Aspen Words

Aspen High School Only - Heather Hansman in the Schools
2022-02-23 09:15 - 10:15 (America/Denver) | United States
“Powder Days” author Heather Hansman will visit Aspen High School to discuss her book and career as a ski journalist and environmental writer. This event is for AHS students and faculty; not open to the general public.
Schools interested in learning about Aspen Words’ Writers in the Schools programming should reach out to Madeline Liption (Madeline.lipton@aspeninstitute.org).

State of the Publishing Industry
2022-03-17 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Todd Doughty, SVP, Publicity and Communications at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group will be in-person at this meeting to discuss the state of the publishing industry. This is an incredible opportunity to hear from a longtime publishing professional on the state of the industry. Moderated by Adrienne Brodeur, author and Executive Director of Aspen Words. Q&A will follow. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Todd Doughty is currently SVP, Publicity and Communications, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and has worked at Penguin Random House for more than two decades. A graduate of Southern Illinois University (Carbondale) and former bookseller, he lives with his partner in Westchester County, New York.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, “Wild Game,” which is in development for film. During her 15 years in the publishing industry, she founded the literary magazine “Zoetrope: All-Story” with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, was an acquiring editor at Harcourt and HMH Books, and served as a judge for the National Book Award, among other literary contests. Her essays have appeared in Glamour, O Magazine, The National, The New York Times, Vogue and other publications. She has been with Aspen Words since 2013.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.

Craft workshop with Rachel Weaver
2022-04-14 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
*Note: this is the 2nd Thursday of the month
Rachel Weaver will provide a short, targeted craft workshop for the first hour. The second hour will be personal writing time. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
20 Questions to Strengthen Your Novel or Memoir
This class will cover twenty important questions that will help you identify and strengthen weak points in your novel or memoir with regards to structure, characterization, arc, scene work and thematic elements. This is appropriate for writers of all genres at any point in the drafting process. Open to fiction and memoir writers of all levels.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel is the author of the novel Point of Direction, which Oprah Magazine named a Top Ten Book to Pick Up Now. She is on faculty at Regis University’s low-residency MFA program, and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop where she won the Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018

Practice Your Pitch Workshop
2022-05-19 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
This is a great opportunity to practice talking about your work. Even if you are not ready to pitch your book/essay/poem to publishers/agents, developing a pitch is a great way to determine what is most important in your writing project, which helps you with editing and even finishing the work. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.

Member Readings
2022-06-16 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Short readings from members’ work will fill the first hour. Slots are limited. To read at this meeting (not required), either email Mark Tompkins (MarkLTom@icloud.com) signup when you arrive. Readers can receive feedback from the group if desired; indicate your preference when you sign up. The second hour will be personal writing time. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
Non-AWN members are welcome to attend their first meeting to see if they want to join.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.

Author Talk with July Writer in Residence Jamaica Baldwin
2022-07-21 18:30 - 19:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
July writer in residence, Jamaica Baldwin will speak about her writing life, her upcoming book “Bone Language” and her current poetry project which traces the legacy of her female ancestors from the deep south to the west coast. As a bi-racial woman she is particularly interested in how the legacy of colonialism and the global plantation machine impacted her female ancestors on both sides of the racial divide.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jamaica Baldwin (she/her) hails from Santa Cruz, CA by way of Seattle. Her first book, “Bone Language,” will be published by YesYes Books in 2023. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Prairie Schooner, World Literature Today, The Adroit Journal and The Missouri Review, among others. She is a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, winner of the 2021 RHINO Poetry editor’s prize and winner of the 2019 San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference Contest in Poetry. Her writing has been supported by Hedgebrook, Furious Flower and the Jack Straw Writers program. Jamaica is currently pursuing her PhD in English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a focus on poetry and Women’s and Gender Studies.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Lindsay DeFrates is a former freelance writer and current PR and Media Specialist with the Colorado River District. She lives in Glenwood Springs with her three kids and a husband, and when she is not dragging them all outside for the adventure du jour, she is revising her science fiction novel. www.lindsaydefrates.com

