Aspen Words

Writers in Residence: Lesley Nneka Arimah
2016-10-18 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Denver) | CO, United States
DOORS OPEN AT 5PM — Arrive early to purchase drinks or food so as not to disrupt the author talk. Free and open to the public.
Lesley Nneka Arimah is a Nigerian writer living in Minneapolis. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, GRANTA, and other publications. She is a recipient of a Commonwealth Short Story Prize and her work has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation and other organizations. What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, a short story collection, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books in 2017.
*Private reception for National Council and Aspen Writers’ Network members to follow. Contact Nicole Stanton with questions or to RSVP.

Indian Cooking Class in Support of Aspen Words
2016-10-12 18:00 - 21:00
Inspired Cooking with Indian Accents: A Demo Class with Dipika RaiSpace is limited (max 25)
Indian-born Dipika Rai is passionate about food and travel. In this demo class, Dipika promises a fun evening of learning about Indian cuisine and how spices have shaped our world. She will take you on a gastronomic journey through India by incorporating diverse ingredients, ranging from mangoes to tamarind. The menu is fresh and exciting, and the knowledge and breadth of vision that Dipika brings to classes is inspiring. In this class you will learn to use spices in inspiring ways and become an intuitive cook, enabling you to adapt your recipes to suit your dietary needs, be they vegetarian, gluten free, or vegan. All proceeds from this event support Aspen Words.At capacity. Email Aspen Words to be added to the wait-list.
HUGE THANK YOU TO AWN MEMBER DIPIKA RAI AND THE COOKING SCHOOL OF ASPEN

Craft Workshop with Lev Grossman
2016-10-08 09:00 - 12:00
AT CAPACITY – Email Nicole Stanton to be added to the waitlist.
HOW TO MAKE WORLDS WITH WORDS
Any time you write fiction, whether it’s about elves or elephants or eligible bachelors, you’re creating an imaginary world and asking the reader to believe in it. But what makes a world believable? Lev Grossman, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy, will teach you how to make your fictional worlds feel vivid, compelling and real.
Craft talk, accompanying hand-outs, and in-class writing exercises.Evening reception to follow at the Limelight Hotel Lounge in Aspen, 6-8pm.
*Special $25 rate available for Aspen Writers’ Network (AWN) members.
SPECIAL THANKS TO MARK TOMPKINS

EVENT CANCELLED - Writer in Residence Jenny Price
2016-09-27 17:30 - 18:30
Read Jenny’s essay titled “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.,” on rethinking the stories we tell about the natural world.
JENNY PRICE received her Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 1998 with a focus on the environment, the American West, and writing history. She is a freelance writer and gives tours of the Los Angeles River on her own and as part of the Los Angeles Urban Rangers, an art-performance educational group. She has published a book called Flight Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern America (1999) and has also written several book chapters including “Looking for Nature at the Mall: A Field Guide to the Nature Company” in Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (1995) and “A Natural History of the Plastic Pink Flamingo” in The Nature of Nature: New Essays from America’s Finest Writers on Nature (1994). She is also a contributing writer to LA Observed, Sunset, the Los Angeles Times, GOOD, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times, among many other publications. She recently began writing a satirical environmental advice column called “Green Me Up, J.J.” for LA Observed.

FALL READERS RETREAT
2016-09-17 09:00 - 2016-09-19 12:00
SOLD OUT – Please contact Nicole Stanton to be added to the wait-list. Click here for info on the February 2017 Readers’ Retreat.
September Theme: WHAT MATTERSSusan Lehman will lead three mornings of moderated discussion on some of the great non-fiction writing of our time. Participants will read and discuss essays by Joan Didion, David Foster Wallace, Nora Ephron, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and others, with an eye towards what matters to each of these writers, and how each brings his or her view about love and death and violence and culture and human experience to life. Complete syllabus.

Includes reading materials, 3 mornings of moderated discussion, and 3 lunches.
Discounted $179/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.”

Susan Lehman edits Times Insider and hosts that section’s Inside The Times Podcast Series. She was the deputy editor of the New York Times Sunday Review section from 2011 to 2013. She has worked as a book, magazine and Web editor and has written for a range of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Observer, The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, New York, GQ and Spy.
She was the co-author, with Edward Hayes, of Mouthpiece: My Life in — and Sometimes Just Outside — the Law, with an introduction by Tom Wolfe, and has contributed to several essay collections. A former criminal defense lawyer, she was communications director for the Brennan Center for Justice, a producer at Court TV and Lifetime Television, and a consulting producer for CNBC’s “Topic A With Tina Brown.”
Susan graduated from Amherst College and has a master’s degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree from Georgetown.

Additional 3-day retreat will be held in February 2017 and will be led by Alane Salierno Mason, vice president and senior editor at W.W. Norton and president/founder of Words Without Borders.

