Sedona AZ (November 28, 2019) – Pam Houston, award winning author, is coming to Sedona Public Library on December 10. Houston is on a national book tour for her latest book, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country. Well-known for her story collections and novels, Houston has received critical acclaim for her 2019 memoir, 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. Encompassing Houston’s childhood, her adventures, and her details of everyday life at the ranch, the book tells 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.”
Houston’s short story collections, Cowboys Are My Weakness, Waltzing the Cat, and A Little More About Me and two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound, have earned her national notoriety. Pam’s stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and her story The Best Girlfriend You Never Had was John Updike’s only 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.
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.
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.”
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 co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers.
This very special event includes a reading, discussion, and a book signing. (The Literate Lizard bookstore will offer books for sale during the event.) Please 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.