Workshop: Writing Dialogue that Works led by Tiffany Tyson
2022-08-18 18:30 - 19:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) & Virtual
Tiffany Tyson will be teaching the workshop virtually. Both in-person and virtual attendees will be able to join.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Dialogue can be a powerful tool for characterization, motivation, plot advancement, and emotion, or it can be a clunky thing that bogs down the action and takes the reader out of the story. How can you be sure your dialogue elevates rather than deflates? We’ll look at examples of effective dialogue, discuss what makes these examples work, and use what we learn to practice writing dialogue on our own. In the process, we’ll explore subtext, rhythm, pacing, attribution, and more. Students should bring their preferred writing tools.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tiffany Quay Tyson will lead this workshop virtually. AWN members are invited to participate online or in-person at Bonfire Coffee Company in Carbondale.

AWN Member Reading
2022-09-15 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Short readings from members’ work will fill the first hour. To read at this meeting (not required), either email aspenwritersnetwork@gmail.com or signup when you arrive. Readers can receive feedback from the group if desired; indicate your preference when you sign up. The second hour will be personal writing time.
Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
Non-AWN members are welcome to attend their first meeting to see if they want to join.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.

Workshop: The Magic of Sudden, Micro and Flash: Very Short Stories led by Pam Painter
2022-10-23 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Denver) | United States
ALL DAY SUNDAY, OCT. 23

Sunday, Oct. 23 @ 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. |
In-Person at Pitkin County Library (120 N Mill St, Aspen)
Pam will be teaching the workshop in-person. Space is limited.
AWN members receive a discount ($40 for AWN members; $90 for non-members).
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
This workshop will explore the elements of stories under 750 words.  To begin, we’ll discuss the concept of the unstable situation.  Plot and conflict sit like boulders on these tiny stories although the tension in an unstable situation is the only drama necessary.  And because first sentences are windows into worlds, we’ll write a lot of first sentences in a short amount of time.  Next, we’ll experience the mystery and magic of prompts and how they arrive out of nowhere and immediately will conjure up six or seven new stories.  Then we’ll discover how the words “what if” can lead to startling ways to continue and even complete a story.  Finally, we’ll ride some of these new story beginnings to satisfying ends. The class will be fast-paced and exciting and most of all productive.  I’ll send you home with a list of my favorite Flashanthologies and collections, places to submit your work, and inspiring quotes by writers to serve as future signposts.  We have a whole day to write.   A luxury.  Let’s do it.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.

A Conversation About Memoirs with authors Adrienne Brodeur and Courtney Maum
2022-11-17 18:00 - 20:00 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
The first hour will be a conversation with memoirists Courtney Maum (“The Year of the Horses”) and Adrienne Brodeur (“Wild Game”) about their careers and writing life. They will be joining us virtually.
The second hour will be for AWN members to connect. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide “Before and After the Book Deal” and the memoir “The Year of the Horses,” chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach and educator, Courtney’s mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. You can sign up for her publishing tips newsletter and online masterclasses at CourtneyMaum.com
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, “Wild Game,” which is in development for film. During her 15 years in the publishing industry, she founded the literary magazine “Zoetrope: All-Story” with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, was an acquiring editor at Harcourt and HMH Books, and served as a judge for the National Book Award, among other literary contests. Her essays have appeared in Glamour, O Magazine, The National, The New York Times, Vogue and other publications. She has been with Aspen Words since 2013.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.

Craft workshop with Rachel Weaver
2023-01-19 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
Thursday, January 19 @ 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. | at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Rachel Weaver will provide a short, targeted craft workshop virtually for the first hour. The second hour will be personal writing time. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
7 Ingredients for a Compelling Plot: so often as writers we get loads of feedback on small sections of our novels or memoirs. But what about how the book is working as a whole? It’s easy to get lost in the trees and not be able to see the forest. This class will give you the tools you need to take a step back, see the book as a whole, and begin to identify where the tension is sagging, where your reader will start thinking about all that laundry they should probably get started on, and what to do about it. We’ll talk about seven key ingredients that work to create a book a reader has a hard time putting down. Whether you have a lot or a little plot in your novel or memoir, this is a class that will help you strengthen that through thread.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Weaver is the author of the novel Point of Direction which Oprah Magazine named a Top Ten Books to Pick Up Now. She is on faculty at Regis University’s low-residency MFA program, and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop where she won the Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018.