Local Writers Read featuring FirstWord Youth Poets
2016-09-15 18:00 - 19:00
Youth poets from Aspen Words’ after-school poetry team, FirstWord, will read their work at Explore Booksellers as part of the indie bookstore’s monthly Local Writers Read Series (a collaboration between Explore, Aspen Poets’ Society, and Aspen Writers’ Network).
FirstWord meets weekly in Carbondale to share new poems, and have been performing their work at public events throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.
Learn more about AW’s Youth Poetry Program.

Writers in Residence: Helen Schulman
2016-08-16 17:30 - 18:30
DOORS OPEN AT 5PM — Arrive early to purchase drinks or food so as not to disrupt the author talk.
HELEN SCHULMAN is the author of the novels This Beautiful Life (an International Bestseller), A Day At The Beach, P.S., The Revisionist and Out Of Time, and the short story collection Not A Free Show. She co-edited, along with Jill Bialosky, the anthology Wanting A Child. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in such places as Vanity Fair, Time, Vogue, GQ, the New York Times Book Review and the Paris Review. She is presently the Fiction Coordinator at The Writing Program at The New School where she is a tenured Professor of Writing. FREE copies of THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE are available through our Catch & Release program. Books are available for pick-up at the Aspen Words office in the Red Brick Building in Aspen and the Woody Creek Community Center.

Writer in Residence Event: Paul Griner
2016-07-19 17:30 - 18:30
DOORS OPEN AT 5PM — Arrive early to purchase drinks or food so as not to disrupt the author talk.
PAUL GRINER, a former Fulbright Scholar, is the author of the short story collection Follow Me, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and the novels Collectors and The German Woman . His work has been published in Tin House, One Story, Ploughshares, Playboy, Zoetrope, The Telegraph of India, and many other magazines, journals, and anthologies, and has been translated into a half dozen languages. His most recent novel, Second Life, was published by Counterpoint/Soft Skull in January 2015. The same year, Sarabande published his collection of stories Hurry Please, I Want To Know.
FREE copies of HURRY PLEASE, I WANT TO KNOW are available through our Catch & Release program starting the first week of July. Pick-up locations are at the Aspen Words office in the Red Brick Building in Aspen and the Woody Creek Community Center.

SUMMER BENEFIT
2016-06-22 18:00 - 22:00
An evening of extraordinary pairings featuring Lucy Kalanithi in conversation with Ann Patchett.
Taste wines from Bodega Catena Zapata (Argentina), Zenato (Italy), Clos du Gaimont (France), and Raats Family Wines (South Africa), among many others. Paired with tasting notes by Summer Words authors, plus exclusive bottles for auction.
All Summer Words faculty, agents, and editors will also be in attendance. This event is held in support of Aspen Words’ year-round programming.
Click here for complete information on purchasing tickets or a table to the event.

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR has been #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list almost every week since its publication in early January. This profoundly moving memoir was written by Lucy’s late husband, Paul Kalanithi, a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a human life meaningful? Following his death in March 2015, Lucy shepherded Paul’s book to publication and wrote its stunning epilogue.
Though this memoir was written by a dying man, it is not a book about death, but about life. The Aspen Words Summer Benefit will be an evening of conversation celebrating literature’s role in helping us to more fully understand the joys and challenges of human life. We hope you will join us!

Aspen Summer Words
2016-06-19 16:00 - 2016-06-24 12:00
Recognized as one of the nation’s top literary gatherings, Summer Words is a six-day celebration of words, stories, and ideas held annually in Aspen. Advanced workshops with renowned authors and teachers are an intimate place for writers to develop a manuscript, while introductory workshops invite participants to explore the craft of writing. Literary agents and editors meet one-on-one with workshop participants, while public panel discussions provide inspiration and insight for writers and readers alike. Evening events include readings, receptions, and the Aspen Words Annual Beneﬁt Dinner, featuring a special guest author.
MORE INFOPublic Events ScheduleReaders’ Retreat Beginning Writing WorkshopSummer Benefit Featuring Lucy Kalanithi + Ann Patchett

Writer in Residence Event: Tom Bouman
2016-06-14 18:00 - 19:00
TOM BOUMAN is a former book editor and musician who lives with his wife and daughter in Pennsylvania, where he studies law. He is the author of the novel Dry Bones in the Valley, which won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and an Edgar Allan Poe Award.
Residency plans: “Dry Bones in the Valley is the first novel in the Henry Farrell series of mysteries set in rural Pennsylvania. I have two more in the series under contract, and with any luck I’ll be working on the third book by the time I arrive in Aspen. I may take that month to get reacquainted with short fiction as well.”
CATCH & RELEASE BOOKSFree copies of Dry Bones in the Valley will be available in advance of the event in an effort to familiarize the community with his work. Starting June 1, 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 June 14!

Writer in Residence Event: Sunil Yapa
2016-05-17 17:30 - 18:30
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
