Writers Conference brings authors to library

Thursday, June 25, 2009

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-If you ask Tim Sandlin why he started the Jackson Hole Writers Conference, he won’t give you a generic answer about how mountains inspire words or how Jackson fosters creativity.

“I don’t downhill ski, so I was really isolated in Jackson,” Sandlin said. “The conference is my four days a year to gather together writers, and psych each other up.”

For the Jackson Hole public, the conference presents an evening with two well-known authors this weekend, a free public event at the Teton County Library, cosponsored by the Library Foundation.

Now in its 17th

year, the conference brings dozens of writers to Jackson every summer, many of whom are trying to figure out how to turn a manuscript into a book, meet other writers and hear a few successful, published writers speak.
“It’s turned into one of the best writers conferences in the country, I think,” Sandlin said. “This year at least a dozen of the big ones have canceled or died because of the economy, and we’re still going.”

National Book Award winner Julia Glass, and author Tony Earley, will read from their work, talk about their experiences and answer questions.
Comparisons between the two writers could be drawn, since both evoke complex emotion in their narrative fiction, and both are literary writers with commercial success, but Sandlin puts their connection in more concise terms.

“What they have in common is they are both good authors,” Sandlin said. “Their stories are interesting to me and make me think of things I haven’t thought of before.”

Glass will read from her new book, I See You Everywhere, that explores a life-long relationship between two sisters, touches on the finer points of feminine competition and, eventually, mourning. It has been called the most autobiographical of her three major novels, and a return to the depth of emotion with which her first novel, Three Junes captured critics’ favor.
Earley’smost recent book, The Blue Star, is about a boy stuck in a North Carolina mill town during WWII. He loves a girl who has promised herself to another wealthier boy who is oversees with the armed forces.

Both authors have a good reputation on the conference circuit as pleasant people, Sandlin said. Without anecdote or personality profiles, Sandlin implied it should be a warm, welcoming and fun evening.

“We don’t invite mean people,” he said. JHW

Tony Early and Julia Glass will speak, 7 p.m., Friday at the Teton County Library.

Courtesy Kelly Campbell
Author Tony Earley

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