State of the Publishing Industry
2023-02-16 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Gillian Blake, SVP, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Crown and Currency will be in-person at this meeting to discuss the state of the publishing industry. Hear from a longtime publishing professional on the state of the industry in 2023. Moderated by Adrienne Brodeur, author and Executive Director of Aspen Words. Q&A will follow. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Gillian Blake is SVP, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Crown and Currency. Previously she was Editor-In-Chief at Henry Holt. She also acquires and edits select titles. Her editorial focus is on narrative nonfiction, history, memoir, science, current events, popular culture, and biography. She has edited many prize-winning and bestselling authors, including Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Kolbert, Matthew McConaughey, Susan Cain, Tina Brown, Adrian Nicole Leblanc, Ai Weiwei, Andy Cohen, Elton John, Jaron Lanier, Peggy Orenstein, Pamela Paul, Steven Johnson, Bari Weiss, Russell Brand, Rob Lowe, Brandi Carlile, Kate Walbert, Anthony Doerr, A.J. Jacobs and Harold Bloom.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, “Wild Game,” which was a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, NPR, People, and the Washington Post and is in development as a Netflix film and the novel “Little Monsters,” which will publish in July 2023. She founded the literary magazine, “Zoetrope: All-Story” with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, was an acquiring editor at HMH Books, and served as a judge for the National Book Award. Her essays have appeared in Glamour, O Magazine, The National, The New York Times, Vogue, and other publications. She has been the Executive Director of Aspen Words since 2016.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.

The How To’s of a Non-fiction Book Proposal
2023-03-16 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
From 6;30 – 7:30 p.m. Janklow & Nesbit literary agent, Melissa Flashman will ZOOM in to discuss the how to’s of a non-fiction book proposal. Q&A will follow. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. The second hour will be personal writing time.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Melissa Flashman is a literary agent at Janklow & Nesbit representing award-winning and best-selling fiction and nonfiction. In nonfiction, she is particularly interested in conversation-changing books including journalism, science, technology, business/finance/economics, memoir/narrative, essays and cultural criticism. Melissa’s authors have won numerous awards including the Pulitzer, the National Book Critic Circle Award, the Whiting Award, the Windham Campbell Prize, the Rona Jaffe Award, the Hugo Award, n + 1 writer’s fellowship, The Robert B Silvers Prize, and The Nation’s Ridenhour Prize among others.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.

Member Readings
2023-04-20 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Short readings from members’ work will fill the first hour. Slots are limited. To read at this meeting (not required), either email Mark Tompkins (MarkLTom@icloud.com) signup when you arrive. Readers can receive feedback from the group if desired; indicate your preference when you sign up.
The second hour will be personal writing time.
Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
Non-AWN members are welcome to attend their first meeting to see if they want to join

Practice Your Pitch Workshop
2023-05-18 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
This is a great opportunity to practice talking about your work. Even if you are not ready to pitch your book/essay/poem to publishers/agents, developing a pitch is a great way to determine what is most important in your writing project, which helps you with editing and even finishing the work. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.

Summer Soiree
2023-06-15 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at Village Smithy (26 S 3rd St, Carbondale, CO)
Come together with fellow AWN members to celebrate the accomplishments of local writers and enjoy a summer evening. More details to come!

