Regional authors to read at Back of Beyond
Nov 29, 2012 | 1214 views | 0 0 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Two Utah authors will read from their latest works of fiction Friday, Nov. 30, at Back of Beyond Books, 83 N. Main St. in Moab.

The free presentation begins at 7 p.m. Erica Olsen of Blanding will read from her collection of short pieces, “Recapture and Other Stories,” and Jana Richman of Escalante will read from her novel, “The Ordinary Truth.”

Olsen won the 2011 Barthelme Prize for Short Prose for a chapter in “Recapture” called Grand Canyon II. She has long been interested in archeological preservation, especially in how to balance the need for preservation while maintaining access to fragile areas.

She worked most recently as an archivist at Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding and as a museum technician at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, Colo. In both of those positions, she helped preserve archeological collections.

Richman is a sixth-generation Utahn who writes about issues that threaten to destroy the essence of the West — overpopulation, overdevelopment and rapidly dwindling aquifers.

She is the winner of the Willa Award for contemporary fiction and is the author of three books. Born and raised in the Utah desert, she has spent almost all of her life west of the 100th meridian.

She has received several fellowships, including those from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Norcroft Writer’s Colony.

“The Ordinary Truth” focuses on personal secrets of a Nevada ranch family that threaten to tear the family apart. Richman writes each chapter of the novel from the perspective of one of the many family members connected to the ranch.

Part of the conflict in the novel is provided by the recently proposed Nevada pipeline, which would pump water from desert valleys in Nevada and Utah to Las Vegas. It threatens to end the cherished ranching lifestyles of people in the community.
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