Aspen Words

Writer in Residence Event: Sunil Yapa
2016-05-17 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Denver) | CO, United States
Writer in Residence Sunil Yapa will read and discuss his novel, Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, one of the most talked-about debuts of 2016.BIO
Sunil Yapa is the author of Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, a debut novel, which was named Most Anticipated Book of the Year for 2016 in the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, Huffington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and BuzzFeed, among other publications. He received an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College in New York City in 2010, where he worked with two-time Booker Prize winning author Peter Carey, and the 2009 National Book Award winner (Let the Great World Spin) Colum McCann. While at Hunter Sunil was also awarded the Alumni Scholarship & Welfare Fund Fellowship, which is given to one fiction student every three years, and was twice selected as a Hertog Fellow, working as a research assistant for Zadie Smith (Changing My Mind), as well as Ben Marcus (The Flame Alphabet).
He is the recipient of the 2010 Asian American Short Story Award, sponsored byHyphen Magazine and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York, and has received scholarships to The New York State Summer Writers’ Institute, The Norman Mailer Writers’ Center in Provincetown and The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
The biracial son of a Sri Lankan father and a mother from Montana, Yapa has lived around the world, including time living in Greece, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, China, and India, as well as, London, Montreal, and New York City.
CATCH & RELEASE BOOKSFree copies of Sunil’s book will be available in advance of the event in an effort to familiarize the community with his work. Starting the week of May 9, stop by the Red Brick Building in Aspen or the Woody Creek Community Center to pick up your free copy. Read it, pass it along to a friend, and join us on May 17!

New York Book Series - The Art of World Building
2016-04-19 18:30 - 20:30
The Aspen New York Book Series is presented by the Aspen Institute and Aspen Words. The April program will feature Lev Grossman, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Magician’s Land; Mark Tompkins, whose debut novel The Last Days of Magic was published by Viking in March; and Hannah Tinti, author of the best-selling novel The Good Thief and editor-in-chief at One Story literary magazine. Their conversation will be moderated by Carole DeSanti, vice president and executive editor at Viking Penguin.6:30 – 8:00 pm Program 8:00 – 8:30 pm Reception Books by the authors will be available for purchase and signing.
REGISTER HERERegistration required

Lev Grossman is the author of five novels, including the international bestseller Codex and the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians Trilogy. A television series based on the trilogy recently premiered on the Syfy channel. Grossman is the book critic for Time magazine and has written for a number of other publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Salon and Slate.
Hannah Tinti is a writer, editor and teacher. Her short story collection, Animal Crackers, was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her best-selling novel, The Good Thief, is the recipient of numerous awards including a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Her new novel, The Twelve Bullets of Samuel Hawley, is forthcoming from Dial Press. Tinti is also the co-founder of the award-winning magazine One Story and a Literary Commentator on the Public Radio program Selected Shorts. She currently teaches at New York University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, Columbia University’s MFA Program, and at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Mark Tompkins, a lifelong writer and patron of the literary arts, founded the Aspen Writers’ Network and serves on the board of Aspen Words, a program of the Aspen Institute. His poetry has appeared in publications worldwide including: Grain Magazine, Parabola, Photovision, and Leading Edge Review. He has appeared numerous times on National Public Radio (NPR) discussing the creative process and been a guest lecturer on creativity at Texas A&M University. The Last Days of Magic is his first novel.

WINTER WORDS - Sandra Cisneros
2016-04-05 18:00 - 19:00
Sandra Cisneros’ works include two highly acclaimed novels, a short story collection, two poetry collections, and an adult picture book. The first female Mexican-American writer to be published by a mainstream publisher, Cisneros’ debut novel The House on Mango Street won the American Book Award, has sold more than six million copies, and is considered a literary classic. Her most recent book is A House of My Own—a richly illustrated compilation of true stories that span three decades of her life. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the Lannan Literary Award, the Thomas Wolfe Prize, and a MacArthur Fellowship. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. Cisneros is the founder of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral and Macondo Foundations, which serve creative writers. She lives in Mexico.
Winter Words 2016 InfoPurchase Tickets
AW MEMBER PARTY TO FOLLOW THE PAEPCKE EVENTWith special guest Sandra CisnerosRSVP to Jamie KravitzBecome a member