The State of the Publishing Industry - Part of the Summer Words Craft Panel Series
2023-06-19 13:30 - 14:30 (America/Denver) | United States
Purchase a pass for $30 to gain access to all events in the series.
Publishing experts will help you navigate the book business, give advice on how to get published, and discuss challenges and opportunities facing the industry today.
Panelists: Millicent Bennett, Kirby Kim and Dana Murphy
This event is free to summer words students! Your student badge serves as your pass.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Millicent Bennett
Millicent Bennett, Executive Editor, acquires primarily literary fiction, upmarket book club fiction, and voice-and character-driven narrative nonfiction, including memoir, with an emphasis on marginalized and underrepresented voices. She joined Harper in 2021 as part of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt integration, where she served as editorial director, and after seventeen years as editor at PRH, S&S, and Hachette.

Kirby Kim
Kirby Kim, a native of Los Angeles, California, attended Pomona College and got his JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. Kirby has worked for Charlotte Sheedy Literary, Vigliano Associates, WME, and Janklow & Nesbit. He represents both literary and commercial authors. He’s most interested in receiving manuscripts that straddle the fence a bit, with upmarket expression combined with a genre element or plot device. When it comes to straight literary work, he’s alternatively drawn to rich, sweeping stories that try to encompass a time or a place or tightly written, narratively innovative stories or voices with award potential. His commercial interests include thrillers, mysteries, and speculative fiction. He also represents a range of nonfiction, working with leaders and journalists in the areas of science, culture, business, and current affairs. Some of his clients include award-winning science fiction writer Ted Chiang, Edgar Award winner James A. McLaughlin, Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Lauren Etter, rapper/actor Common, two-time National Book Award winner in the Philippines Gina Apostol, and debut novelists Ling Ling Huang and Adam White. Kirby is currently a board member of the Asian American Writers Workshop. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and two kids.
Dana Murphy
Dana Murphy represents a wide range of fiction and nonfiction for both adult and teen readers. She joined Trellis Literary Management in 2022, after a decade building her list at The Book Group. Books by her clients have been New York Times and international bestsellers and chosen as Barnes & Noble Discover, Book of the Month, Read with Jenna, Indie Next and NYT Editors’ Choice picks. Across genre, Dana falls in love at the story and line-level simultaneously. She’s always searching for language and plot that move in equal measure, and novels with a soft heart, a sense of humor, and a deep earnest affection for their characters and story. In non fiction, she loves well-researched cultural criticism — especially if it reckons with “low” and “unworthy” pop culture in a smart, serious way or interrogates the power structures that shape our collective understanding of “good” taste.

Author Talk with Brittany Penner, August Writer in Residence
2023-08-17 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
In-Person at The Village Smithy
(26 S 3rd St., Carbondale, CO)
Join us for an in-person author talk featuring Brittany Penner, an Indigenous Métis writer and family physician at Village Smithy in Carbondale (26 S. 3rd St.). Brittany will be in conversation with Daniel Shaw, local writer and program partner.
This event is free and open to all. Registration is requested.
DOORS: open at 6:00 pm.; conversation will begin at 6:30 p.m.
SEATING: On the porch of the Village Smithy, seating is first come, first served.

An Evening with Adrienne Brodeur, Author of “Little Monsters”
2023-09-21 18:30 - 19:30 UTC
Thursday, September 21 @ 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
In-Person at TACAW
(400 Robinson St, Basalt, CO)
Details to come!

