Aspen Words

SUMMER WORDS STUDENT OPEN MIC
2017-06-21 16:30 - 18:00 (America/Denver) | CO, United States
Listen to short readings by the Summer Words workshop students! Wine and crostini specials will be available for purchase.

SUMMER WORDS PANEL - LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE
2017-06-20 18:00 - 19:15
Panelists: Jess Walter, Dani Shapiro, Jericho BrownModerator: Adrienne Brodeur, Aspen Words Executive DirectorMaking a life as an artist has its joys, just as it has its frustrations. Rejection, confusion, disappointment – can all make a creative career an uphill battle. Simply finding time to create can seem impossible. Hear from three authors on their experience of finding ease and clarity in the creative life.
$25 Individual Event Tickets$75 Summer Words Pass | Includes access to all five public eventsAvailable for Aspen Words members only | Become a Member

Advance tickets from aspenshowtix.com are only available for the evening events at Belly Up.
Workshop students and Readers’ Retreat participants receive a pass to all of the Summer Words events with their tuition.
Read featured author bios here.
FULL PUBLIC EVENTS SCHEDULE

SUMMER WORDS PANEL - CRAFTING CHARACTER
2017-06-20 16:00 - 17:15
We all have those characters we know and love, that live on in our imaginations long after we finish reading a story. George Hodgman, Jane Hamilton, and Ben Fountain share their advice on writing compelling characters.Moderator: Sara NelsonTICKETS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT THE DOOR OF THE EVENTDOORS OPEN @ 3:30PM
George Hodgman is the author of the memoir, Bettyville, and a veteran editor in books and magazines. He has worked at Simon and Schuster, Henry Holt, Houghton Mifflin, Vanity Fair, and the start-ups of Talk and Details. He has recently been a guest professor in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Missouri.

Jane Hamilton’s novels have won literary prizes, been made into films, and become international bestsellers; and two of them, The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World, were selections of Oprah’s Book Club. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Allure, O: The Oprah Magazine, Elle, and various anthologies. She’s married to an apple farmer and lives in Wisconsin.

Ben Fountain’s novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Award, and the L.A. Times Book Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Ang Lee directed the film adaptation of Billy Lynn, which was released in November 2016 and starts Steve Martin, Vin Diesel, Kristen Stewart, and Chris Tucker. Fountain is also the author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara (Stories), which won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Fiction, and a Whiting Writer’s Award.

SUMMER WORDS PANEL - LITERATURE WITH IMPACT
2017-06-19 17:15 - 18:30
Panelists: Chinelo Okparanta, Ben Fountain, Saïd SayrafiezadehModerator: Carole DeSanti, Viking Penguin VP and Executive EditorThe $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize was launched this year to honor an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue. How can literature forge connections and shape public conversation around critical issues, without polarizing readership? Chinelo Okparanta, Ben Fountain, and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh will discuss the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.
$25 Individual Event Tickets$75 Summer Words Pass | Includes access to all five public eventsAvailable for Aspen Words members only | Become a Member

Advance tickets from aspenshowtix.com are only available for the evening events at Belly Up.
Workshop students and Readers’ Retreat participants receive a pass to all of the Summer Words events with their tuition.
Read featured author bios here.
FULL PUBLIC EVENTS SCHEDULE

SUMMER WORDS PANEL - WE ALL START SOMEWHERE
2017-06-19 15:30 - 16:30
You all ventured away from your writing desks to the Rocky Mountains for a week…now what? Dani Shapiro and Hannah Tinti give advice on how to utilize this week to seek progress in your writing life.
TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT THE DOOR OF THE EVENTDOORS OPEN @ 3PM
Dani Shapiro is the bestselling author of four memoirs: Hourglass, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, Devotion, and Slow Motion; and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Shapiro’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, and has been broadcast on “This American Life.” Her recent essays on the lures and dangers of the internet and social media have stirred up controversy and gone viral, and are now being taught in many universities. She is co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy and a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveler.
Hannah Tinti is a writer, editor and teacher. Her short story collection Animal Crackers was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her bestselling novel The Good Thief won the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, an American Library Association Alex Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In 2002, Tinti co- founded the award-winning literary magazine One Story, and for the past fourteen years has been its editor-in-chief. She teaches creative writing at New York University’s MFA Program and the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy, which she co-founded with Dani Shapiro, Michael Maren, and Antonio Sersale. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, has been optioned for television and will be published in March 2017 by the Dial Press.

