Tom McGuane might be my favorite writer. And John Gierach opened my eyes to the idea of life beyond a 9-to-5/high-blood-pressure/road rage existence.
But right behind those two you’ll find Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer prize winning author of The Shipping News and writer of the short story that became the Brokeback Mountain movie.
I don’t think it’s any coincidence all three authors fly fish and now live in the American West. Color me captured.
The excellent New West Magazine covered one of Proulx’s recent speaking engagements where I discovered she’s forgone fiction writing the last three years to work on a book project about Wyoming’s little-known (and fast disappearing) Red Desert region.
A worthwhile read for any Proulx fans. And yes, count me among them.
[tags]annie proulx, proulx, wyoming, red desert, new west, writing[/tags]
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Thanks for the link Tom. Nice article. Count me in as a Proulx fan as well. I do take exception to Patricia Limerick’s remark about Western literature before the 1990’s though. I wonder if the name Wallace Stegner rings a bell with her. I would hope so.
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Yeah, I thought the statement about Western literature being largely escapist in nature prior to the 1990s overreached by a fair amount, but symptomatic of a largely eastern myopia about literature.
I love the New Yorker, but know better than to wholly buy into its opinions about the arts and culture outside of the seething mass of humanity on the eastern seaboard.
And thanks Marshall!
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Dear Tom and ‘HH’,
I am writing from the BBC World Service and our programme The World Book Club, where fans can ask their favourite author questions about one of their novels.
Our next programme is with Annie Proulx so I am trying to find people who may be interested in asking a question about ‘Shipping News’ or ‘Close Range’.
If either of you are please get in touch with me at worldbookclub@bbc.co.uk
I hope to hear from you soon,
Charlotte.
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Charlotte: Be wonderful to ask Annie Proulx a question, though it’s hard to imagine what that might be.
The woman’s books ask a lot of questions already, and typically, her short stories leave me speechless.
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