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The festival will include 40 individual presentations by authors in restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, patios, and shops in downtown Mancos. The day will also include 11 panels on a variety of reading and writing topics. Authors are travelling from around Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. The authors write non-fiction, poetry, memoir, and fiction in a variety of genres including literary, mystery, thriller, horror, young adult, and romance. The day will include a festival bookstore, managed by Hand in Hand Bookstore, so festival attendees can buy books from visiting authors—and have them signed. The festival will also offer two writing workshops for teens at Mancos Commons. The festival will begin at 9 a.m. and run through 8 p.m. at such downtown Mancos venues as Fenceline Cider, Bomdiggity Mystical Market, Kilgore American Indian Art, El Rio Cantina, The Boathouse on Grand, Painted Turtle, and Columbine Restaurant. Panels will be held at the Mancos Community Center and the Mancos Public Library, a short walk over the Mancos River. Festival attendees are asked to register (name and zip code only) via this link. |
Pam Houston and Tim Weed Announced as Featured Writers Joining 48+ Authors Coming to Mancos for Mesa Verde Literary Festival
Award-winning authors Pam Houston and Tim Weed will give keynote talks to cap the day-long Mesa Verde Literary Festival in downtown Mancos on Saturday, July 12.
Pam Houston is the author of Without Exception, nominated this year for the Colorado Book Award, as well as the memoir Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, as well as two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound, two collections of short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me. She is also the author of a book of essays with environmental activist Amy Irvine, called Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics and Place.
Houston’s stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, and the Evil Companions Literary Award. She 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, which puts writer gatherings in places as diverse as Boulder, Colorado, Tomales Bay, California and Chamonix, France.
Houston will present at Fenceline Cider at 5 p.m. along with writer Byron Aspaas. Aspaas is a Diné (Navajo) poet whose works have been published in journals and anthologies including RedInk, Yellow Medicine Review, the Denver Quarterly, and the Diné Reader. Aspaas works remotely from Colorado as adjunct faculty at San Juan College while teaching continuing education courses with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Identity Project.
Tim Weed is the author of three books of fiction. His story collection, A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing, was named to the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Shortlist, and his first novel, Will Poole’s Island, was one of Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of the Year. He’s a two-time winner of the Writer’s Digest Annual Fiction Awards and has been shortlisted for the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the Fish International Short Story Award, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for a Novel-in-Progress, the New Rivers Many Voices Project, and many others. Weed’s essays and writings have appeared in Writer’s Digest, Literary Hub, The Millions, The Writer’s Chronicle, Talking Points Memo, and elsewhere. His new novel, The Afterlife Project, finalist for the Prism Prize in Climate Fiction, received a starred review from Library Journal and was a Middlebury Magazine editor’s pick. It will be released on June 3, 2025.
Tim Weed’s talk, “Storytelling to Save the World: the Fiction of Climate Apocalypse” will begin at 7 p.m. at the Mancos Opera House.
The festival will include 40 individual presentations by authors in restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, patios, and shops in downtown Mancos. The day will also include 11 panels on a variety of reading and writing topics. A complete schedule is posted here.
Authors are travelling from around Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. The authors write non-fiction, poetry, memoir, and fiction in a variety of genres including literary, mystery, thriller, horror, young adult, and romance.
The day will include a festival bookstore, managed by Hand in Hand, so festival attendees can buy books from visiting authors—and have them signed. The festival will also offer two writing workshops for teens at Mancos Commons.
The festival will begin at 9 a.m. and run through 8 p.m. at such downtown Mancos venues as Fenceline Cider, Bomdiggity Mystical Market, Kilgore American Indian Art, El Rio Cantina, The Boathouse on Grand, Painted Turtle, and Columbine Restaurant. Panels will be held at the Mancos Community Center and the Mancos Public Library, a short walk over the Mancos River.
Presentation topics by individual authors include: “Life Is Serious But It’s Okay to Laugh,” “Creating And Writing A Successful Fiction Series,” “Where We Are Is Who We Are,” “Pure Land and the Healing Power of Nature,” “Path to Publication—Never Give Up On A Book,” “Mustangs & More: Mixing Place, Passion, & Art,” and “Writing the Transformative Adventure Memoir—Rowing an Ocean.” Panels will be offered among writers to discuss writing various genres and topics including Romance, Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction, Poetry, and much more.
“The festival will turn downtown Mancos into an upbeat celebration of books, stories, reading, and writing,” said Mancos Creative District executive director Chelsea Lunders. “We are thrilled with the variety of writers who are coming to Mancos to share their writing journeys and their books. We encourage readers to come meet their favorite writers or learn about new authors, too. And plan to fill up their book bags at Hand in Hand.”