Publishing Tips from Debut Author Marcia Butler
2017-05-22 17:30 - 19:00
Marcia Butler will lead Aspen Writers’ Network (AWN) members in a discussion around the process of finding a literary agent, the discipline of writing, the flow of first draft to final manuscript, and the fluidity of creativity throughout all the arts.
*This event is open to AWN Members only. If you are interested in joining AWN, please contact aspenwords@aspeninstitute.org.
Marcia Butler’s life has been driven by creativity. She was a professional oboist for twenty-five years, and performed as a principal oboist and soloist on the most renowned of New York and international stages. In 2008, she changed careers to start an interior design firm, Marcia Butler Interior Design.
Her debut memoir, The Skin Above My Knee, was published by Little, Brown and Company in February 2017. She has published personal essays in journals and online literary sites. Her first piece of flash fiction will be included in an anthology of 100 authors from Centum Press. Marcia was a Writer in Residence for Aspen Words in 2015 under the auspices of the Catto Shaw Foundation. She is currently working on a novel and lives in New York City.

Kula Gives Back Yoga Class
2017-05-19 18:15 - 19:30
Kula Yoga will host a Give Back Yoga class in support of Aspen Words Community Poetry Programs! Join in for some yogi fun, led by Lucy Roginski, on May 19th at 6:15pm.
Drop-in rate: $16Proceeds from the Kula Gives Back Class will help create spaces for community members to share their voices through poetry.

Writer in Residence: Lija Fisher
2017-05-16 17:30 - 18:30
DOORS OPEN AT 5PM — Arrive early to purchase drinks or food so as not to disrupt the author talk. While these events are free and open to the public, donations at the door are encouraged.Lija Fisher was born in Istanbul, Turkey and raised in the mountains of Colorado. She received her B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder and has performed on stages across California, Colorado, New York and Alaska. She has lived in London, LA, and NYC but currently calls Colorado home. The first book in her debut middle grade series Clivo Wren and the Fall of the Phoenix will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2018.
Catch & Release books are not available for this event.

Community Poetry Slam
2017-04-13 18:00 - 20:00
Aspen Words will host a Community Poetry Slam at Steve’s Guitars, welcoming poets of all ages and backgrounds to participate in this celebration of our community’s voices! Poets should arrive at 5:15pm to sign up for a spot in the evening’s line up. Slam begins at 6pm. Tickets will be sold at the door. $5 for kids 18 and under, $10 for adults. Cash only. MC’d by professional performance poet Hakeem Furious.
Hakeem Furious (also known as Andre Marteen) is a Rocky Mountain native who currently lives in Florida. He has attended the international poetry competition Brave New Voices, has performed at New York City’s infamous Apollo Theater twice, and in 2014 released his debut project “Leaky Nostrils, Monogamous Swans”: a blend of hip hop and poetry. In 2015, Hakeem was a member of the 4th place national Denver Mercury Cafe Slam team representing them on finals stage in Oakland. He was the venue champion of the 2016 Denver Mercury Team selection, 2016 Denver Mercury IWPS Representative and a competing member of the 2016 SlamNUBA team. He now acts as the co-executive director of SlamNUBA. Hakeem travels the country performing poetry for a living and works on progressive music with his lyricist collective Cap 6. He plans to release his first book “Dinner with The Ego” in 2017.

WINTER WORDS - Stephanie Danler + Anna Noyes + Molly Prentiss
2017-04-04 18:00 - 19:00
Presenting bestselling and award-winning debut authors and alumni of the Aspen Summer Words conference.

Stephanie Danler is the author of the New York Times-bestselling novel Sweetbitter. After receiving her MFA in Fiction from The New School in 2014, she attended the Novel Editing Workshop at Aspen Summer Words, where she revised an early draft of her novel. A coming-of-age tale, Sweetbitter follows a small-town girl as she begins her adult life in the underworld of an upscale Manhattan restaurant. Danler’s work has also appeared in Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Lit Hub and The Paris Review Daily. She lives in Los Angeles.
Anna Noyes is a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in VICE, A Public Space, and Guernica, amongst others. She has received the Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellowship, the James Merrill House Fellowship, and the Lighthouse Works Fellowship, and has served as writer-in-residence at the Polli Talu Arts Center in Estonia. She was awarded the 2016 Lotos Foundation Prize, and Goodnight, Beautiful Women received the 2013 Henfield Prize for Fiction. She was raised in Downeast Maine and now lives in Brooklyn.
Molly Prentiss grew up in Santa Cruz, California. She has been a Writer in Residence at The Blue Mountain Center, Vermont Studio Center, and at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and received the Emerging Writer Fellowship from Aspen Words in 2014. Her first novel, Tuesday Nights in 1980, was published in 2016 and was long listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the California College of the Arts, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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WINTER WORDS - Adam Gopnik
2017-03-21 18:00 - 19:00
Adam Gopnik has been writing for the New Yorker since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has contributed fiction, humor, book reviews, profiles, and reporting from abroad. He was the magazine’s Art Critic from 1987-1995, and the Paris Correspondent from 1995-2000. From 2000-2005, he wrote a journal about New York life, and since then has been working as a miscellaneous essayist. His books, ranging from essay collections about Paris and food to children’s novels, include Paris to the Moon, The King in the Window, Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York, Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, and Winter: Five Windows on the Season. Gopnik has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism three times, and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. In 2013, he was awarded the medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. Gopnik lives in New York.

