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WINTER WORDS 2006 LAUNCHES ON JANUARY 20TH
The Aspen Writers' Foundation "Reinvents
The Word" with 9th Season
(January 4, 2006) Aspen, CO … On January 20th the
Aspen Writers' Foundation, celebrating its 30th year as
Colorado's oldest nonprofit literary organization, launches
its 2006 Winter Words series of readings
and talks with notable authors. The 9th annual season,
billed as "Après Ski for the Mind," features
literary wonders Frank McCourt, Ann Patchett,
James Patterson, Kent Haruf, Charles C. Mann
and Lorraine Adams in appearances in
Aspen through March 18.
“The Aspen Writers’ Foundation is proud to
launch its pearl anniversary year with a string of author
readings and talks that will lead us across continents,
through 30,000 years of history, in and out of hearts,
professions, values, memories, research, and nightmares,"
says executive director Lisa Consiglio.
REINVENTING THE WORD
Winter Words 2006 is about reinvention. Each of the series'
six authors is a master at stepping out into new territory
and rewriting plotlines — of their own lives, those
of their characters', or of stereotypes and theories widely
held by society. From the public school teacher turned
Pulitzer Prize-winning memoirist to the advertising guru
turned maverick bestseller, from the science writer who
debunks long-held historical ideas to the first-time novelist
who upends stereotypes about Arabs in graceful and compelling
prose, each of our authors has in some fashion turned
the publishing world on its ear. And the world is listening:
awards and acclaim are quick to follow these talented
writers.
FEATURED AUTHORS
Award-winning author and Science correspondent Charles
C. Mann launches the series on Friday,
January 20th with a talk on his provocative new
bestseller, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas
Before Columbus. In this "riveting and fast-paced
history" (Publisher's Weekly), Mann —
who has been compared to Jared Diamond and John McPhee
— shows us how in the last 20 years a new generation
of scientists came to discover that much of what Americas
learn at school about the continent and its peoples is
wrong. In fact, there were probably more people in the
Americans than there were in Europe in 1492. The American
continent was populated as long as 33,000 years ago, and,
ultimately, with some of the world's biggest, and most
sophisticated cities. The Indians managed their environments
in ways that, if replicated today, could revolutionize
local agriculture. Instead, they suffered
catastrophically from epidemics, inadvertently set off
by the arrival of Europeans, creating the single worst
demographic disaster in history and setting the stage
for their conquest. Charles C. Mann's reading
and talk takes place at the Given Institute.
The following week, Aspen audiences will learn the tale
of how one great storyteller found his voice. Nearly a
decade ago Frank McCourt became an unlikely
star when, at the age of 66, he burst onto the scene with
Angela's Ashes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir
of his childhood in Limerick, Ireland. Then came 'Tis,
the glorious account of his early years in New York. Finally,
in Teacher Man, his long-awaited follow-up, McCourt
chronicles how his 33-year teaching career shaped his
second act as a writer. Teacher Man is also a
tribute to teachers everywhere. (Billy Collins called
it "a cry from the barricades of public education
and should be required reading not just for all teachers
but for anyone who ever set foot in a high school.")
With his trademark irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty,
he records the trials, triumphs, and surprises he faced
each day in front of 35 unruly, hormonally-charged adolescents.
He details the unconventional methods — including
a homework assignment to write "An Excuse Note from
Adam or Eve to God" — that created a lasting
impact on his students. Kirkus Reviews said, "The
teaching profession's loss is the reading public's gain,
entirely." Frank McCourt will give a
reading and talk on Saturday, January 28th at the Wheeler
Opera House.
Come February, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist (Bel
Canto, Taft, The Magician's Assistant, The Patron Saint
of Liars) Ann Patchett returns to
Aspen with her first work of non-fiction, Truth &
Beauty. In this frank and startlingly intimate memoir,
she shines a fresh, revealing light on the world of women's
friendship and shows what it means to love a person who
cannot be saved. Patchett met Lucy Grealy in college in
1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers' Workshop,
began a friendship that would be as defining to both of
their lives as to their work. In her critically acclaimed
memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Grealy wrote
about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, the
years of chemotherapy and radiation, and then the endless
reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty,
the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life, but the parts
of their lives that they shared: 20 years of unwavering
loyalty, through love, fame, drugs and despair. The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution called it "a work every bit
as entrancing, daring and smart as her fiction."