Writing Workshop: Let the Writing Make the Rules – with Kate Milliken
2023-09-30 10:00 - 15:00 (America/Denver) | United States
Join Aspen Words for a one-day intensive in Pitkin County Library’s Dunaway Community Room (120 N. Mill St. Aspen, CO) led by author Kate Milliken.
Registration for this workshop is now closed, all available spots have been filled.
Please reach out to Mallory.Kaufman@aspeninstitute.org to add your name to the waitlist.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
When we talk about (and teach) creative writing we often speak in terms of the rules of craft. While it is important to have a knowledge of what has worked time and again to create compelling stories, in order to write a truly singular story you will need to move beyond convention. Often students of creative writing are so aware of how a story is supposed to be told that they fail to hear the wisdom that is already present in their own writing; its subtle whispers about how it wants to be told. In this one day intensive, through close readings of unconventional narratives, generative writing prompts, and an in-depth discussion of our own projects, we will deepen our understanding of the voice, the shape, and the themes that our work seeks to articulate. Whether you come to our meeting with just an idea of the story you want to tell or you have a full rough draft in your desk, our time together will embolden you to take the next step—from getting the first pages written to embarking on a needed revision—with a deeper connection to the material and a greater authority, moving you beyond crafting a story to making it your very own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Milliken is the Iowa Award winning author of the short story collection “If I’d Known You Were Coming” and the novel, “Kept Animals,” which was long listed for the 2020 First Novel Prize and hailed by the New York Times Book Review as a novel of “deft insights and gorgeous, sensual description.” Kate has written television and commercial advertising and taught on behalf of UCLA, the University of Michigan, and The Center for Fiction. Her work has appeared in O, the Oprah Magazine, the Santa Monica Review, Zyzzyva, and Fiction, among others and her work has been supported by Tin House, the Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee Writers Workshop, and the Ragdale Foundation. Kate is currently a freelance editor and writing coach and she lives with her family in the Midwest.

Small Press Publication with Author of “Burr” Brooke Lockyer
2023-11-16 18:30 - 19:30 UTC

Holiday Party & Book Exchange
2023-12-21 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
Thursday, December 21 @ 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Dawn your holiday best and celebrate the season with a festive book exchange. Bring a new or lightly used wrapped book to trade with fellow AWN members. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.

Winter Words with Ann Patchett and Elizabeth McCracken – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
2024-01-11 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The 2024 Winter Words season debuts with acclaimed, award-winning author Ann Patchett and her longtime literary friend, Elizabeth McCracken in conversation. Patchett returns to the Aspen Words stage and will discuss her latest work, “Tom Lake,” a “Reese’s Book Club” selection. The novel is a meditation on young love, married love, and the lives parents have led before children. McCracken is the author of eight books including her most recent novel, “The Hero of This Book.”
Patchett and McCracken are two highly accomplished authors; don’t miss their discussion about their work and lives and the intersection of how family dynamics and other intimate relationships serve as their inspiration.
Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels, “The Patron Saint of Liars,” “Taft,” “The Magician’s Assistant,” “Bel Canto,” “Run, State of Wonder,” “Commonwealth,” “The Dutch House” and “Tom Lake.” She was the editor of “Best American Short Stories, 2006,” and has written four books of nonfiction–“Truth & Beauty,” about her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy, “What Now?” an expansion of her graduation address at Sarah Lawrence College, “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage,” a collection of essays examining the theme of commitment and “These Precious Days,” essays on home, family, friendship and writing. In 2019, she published her first children’s book, “Lambslide,” illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, followed by “Escape Goat” in 2020.
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Humanities Medal, England’s Women’s Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book Sense Book of the Year, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize, The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the American Bookseller’s Association’s Most Engaging Author Award and the Women’s National Book Association’s Award. Her novel, “The Dutch House,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her books have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.
In November 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, with her business partner Karen Hayes. She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores on NPR, The Colbert Report (including the series finale), Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, The Martha Stewart Show and The CBS Early Show, among many others. Along with James Patterson, she was the honorary chair of World Book Night. In 2012, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books: “Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry,” “The Giant’s House,” “Niagara Falls All Over Again,” “An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination,” “Thunderstruck & Other Stories,” “Bowlaway,” “The Souvenir Museum” and “The Hero of This Book.” She’s received grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Liguria Study Center, the American Academy in Berlin, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. “Thunderstruck & Other Stories” won the 2015 Story Prize. Her work has been published in The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The O. Henry Prize, The New York Times Magazine, and many other places.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

Winter Words with Sasha DiGiulian – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
2024-02-06 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

