Member Announcements & News

Welcome back to the Women Writing the West blog. We're returning to a regular posting schedule with a round-up of news and announcements from members of this diverse group of writers who set their work in the West, and are creating a literary explosion comparable to the Southern literary renaissance of the 1930s. If you're a writer of the West--historic or contemporary--join us! If you're a reader, look for our books!

Joyce Lohse, author of the "Now You Know" Bios from Filter Press, is interviewed in a documentary about Dr. Justina Ford, Colorado's first female, African-American physician, on Colorado Experience on Rocky Mountain PBS airing Feb. 28 at  at 7 p.m. (Channel 6 in Denver.) Joyce, who is also WWW's hard-working administrator, says, "Yikes! My TV debut!!"

Sherry Johns has just released the first book from her new publishing company, Sherry Johns Publishing. Down Memory Lane with the Beaver Creek Folks was written by Della Goode Lancaster, who grew up on the fertile banks of Beaver Creek, on the eastern edge of Fremont County, Colorado in the late 1800s. From old Uncle Tommy Stuart, whose neighbors tenderly cared for him as he died, to young Bettie McCurry, who was the first to be buried in the Callen Cemetery, Della weaves a colorful tapestry of the close-knit families who came to Colorado, seeking a better life. She details her happy schooldays at the tiny rock-built Glendale School and the disastrous flood of 1921, as well as Christmas programs, pie suppers and a Literary Society. The front and back covers were designed by Della's great-grandson.

Marsha Ward's 2012 novel, Spinster's Folly, is a finalist for the Whitney Award in historical novels. Marsha says, "I must still be in a daze from receiving the news, because I haven't yet sent out news releases to local newspapers as I should have done. I was prompted to write an acceptance speech, just in case, and I had a few ideas, but life got crazier than before, and I haven't done that, either." The Whitney Awards will be announced May 11th in Provo, Utah.

Copyright free from Chicago State Univ.

CJ Fosdick is at work on a trilogy of historical romances and was inspired by John Gast's 1872 painting, "The Spirit of Manifest Destiny." Although the painting, completed for a series of western travel guides, looks large, writes CJ, the original, now in the Library of Congress, is less than 13 X 17 inches. "I fell in love with this painting, a visual encyclopedia of historical transportation technologies surging west during the 19th century," says CJ. "Sometimes a picture really is worth one thousand words! The spirit of manifest destiny--with all its bittersweet side-effects-- pervades some of the time period in my historical romance waiting to be discovered, The Calling Stone."