Shaw. The event will take place on Wednesday, January 5 at 5:30pm. Audience Q&A and a book signing will follow the conversation. The evening is co-presented by the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) as part of the Jessica Catto Leadership Dialogues. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased from Aspen Show Tickets at 970-920-5700 and through www.aspenshowtix.com. Further details on how to purchase tickets for the Winter Words 2011 series and discount information are below. Doors will open 30 minutes prior to the start of the event.
“We are honored to partner with ACES to present one of the West’s greatest defenders of the environment, a powerful woman who does not flinch in the face of big oil or any other Goliath that stands between her and what she calls ‘the sacred nature of life’,” said AWF Executive Director Lisa Consiglio.
At this kick-off event Terry Tempest Williams, the award-winning author who wields her pen “as a powerful tool toward justice” to preserve the wild lands she loves, will share insights into her life as a writer, naturalist, free speech crusader, and ecological warrior.
Tom Cardamone, executive director of ACES, added, “Terry Tempest Williams has such an enormous talent for exploring the nexus between humankind’s creative and destructive forces. She brings home, through otherwise untold personal stories about the environment, the consequences of our actions or, our failure to act.”
Terry’s writing recently starred in the cover essay, “The Gulf Between Us,” in the November/December issue of Orion magazine. You can read that article online here: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5931/. Orion magazine is a media sponsor of the event.
Author Profile
Best known for her impassioned, lyrical prose — which is a hallmark of the 16 books she has authored, including the 1991 environmental lit classic, Refuge – An Unnatural History of Family and Place and her 2008 book, Finding Beauty In A Broken World — Terry Tempest Williams otherwise defies easy categorization. She has served time in jail for acts of civil disobedience, testified before Congress on women’s health issues, been a guest at the White House, camped in remote regions of Utah and Alaska wildernesses, and worked as a “barefoot artist” in Rwanda.
What unites her diverse projects is an unwavering commitment to the environment and the inherent rights —civil, communal, and spiritual — of its inhabitants. As the Utne Reader said, “At the heart of all [Williams’] work, as a writer, a naturalist, and a crusader for protection of the nation’s wilderness,…the common theme is restoration: restoring our connection to the land, to the sacred, and to each other.”
In 2006, her work as a voice for ecological consciousness and social change garnered her the Robert Marshall Award from the Wilderness Society, the organization’s highest honor given to an American citizen. Among her many honors, the Utah native also received the Wallace Stegner Award given by the Center for the American West. In 2009, Williams was featured in Ken Burns’ PBS series on the national parks. She is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah.
2011 Winter Words
Williams is the first of five authors who together form the 2011 Winter Words literary performance series. The season’s other headline writers include:
• Paul Muldoon / Jan 27: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet; translator, editor and children’s book author; professor; rock lyricist and guitarist
• Emma Donoghue / Feb 23: Novelist and author of Room, a New York Times “Top 10 Book of the Year” and Man Booker Prize shortlistee; literary historian; dramatist
• Ethan Canin / Mar 16: Novelist and author of America America; former physician; faculty at what is arguably the best MFA creative writing program in the nation
• Joyce Maynard / Mar 24: Bestselling memoirist; author of To Die For, the novel turned Golden Globe Award-winning film; New York Times correspondent; expat
Tickets are $15/event or $70/season subscription. Discounts are available for AWF members, students and educators (with current school I.D.), and groups. Also available are tickets and passes to the Author Salon series of Winter Words private after-parties honoring each author ($40/event, $175/series, includes event and private after-party, with AWF, ACES, or Society of Fellows membership). Tickets to Winter Words and the Author Salons may be purchased from Aspen Show Tickets at 970-920-5700 and through www.aspenshowtix.com. More information is available from the AWF at 970-925-3122 and www.aspenwriters.org.
Bonus Winter Events
In addition to the five official Winter Words events by these headliners, the AWF will present free and discounted events taking place during the winter season: Cabinet of Wonders literary variety show (Jan 30), Andrew Sean Greer (Feb 10), Ishmael Beah and special guest (Feb 17), and Tobias Wolff (Mar 7); David Wroblewski at a special Aspen Art Museum engagement (Jan 6); Wesley Stace (a.k.a. John Wesley Harding) (Jan 31); and the Story Swap exhibit opening (Feb 4). Also filling literary calendars this winter is The Great Read community reading program, featuring dozens of events celebrating F. Scott Fitzgerald’s modern American classic, The Great Gatsby.
The Aspen Writers’ Foundation, one of the West’s pioneering literary centers and a program of the Aspen Institute, has been bringing readers and writers together since 1976. The organization’s mission is to provide programs that encourage writers in their craft and readers in their appreciation of literature. Through its repertoire of ten year-round programs and projects, the Aspen Writers’ Foundation annually serves 100,000+ literary enthusiasts of all ages.
The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and restoring biodiversity by building an active community of informed, capable environmental stewards. ACES offers inspiring programming at Hallam Lake, the Catto Center at Toklat, Rock Bottom Ranch and Spring Creek. The Jessica Catto Leadership Dialogues was inaugurated in 2010 to honor Jessica Hobby Catto and to promote stewardship through conservation.
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