World-champion climber Sasha Digiulian joins Aspen Words to present excerpts from her memoir, “Take the Lead: Hanging On, Letting Go, and Conquering Life’s Hardest Climbs,” her first book on the subjects of navigating a male-dominated sport, dealing with body dysmorphia in the age of social media, and channeling a competitive spirit into entrepreneurship. If you love Tommy Caldwell’s “Push,” this evening of literature, the examination of risk-taking, and stimulating conversation is not to be missed.
Moderator: Caroline Tory, Aspen Words managing director
Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sasha DiGiulian is a world champion climber and three-time U.S. national champion. At thirty years old, she’s traveled to over fifty countries and accomplished over thirty first female ascents. In 2016, she graduated from Columbia University with a focus on journalism and business and in 2022 became the founder and CEO of SEND Bars, a superfood nutrition bar company. In addition to being featured in dozens of magazines and new media pieces, she wrote for many publications including Outside magazine, National Geographic, Rock and Ice, Self, Seventeen and Crave. Sasha is an outspoken environmental activist and a global athlete ambassador for Right to Play, Protect Our Winters and Up2Us Sports. She served on the board of the Women’s Sports Foundation for six years and travels globally for expeditions, speaking engagements, sporting events and commercial work.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

AWN: Nisi Shawl teaches Writing the Other
2024-02-15 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Denver)
Writing the Other: A Practical Approach has been the standard text on inclusivity in speculative fiction for over 20 years. Its co-author Nisi Shawl teaches writers helpful tools for the work of respectfully representing characters differing from their creators’ race, age, gender, etc.; they’ve previously appeared at Duke University, Spelman College, University of Hawaii Manoa and many other learning institutions.

Shawl is also a prolific short story author and multiple award-winning editor. Their most recent publication is Kinning, a sequel to their Nebula finalist alternate history Everfair. They live in Seattle, near a large lake filled with dangerous currents and millionaires.

Winter Words with Safiya Sinclair – TACAW in Basalt & Livestreamed
2024-02-29 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | TACAW, 400 Robinson St., Basalt, CO, 81621
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

What is it like to leave everything you know behind? Join Aspen Words at TACAW for Winter Words with memoirist and award-winning poet Safiya Sinclair, as she discusses her new book, “How to Say Babylon.” This Read with Jenna TODAY show book club pick examines the author’s rigid Rastafarian upbringing and her efforts to break free from the patriarchal structure which defined her youth.
Moderator: Mitzi Rapkin, host of First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
Event location: TACAW 400 Robinson Street Basalt, CO 81621. Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir “How to Say Babylon,” forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in October 2023. She is also the author of the poetry collection “Cannibal,” winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. “Cannibal” was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Seamus Heaney First Book Award in the UK and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.
Sinclair’s other honors include a Pushcart Prize, fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Nation, Poetry, Kenyon Review, the Oxford American and elsewhere.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