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WINTER WORDS - Yaa Gyasi in conversation with Farah Griffin
2017-02-28 18:00 - 19:00
Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. Her debut novel, Homegoing, was published in 2016 and was called “an inspiration” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It was nominated for the Andrew Carnegie Medal and is a finalist for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Gyasi was recently named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35,” which recognizes debut fiction writers whose work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in Berkeley, California.
Gyasi will be interviewed by Farah Griffin, an author and professor of English, Comparative Literature, and African American Studies at Columbia University. Their discussion will focus on Homegoing, its significance in today’s cultural and political landscape, as well as the story behind the debut novelist’s breakout success.
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WINTER READERS RETREAT
2017-02-22 09:00 - 2017-02-24 12:00
Immerse yourself in translated literature for a 3-day Aspen retreat led by Alane Salierno Mason, vice president and senior editor at W.W. Norton and president/founder of Words Without Borders.
Readers will discuss selections from Iran, Iraq, and Syria as originally presented in the Literature from the ‘Axis of Evil’ issues of Words without Borders, the award-winning online magazine for literature in translation. Conversation will range to broach issues of literary production and publication in other countries, differences between journalism and literature in exploring other parts of the world, and issues around literary translation generally. Click here for the complete syllabus.
Includes reading materials, 3 mornings of moderated discussion, and 3 lunches.Location: Catto Room at the Aspen Meadows’ Doerr Hosier Building
REGISTER
Alane Salierno Mason is a vice president and senior editor at W.W. Norton & Company, where she has edited prize-winning and bestselling works both of fiction and nonfiction. She has worked with authors including Diane Ackerman, Andre Dubus III, Stephen Greenblatt, and Brad Watson, among many others. She has published reviews and essays in Vanity Fair, The Boston Review, and other publications, and translated Elio Vittorini’s Conversations in Sicily (a New Directions Classic). She is the president and founder of Words Without Borders, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the translation, publication, and promotion of international literature. In 2016, Words without Borders received the London Book Fair International Excellence Award for an initiative in literary translation.
ACCOMODATIONSDiscounted $279/night rate available for luxury accommodations at the Aspen Meadows Resort, nestled on 40 beautiful acres overlooking the Rocky Mountains. To book a room, call (800) 452-4240 and ask for the “Aspen Words Readers Retreat rooms.”

YOUTH POETRY SLAM
2017-02-17 18:30 - 20:30
Aspen Words’ 4th Annual Youth Poetry Slam will feature high school poets from Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Basalt, and Aspen! Hosted by Denver’s inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Toluwanimi Obiwole and returning artists Myrlin Hepworth, Mercedez Holtry, and Logan Phillips.
This event is FREE and audience members of all ages are welcome.

WINTER WORDS - Kevin Fedarko + Pete McBride
2017-02-07 18:00 - 19:00
This event is now sold out. Limited tickets may be available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.
This conversation will focus on the role that storytelling can play in protecting the Grand Canyon, the crown jewel of America’s national parks system.
Kevin Fedarko has written for Esquire, National Geographic, the New York Times, and other publications. He studied at Columbia University and Oxford before joining the staff at Time, where he served on the foreign affairs desk, then later worked as a senior editor at Outside. His first book, The Emerald Mile, which was a New York Times bestseller, won the National Outdoor Book Award and the Reading the West Award, and was a finalist for both the PEN Literary Sports Writing Award and the Banff Mountain Book Award. Fedarko lives and works in Flagstaff.
Native Coloradan Pete McBride is a self-taught, award-winning photographer, writer, and filmmaker. He has traveled on assignment to over 75 countries for the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, The Nature Conservancy, Microsoft, Outside, Esquire, and many others. After a decade working abroad and completing a Knight Fellowship for journalism at Stanford University, McBride began documenting the Colorado River, culminating in a book and three award-winning short documentaries. His work as a photographer, writer, and filmmaker has garnered awards from the Banff Mountain Film Festival and the North American Society of Journalists, and he was named a “Freshwater Hero” by the National Geographic Society. For his latest project, he hiked over 700 miles along the Grand Canyon’s interior rim, documenting the development challenges threatening the National Park. The story will be published on various platforms through National Geographic and PBS in 2016/17.
WW INFO
A membership reception will follow this event. All Aspen Words members will receive an invitation by email. If you would like to RSVP, or did not receive your invitation, please contact aspenwords@aspeninstitute.org or call 970-925-3122.
