Special Event: Author Pam Houston Visits Sedona Public Library

This is an author reading you won’t want to miss! Pam Houston is not only a fabulous writer, but she is a delightful and fun speaker. We are thrilled to be bringing her to Sedona as part of the "Our Earth, Our Habitat, Our Home" author series.

Pam will visit Sedona Public Library on December 10 at 6:30 p.m. for a book talk, slide presentation, and book signing. Currently on a national book tour for her latest book, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, Pam is well-known for her story collections, which include Cowboys Are My Weakness, Waltzing the Cat, and A Little More About Me, in addition to her novels Sight Hound and Contents May Have Shifted. Houston has received critical acclaim for her 2019 book, and the Library is honored to bring her to the Verde Valley.

In Deep Creek, Houston describes her life on her ranch in Colorado—how she was, and continues to be, shaped by the land, people, and animals there. Born in Pennsylvania to an actress mother and abusive father, Pam made her way west after college, making her living guiding white-tailed deer and Dall sheep hunts, running rivers and Class 5 rapids, and ski bumming. Deep Creek details her childhood, her adventures, and how, through luck and bravado, she acquired a 120-acre ranch near the headwaters of the Rio Grande with the proceeds of her first book.  Deep Creek describes everyday life at the ranch, and how Houston carved out a life to support her spirit and her talents, and discovered that she could be the cowboy of her own story.

“I know,” she said in a press release, “that when I claimed these 120 acres they also claimed me. We are each other’s mutual saviors.”

The LA Times writes of her memoir: “Good writing can make you envious, no matter how foreign the terrain. Other times, you read a good memoir and find yourself wanting to track down the author and become friends. A third kind of book is so insightful and evocative, you shelve it beside other favorite and instructive titles. Deep Creek might just do all three.”

Pam’s stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Travel Writing, and her story The Best Girlfriend You Never Had was John Updike’s addition to Best American Short Stories of the Century.  She is a regular contributor to O, the Oprah Magazine; Outside; The New York Times; Bark; More; and many other periodicals.

She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award, and several teaching awards. Pam teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and is co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers.

Deep Creek fits perfectly with the Library’s current literary series, “Our Earth, Our Habitat, Our Home,” which celebrates and investigates the stewardship of our environment and preservation of the beautiful landscape we call home. Houston’s latest book raises concern about the many ways we endanger the natural world’s delicate balance. It is also a striking chronicle of recovery from a childhood marked by her parents’ alcoholism and abuse.

Sedona Public Library is also proud to partner with The Literate Lizard bookstore, which will offer books for sale during the event.  Please don’t miss this chance! Join us on Tuesday, December 10, at 6:30 p.m. in the Si Birch Community Room at Sedona Public Library, 3250 White Bear Road. Each event in this series is free and open to all ages. For more information call 928-282-7714 or visit sedonalibrary.org.

This project is supported by the Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State, with federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Sedona Public Library
Column for December 6, 2019
Written by Judy Poe, Assistant Library Director

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