Winter Words with Abraham Verghese – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
2024-03-14 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone,” Abraham Verghese wraps up the 2024 Winter Words season, presenting his latest work, “The Covenant of Water,” also a New York Times bestseller, as well as an Oprah’s Book Club selection and the subject of a six-part podcast series hosted by Oprah Winfrey. This mystical work of fiction follows three generations of a family which experiences mysterious tragedy on the South Indian coast. Verghese will talk about his inspiration for the novel and how his deep and knowledgeable background in the medical field influences his work.
Moderator: Elisabeth Egan, author and a New York Times books editor
Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, is Professor and Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor and Vice Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the School of Medicine at Stanford University. He is also a bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone,” and the recently released “The Covenant of Water” as well as a physician with a reputation for his focus on healing in an era where technology often overwhelms the human side of medicine. He received the Heinz Award in 2014 and was awarded the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Barack Obama, in 2015.
Born in Addis Ababa in 1955, the second of three sons of Indian parents recruited by Emperor Haile Selassie to teach in Ethiopia, he grew up near the capital and began his medical training there. When the emperor was deposed, Verghese briefly joined his parents in the United States, working as an orderly, or nursing assistant, in a series of hospitals and nursing homes before completing his medical education in India at Madras Medical College. His experiences of civil unrest and his time as a hospital orderly were to leave a significant mark on his life and work.
After graduation, he left India for a medical residency in the United States and, like many other foreign medical graduates, he found only the less popular hospitals and communities open to him, an experience he described in a 1997 New Yorker article, “The Cowpath to America.”
Abraham Verghese’s early years as an orderly, his care of terminal AIDS patients and the insights he gained from the deep relationships he formed and the suffering he witnessed were transformative. Though he wrote a seminal scientific paper, he felt the sometimes cold and unimaginative language of science could not begin to capture the nature of the experience for patients and families, nor did it convey his own feelings as he witnessed their journeys. These were the cumulative experiences around which his first book, “My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story,” is centered.
As his interest in writing grew, he took time off from medicine to study at the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he earned an MFA in 1991. Since then, his work has appeared in the New Yorker, Texas Monthly, Atlantic, The New York Times, The New York Times magazine, Granta, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
After leaving Iowa, Verghese became professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas, where he lived for the next 11 years. In El Paso, he finished his first book, chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by TIME and later filmed for Showtime as “My Own Country,” directed by Mira Nair and starring Naveen Andrews. His second bestselling book, “The Tennis Partner: A Story of Friendship and Loss,” explored his friend and frequent tennis partner’s losing struggle with addiction. “The Tennis Partner” was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
In his writing and work, Abraham Verghese continues to emphasize the importance of bedside medicine and physical examination in an era of advanced medical technology. He contends that the patient in the bed often gets less attention than the patient data in the computer. His December 2008 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Culture Shock: Patient as Icon, Icon as Patient,” clearly lays out his viewpoint.
In speaking about his novel, “Cutting for Stone,” he also addressed the issue: “I wanted the reader to see how entering medicine was a passionate quest, a romantic pursuit, a spiritual calling, a privileged yet hazardous undertaking. It’s a view of medicine I don’t think too many young people see in the West because, frankly, in the sterile hallways of modern medical-industrial complexes, where physicians and nurses are hunkered down behind computer monitors and patients are whisked off here and there for all manner of tests, that side of medicine gets lost.”
Today, as a popular invited speaker, Verghese has more forums beyond his writing in which to share his views on patient care. He speaks widely on the subject, as well as giving talks and readings from his books. At the Stanford School of Medicine, he has led the effort to establish the Stanford 25, where residents and students are taught techniques and skills to recognize the basic phenotypic expressions of disease that manifest as abnormal physical signs.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

AWN: Local Bookstore Panel
2024-03-21 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Denver)
Local Bookstore Panel
Thursday, March 21 @ 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
Local booksellers from BookBinders and White River Books will share their expertise for writers who hope to one day see their own work on the shelf.
Snacks, coffee, tea, beer and wine will be provided.

AWLP Ceremony Watch Party: Pitkin County Library
2024-04-25 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Denver)
Please RSVP here!
Pitkin County Library is delighted to once again host a free livestream viewing party of the Aspen Words Literary Prize Awards Ceremony taking place at the Morgan Library in New York City on Thursday, April 25th. The event will be held in the Library’s Dunaway Community Room and doors will open at 4:00pm, with the livestream beginning at 4:30pm.
The finalists for the $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize, which honors a work of fiction that illuminates vital contemporary issues, are:
“Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
“Temple Folk” by Aaliyah Bilal
“Witness” by Jamel Brinkley
“Enter Ghost” by Isabella Hammad
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride

Attendees at the Library’s viewing party will be able to delight in the evening’s most exciting aspects in real-time: a conversation with the finalist authors led by Mary Louise Kelly co-host of NPR’s award-winning show All Things Considered, and the live announcement of the $35,000 prize winner.
Refreshments will be served and prizes will be awarded for those who correctly guess the winning book.