Ann Patchett's presentation will take place
on Wednesday, February 15th at the Given Institute.
Lorraine Adams takes the stage on Thursday,
February 23rd for her Aspen debut. In
2000, the Washington Post assigned her to research
a terrorism investigation, the "Millennium Plot"
case in which an Algerian en route to LAX was caught at
the Canadian border with a trunk of explosives. Through
that assignment, she came to know a number of Algerian
refugees who were under surveillance, and soon after publishing
the story, she left the Post to write a novel, her first.
The result is Harbor, the harrowing story of
ripped-from-the-headlines issues (immigrant strife, terrorism,
democracy and human rights) told through the journey of
one man, Aziz Arkoun, a 24-year-old Muslim refugee who
sneaks into the United States by stowing away in a tanker.
Publisher's Weekly praised this cautionary tale,
a Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award-winner,
as a "lucid, psychologically complicated page-turner
[that] captures the ambiguities of and raises important
questions about the domestic war on terror." Lorraine
Adams will give a reading and talk at the Given Institute.
National Book Award finalist Kent Haruf will
make his encore appearance with the Aspen Writers' Foundation
on Saturday, March 4th. He returns from
the high plains of Colorado (both his backyard and the
setting of each of his four novels), with Eventide,
his bestselling sequel to Plainsong. Eventide,
which won the 2005 Colorado Book Award and has been named
a Best Book of the Year by eight national newspapers and
magazines, continues the story of the McPheron brothers,
Victoria Roubideaux and the other residents of the community
of Holt. While set in a small town, the tale unveils universal
truths about human beings: their fragility and resilience,
their selfishness and goodness, and their ability to find
family in one another. The Christian Science Monitor
called it "An extraordinary vision," asking,
"Who in America can still write like this? Who else
has such confidence and such humility?" Kent
Haruf will speak at the Given Institute.
The New York Times calls James Patterson,
who will wrap up the Winter Words 2006 season on March
18th, "One of America's most influential
authors." A master of storytelling, Patterson's success
is unique in his ability to cross genres (suspense, fantasy,
children's books and romance) and win readers (over 1,000,000,000
worldwide book sales). His last 18 consecutive novels
achieved #1 New York Times bestseller status,
and many of his creations have gone on to become Hollywood
hits. He is the author of the two bestselling new detective
series of the past decade: the Alex Cross novels, including
Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls,
and the Women's Murder Club series. His latest, Mary,
Mary, continues the saga of Alex Cross, his original
fictional hero, whom the Dallas Morning News
dubbed "one of the great creations of thriller fiction."
In this detective tome, Alex Cross must find the true
identity of an emailing murderess, a killer who is targeting
Hollywood's A-list, before she can send one more chilling
update. James Patterson's presentation will
take place at the Wheeler Opera House.
DETAILS
All Winter Words events start at 5:30 pm; doors
open at 5 pm. Each author will give a reading
and talk, followed by a short Q&A session and a book
signing. Town Center Booksellers, the official bookseller
of Winter Words 2006, will have a selection of books by
each author available for purchase at every event.
TICKETS
Season subscriptions, good for one ticket to each of the
six presentations, are $90 for AWF members and $100 for
non-members (on sale through January 20 only). Tickets
are $20 each/$15 for students and educators with school
ID. Subscriptions and tickets are available at the Wheeler
Opera House (970.920.5770), now at www.aspenwriters.org,
and on a space-available basis at the door. Discounted
tickets for members, educators and students are available
only through the Aspen Writers' Foundation.
Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Aspen Writers’
Foundation, Colorado's oldest nonprofit literary organization,
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 good literature. More information is available
from the Aspen Writers' Foundation at 970.925.3122 and
www.aspenwriters.org.
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