The Albany County Library launched a book talk series last week that will feature exclusively Wyoming authors, and UW faculty is already participating.
Nina McConigley, author of the PEN award winning “Cowboys and East Indians,” and an assistant lecturer in UW’s English Department, was the first writer to be featured. She said she enjoyed reading to a Wyoming audience.
“As a Wyoming author, I think it’s important to share your art with the state that shaped your work,” she said. “I wouldn’t be a writer if I didn’t live in Wyoming, so I think I owe a great debt to the state and the people who live here. It’s important to me to share my work here.”
The book talks are designed to introduce the public to local writers with unique perspectives said Cassandra Hunter, public service specialist for the library.
“It’s part of our job as librarians to bring diversity in and to promote diversity especially in Wyoming,” she said.
McConigley appreciated the way an audience familiar with Wyoming can offer feedback.
“It was so nice to be able to read to a Wyoming crowd,” she said. “They know the places that I write about—so they can fact check me.”
The next author the library plans to feature is Colleen Denney, a program director in UW’s Gender and Women’s Studies Department, who will be presenting a “Visual Odyssey of Women’s Rights” on March 6 at 7 p.m.
“March will be Women’s History Month so I thought it would be a good time to book her and try to expose women’s history and how it ties into literature,” Hunter said.
The library also plans to feature Kim Viner, author of a non-fiction book about the locally famous Ivinson family titled “Rediscovering the Ivinsons,” in April.