Aspen Words Literary Prize Ceremony
2024-04-25 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Denver)
A conversation with the prize finalists and announcement of the 2024 winner.
Details:
Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016
Program: 6:30-7:30 p.m. ET
& Livestreamed!
FREE Registration:
https://support.aspeninstitute.org/event/2024-aspen-words-literary-prize-ceremony/e568007/register/new/select-tickets
Finalists:

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.  Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism and mass incarceration and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.
Pantheon – Random House
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the New York Times-bestselling author of  Friday Black. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Paris Review and elsewhere. He was a National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honoree, the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Saroyan Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book, along with many other honors. Raised in Spring Valley, New York, he now lives in the Bronx.

In Temple Folk, Black Muslims contemplate the convictions of their race, religion, economics, politics and sexuality in America. The 10 stories in this collection contribute to the bounty of diverse narratives about Black life by intimately portraying the experiences of a community that resists the mainstream culture to which they are expected to accept and aspire to while functioning within the country in which they are born. With an unflinching eye for the contradictions between what these characters profess to believe and what they do, Temple Folk accomplishes the rare feat of presenting moral failures with compassion, nuance and humor to remind us that while perfection is what many of us strive for, it’s the errors that make us human.
Simon & Schuster
Aaliyah Bilal was born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She has degrees from Oberlin College and the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. She’s published stories and essays with The Michigan Quarterly Review and The Rumpus. Temple Folk is her first short story collection.

What does it mean to really see the world around you—to bear witness? And what does it cost us, both to see and not to see? In these ten stories, each set in the changing landscapes of contemporary New York City, a range of characters—from children to grandmothers to ghosts—live through the responsibility of perceiving and the moral challenge of speaking up or taking action. Though they strive to connect with, stand up for, care for and remember one another, they often fall short and the structures they build around these ambitions and failures shape their futures as well as the legacies and prospects of their communities and their city. In its portraits of families and friendships lost and found, the paradox of intimacy, the long shadow of grief and the meaning of home, Witness enacts its own testimony. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in just a few generations, where strangers might sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches: flowers on a windowsill, dancing in the street, glimpsing your purpose, change on the horizon.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux – Macmillan
Jamel Brinkley is the author of A Lucky Man: Stories, which won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, the Story Prize, the John Leonard Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. He has also been awarded an O. Henry Prize, the Rome Prize, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, A Public Space, Ploughshares and The Best American Short Stories. He was raised in the Bronx and in Brooklyn, New York, and currently teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

After years away from her family’s homeland, and healing from an affair with an established director, stage actress Sonia Nasir returns to Palestine to visit her older sister Haneen. Though the siblings grew up spending summers at their family home in Haifa, Sonia hasn’t been since the second intifada and the deaths of her grandparents. While Haneen stayed and made a life commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her burgeoning acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.
Once at Haneen’s, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing Gertude’s lines in Classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than in Haifa with a dedicated group of men from all over historic Palestine who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer it becomes clear just how many invasive and violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.
A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad’s highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.
Grove Press – Grove Atlantic
Isabella Hammad is the author of The Parisian and Enter Ghost. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The Nation, Granta, Conjunctions, and elsewhere. She was awarded the Plimpton Prize, an O. Henry Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Palestine Book Award and a Betty Trask Award, and her work has been supported by the Lannan Foundation and Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination.

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
Riverhead Books – Penguin Random House
James McBride is the author of the New York Times–bestselling Oprah’s Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, the American classic The Color of Water, the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle at St. Anna, the story collection Five-Carat Soul, and Kill ’Em and Leave, a biography of James Brown. The recipient of a National Humanities Medal and an accomplished musician, McBride is also a distinguished writer in residence at New York University.

Moderator:
Mary Louise Kelly is a host of “All Things Considered,” NPR’s award-winning afternoon newsmagazine. Previously, she spent a decade as national security correspondent for NPR News, and she’s kept that focus in her role as anchor. That’s meant taking “All Things Considered” to Russia, North Korea, Iran and beyond.
She’s published two novels, “Anonymous Sources” and “The Bullet,” as well as the New York Times bestselling memoir, “It. Goes. So. Fast. The Year of No Do-Overs.” Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, among other publications, and she serves as a contributing writer at The Atlantic.