WINTER WORDS - Geraldine Brooks + Tony Horwitz
2016-03-15 18:00 - 19:00
Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novelist. Her most recent book, The Secret Chord, is based on the life of King David, and was published to great critical acclaim in October 2015. Brooks’ first novel, Year of Wonders was an international bestseller and was translated into more than 25 languages. It is in development to become a film starring Andrew Lincoln. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2006 for March, which examines Little Women from a different point of view. Her other novels, Caleb’s Crossing and People of the Book were New York Times bestsellers, and she is the author of three nonfiction works: Nine Parts of Desire, Foreign Correspondence, and The Idea of Home. Earlier in her writing career, Brooks covered crises in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans for the Wall Street Journal. In 1990, with her husband Tony Horwitz, she won the Overseas Press Club Award for best coverage of the Gulf War.
Tony Horwitz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of several bestsellers. He worked for many years as a newspaper reporter, covering wars and conflicts overseas as a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. After returning to the U.S., he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his stories about working conditions in low-wage America. His books include the national and New York Times bestsellers, Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, Baghdad Without a Map, and A Voyage Long and Strange. His latest book, Midnight Rising, was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2011; one of the year’s ten best books by Library Journal; and won the 2012 William Henry Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography. In 1990, with his wife Geraldine Brooks, he won the Overseas Press Club Award for best coverage of the Gulf War. Horwitz has also been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a visiting scholar at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
The reading and talk will be followed by a Q+A and book signing. Explore Booksellers will have books for purchase at the event.
Winter Words 2016 InfoPurchase Tickets

BOOK LAUNCH - Mark Tompkins
2016-03-03 17:30 - 19:00
Celebrate AW Board Vice President Mark Tompkins’ debut novel The Last Days of Magic! A short reading will be followed by a book signing, drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
ABOUT THE BOOKAn epic novel of magic and mysticism, Celts and faeries, mad kings and druids, and the goddess struggling to reign over magic’s last outpost on the Earth.
“Plundering the treasure chest of human myths, from mysterious biblical giants to ferocious Celtic faeries, Tompkins has created a fantasy adventure with the shifting perspectives of dreamscape. A novel rich and strange.”
—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Secret Chord
“Simultaneously sweeping and intricate, reaching all the way back to the Dead Sea Scrolls and all the way forward to now, Tompkins’ amazing debut novel conjures an epic battle for the soul of Ireland. Filled with papal machination and royal intrigue, magic and mayhem, faeries, vikings, legates, kings and queens, angels and goddesses, this is one wild and breathless ride.”
—Karen Joy Fowler, author of the Booker Prize–shortlisted We Are All Completely Beside OurselvesMark Tompkins is the founder of the Aspen Writers’ Network and serves on the board of Aspen Words, a program of the Aspen Institute. His poetry has appeared in publications worldwide including: Grain Magazine, Parabola, Photovision, and Leading Edge Review. He has appeared numerous times on National Public Radio (NPR) discussing the creative process and been a guest lecturer on creativity at Texas A&M University. Mark’s black and white photography is in the permanent collection of the Chinese National Photography Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Born in Texas of Irish ancestry, Tompkins lives in Boston, Houston, and Aspen. The Last Days of Magic is his first novel.
Photo Credit: Sigrid Estrada

Aspen Writers' Network Event: State of the Publishing Industry
2016-03-01 18:30 - 20:00
A literary agent for over 25 years, with agencies like William Morris and the Gernert Company, Stephanie Cabot will share her broad expertise with AWN while expounding on the current state of the publishing industry. She’ll specifically address how to market yourself as a writer and how to find the best possible agent for you. Cabot will leave plenty of time open to questions and has asked that members email a brief description of their writing to AW, so she can tailor her remarks accordingly. AWN members should send those descriptions to Jamie Kravitz.
ABOUT STEPHANIE CABOTHalf French, half American, Stephanie was educated in Europe and in the U.S. where she majored in History at Harvard. Her agenting career began in London, where she spent nine years at William Morris – London, the last five as Managing Director where she built a list of international bestselling and prize-winning authors. She moved back to the States in 2005, joined The Gernert Company, and is now selectively adding writers from a variety of genres, including commercial and literary fiction, latte lit, and non-fiction. She is especially interested in writers who tell original stories with strong narratives and create distinctive characters. Recent author publications include The Kindness of Enemies (Leila Aboulela – Grove), Magonia (Maria D. Headley – Harper Collins), Jade Dragon Mountain (Elsa Hart – Macmillan), The Secret Wisdom of the Earth (Christopher Scotton – Hachette),Vanessa and Her Sister (Priya Parmar – Random House, We Are Called to Rise (Laura McBride – S&S), The Canterbury Sisters (Kim Wright – Gallery, S&S), All the Old Knives (Olen Steinhauer – Minotaur), Hild (Nicola Griffith – FSG), Paradise of The Pacific (Susanna Moore – FSG) and Babayaga (Toby Barlow – FSG). In 2016, authors she represents who will publish their work include: Mark Tompkins (Last Days of Magic – Viking Penguin ), Mindy Meija (Everything You Want Me To Be – Emily Bestler Books, S&S), JoAnn Chaney (What You Don’t Know – Flatiron Books) and Martin Walker (Fatal Pursuit – Knopf).

WINTER WORDS - Adam Johnson
2016-02-13 18:00 - 19:00
Adam Johnson is the author of the novel The Orphan Master’s Son, and most recently, a collection of short stories titled Fortune Smiles, winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Fiction. The Orphan Master’s Son won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the California Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named one of the best books of the year by more than a dozen publications and spent almost a year on the New York Times Bestseller List. Johnson’s other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Stegner Fellowship; he was also a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. His previous books are Emporium, a short story collection, and the novel Parasites Like Us.
The reading and talk will be followed by a Q+A and book signing. Explore Booksellers will have books for purchase at the event.
Winter Words 2016 InfoPurchase Tickets

YOUTH POETRY SLAM
2016-02-12 18:30 - 20:30
Aspen Words’ 3rd annual Youth Poetry Slam will be hosted by Roaring Fork Valley’s favorite performance poets Myrlin Hepworth, Logan Phillips, and Mercedez Holtry and will feature the brave high school poets from Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Basalt, and Aspen! It’s going to be an exhilarating night celebrating the power of youth voices.
This event is FREE and audience members of all ages are welcome. The slam starts at 6:30 pm!

WINTER WORDS - Alison Bechdel + Beth Malone
2016-01-27 18:00 - 19:00
Cartoonist Alison Bechdel is the creator of the long-running comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. She has published two graphic memoirs. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is about her childhood in an artistic family and her relationship with her father, and has been developed into a Broadway musical starring Beth Malone. Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama explores her relationship with her mother through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. She is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur fellowship.
In conversation with Tony-nominated Fun Home star Beth Malone
Beth Malone starred in the 2015 Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home, based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic memoir. Raised in Castle Rock, Colorado, Malone spent much of her 20’s in Aspen, where she was a Crystal Palace dinner theater staffer and performed at Theatre Aspen. After leaving Aspen, she completed a graduate degree with the drama department at UC Irvine and settled in Los Angeles. Malone spent much of 2014 at The Denver Center, starring as Molly Brown in the world premiere of a wholly reimagined version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Other original Broadway and Off Broadway credits include June Carter Cash in Ring of Fire, Betty Jean in The Marvelous Wonderettes, and Alison in Bingo!. Regional theatre appearances include 9 to 5, The Break Up Notebook, Annie Get Your Gun, Les Miserables, and the world premiere of Sister Act. Malone has been part of Fun Home through most of its formative stages and was nominated for the 2015 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Alison Bechdel.
The reading and talk will be followed by a Q+A and book signing. Explore Booksellers will have books for purchase at the event.
Winter Words 2016 InfoPurchase Tickets

MEMBERS RECEPTION with Juan Felipe Herrera
2016-01-12 19:30 - 21:00
Aspen Words members are invited to join Juan Felipe Herrera for a reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the Gonzo Gallery following the public event.
In partnership with English in ActionSponsored by Aspen Peak
RSVP to Jamie Kravitz
Entry is complimentary for Aspen Words members. Ticket sales at the door for non-members will benefit English In Action.

WINTER WORDS - Juan Felipe Herrera
2016-01-12 18:00 - 19:00
Juan Felipe Herrera is the 21st Poet Laureate of the United States (2015-2016) and is the first Latino to hold the position. From 2012-2014, Herrera served as California State Poet Laureate. Herrera’s many collections of poetry include Notes on the Assemblage; Senegal Taxi; Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems, a recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007. He is also the author of Crashboomlove: A Novel in Verse, which received the Americas Award. His books of prose for children include: SkateFate, Calling The Doves, which won the Ezra Jack Keats Award; Upside Down Boy, which was adapted into a musical for young audiences in New York City; and Cinnamon Girl: Letters Found Inside a Cereal Box. Herrera is also a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities and at-risk youth.
The reading and talk will be followed by a Q+A and book signing. Explore Booksellers will have books for purchase at the event.
Winter Words 2016 Info Purchase Tickets
AW MEMBER PARTY TO FOLLOW THE PAEPCKE EVENT With special guest Juan Felipe Herrera
Sponsored by Aspen Peak magazineIn partnership with English in Action Gonzo Gallery | 7:30pm RSVP to Jamie KravitzBecome a member

Vivian Gornick + Dani Shapiro + Darin Strauss - Aspen New York Book Series
2015-11-19 18:30 - 20:00
Join the Aspen Institute and Aspen Words for an evening featuring Vivian Gornick, Dani Shapiro, and Darin Strauss discussing the art of the memoir. Books by the authors will be available for purchase and signing.
RSVP HERE

Vivian Gornick is an American critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist. Her work has appeared in The Village Voice, The New York Times, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, and many other publications. She has published eleven books; the most recent, The Odd Woman and the City, was published in May, 2015. In 2014 she was the Bedell Distinguished Visiting Professor in Nonfiction at the University of Iowa.
Dani Shapiro’s most recent books include the memoirs Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, and Devotion, and the novels Black & White and Family History. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, The Virginia Quarterly Review, n+1, One Story, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Op-Ed pages, and many other publications, and has been featured on “Oprah” and “This American Life.”

Darin Strauss is a national- and internationally-bestselling author. His books have been New York Times, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and NPR Best Books of the Year, among other honors. He is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous other prizes. Strauss recently began a stint as a recurring columnist on faith atSalon, has written screenplays for Disney, Gary Oldman, and Julie Taylor. He is the Clinical Professor of Fiction at NYU’s creative writing program.
6:30 – 7:30 pm Program 7:30 – 8:00 pm Reception

Reading & Talk with Marcia Butler
2015-11-18 18:00 - 19:00
Marcia Butler’s life has been driven by creativity. For 25 years she performed throughout the world as a professional oboist. She was hailed by the New York Times as “a first rate artist” and performed and recorded with such luminaries as pianist Andre Watts, soprano Dawn Upshaw and jazz great Keith Jarrett. In 2002 Marcia switched careers and began her interior design firm, Marcia Butler Interior Design. She has served well over 100 clients in twelve years and her design work has been published in shelter magazines. Now as an author, her memoir The Skin Above My Knee was recently sold to Little, Brown and Company, with a release date of January 2017. She has published numerous personal essays in journals and online literary sites and is currently working on a novel. Marcia participated in Richard Russo’s Fiction workshop at Aspen Summer Words 2015 and lives in New York City.
Free event, open to the public.

ALOUD: High Altitude Poetry Jam
2015-02-28 18:30
Aspen Words is proud to bring poets and RFV favorites Logan Phillips and Myrlin Hepworth back to The Wheeler stage. Joined by Mercedez Holtry and youth from local schools, this evening celebrates the power of the spoken word. FREE!

Cumbia Dance Party
2015-02-27 21:00
Aspen Words presents DJ and spoken word artist, Logan “Dirtyverbs” Phillips, in a night of heart-pounding Latin music and dance. Following the Youth Poetry Slam at 6:30. FREE! ¡Entrada Gratis! ¡Invita a los amigos!

Youth Poetry Slam
2015-02-27 18:30
This February, poets Myrlin Hepworth, Logan Phillips, and Mercedez Holtry will inspire over 3,000 local youth from 13 schools to tell their stories through the power of the spoken word. The result is this exhilarating night of Spoken Word Poetry created and performed by the youth of the Roaring Fork Valley. If you’re looking for inspiration, don’t miss this.
Registration for young poets begins at 5:30 and is open to all RFV 7th – 12th graders.
Winners will perform with Myrlin, Logan, and Mercedez at The Wheeler on February 28.
Stay for the Cumbia dance party at 9:00!