The festival follows the third annual Mesa Verde Writers Conference, which will take place this year at Mancos Commons on Thursday, July 10 and Friday, July 11. The conference is sold-out.
Participating authors include Suzanne Stauffer; Fleur Bradley; Mario Acevedo; Bethany Turner; Jim Tritten; Kevin Jones; Chuck Greaves; Angie Hodapp; Renata Golden; Nikki Flynn; Sid Sibo; Gail Binkly; Susan Carpenter Noble; Dan Chiras; L.E. Harrison; Catlyn Ladd; Mariko Tatsumoto; Eugenio Volpe; Jasmine Tritten; Charlie Chase; Jim O’Donnell; Kase Johnstun; Travis Tougaw; Karen B. McCoy; Mark Fleisher; Scott Graham; Karin Anderson; Shannon Lawrence; DelSheree Gladden; Annette McGivney; Monica Barron; Wendy J. Fox; A. D. Uhlar; Dita Dow; Saleema Ishq; Katayoun Medhat; Terry Nichols; Kathleen Saville; William A. Liggett; Katie Ramos; P K Stuart; Kathryn Wilder; Sylvia McDaniel; C.C. Harrison; Deidre Bjorson; Jenny Dandy; Lisa C. Taylor; and Art Goodtimes.
A complete list of festival authors is also available here.
More about the Mancos Creative District:
https://mancoscreativedistrict.com/
Pam Houston is the author of Without Exception, nominated this year for the Colorado Book Award, as well as the memoir Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, as well as two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound, two collections of short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me. She is also the author of a book of essays with environmental activist Amy Irvine, called Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics and Place.
Houston’s stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, and the Evil Companions Literary Award. She 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, which puts writer gatherings in places as diverse as Boulder, Colorado, Tomales Bay, California and Chamonix, France.
Houston will present at Fenceline Cider at 5 p.m. along with writer Byron Aspaas. Aspaas is a Diné (Navajo) poet whose works have been published in journals and anthologies including RedInk, Yellow Medicine Review, the Denver Quarterly, and the Diné Reader. Aspaas works remotely from Colorado as adjunct faculty at San Juan College while teaching continuing education courses with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Identity Project.
Tim Weed is the author of three books of fiction. His story collection, A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing, was named to the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Shortlist, and his first novel, Will Poole’s Island, was one of Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of the Year. He’s a two-time winner of the Writer’s Digest Annual Fiction Awards and has been shortlisted for the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the Fish International Short Story Award, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for a Novel-in-Progress, the New Rivers Many Voices Project, and many others. Weed’s essays and writings have appeared in Writer’s Digest, Literary Hub, The Millions, The Writer’s Chronicle, Talking Points Memo, and elsewhere. His new novel, The Afterlife Project, finalist for the Prism Prize in Climate Fiction, received a starred review from Library Journal and was a Middlebury Magazine editor’s pick. It will be released on June 3, 2025.
Tim Weed’s talk, “Storytelling to Save the World: the Fiction of Climate Apocalypse” will begin at 7 p.m. at the Mancos Opera House.
The festival will include 40 individual presentations by authors in restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, patios, and shops in downtown Mancos. The day will also include 11 panels on a variety of reading and writing topics. A complete schedule is posted here.
Authors are travelling from around Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. The authors write non-fiction, poetry, memoir, and fiction in a variety of genres including literary, mystery, thriller, horror, young adult, and romance.
The day will include a festival bookstore, managed by Hand in Hand, so festival attendees can buy books from visiting authors—and have them signed. The festival will also offer two writing workshops for teens at Mancos Commons.
The festival will begin at 9 a.m. and run through 8 p.m. at such downtown Mancos venues as Fenceline Cider, Bomdiggity Mystical Market, Kilgore American Indian Art, El Rio Cantina, The Boathouse on Grand, Painted Turtle, and Columbine Restaurant. Panels will be held at the Mancos Community Center and the Mancos Public Library, a short walk over the Mancos River.
Presentation topics by individual authors include: “Life Is Serious But It’s Okay to Laugh,” “Creating And Writing A Successful Fiction Series,” “Where We Are Is Who We Are,” “Pure Land and the Healing Power of Nature,” “Path to Publication—Never Give Up On A Book,” “Mustangs & More: Mixing Place, Passion, & Art,” and “Writing the Transformative Adventure Memoir—Rowing an Ocean.” Panels will be offered among writers to discuss writing various genres and topics including Romance, Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction, Poetry, and much more.
“The festival will turn downtown Mancos into an upbeat celebration of books, stories, reading, and writing,” said Mancos Creative District executive director Chelsea Lunders. “We are thrilled with the variety of writers who are coming to Mancos to share their writing journeys and their books. We encourage readers to come meet their favorite writers or learn about new authors, too. And plan to fill up their book bags at Hand in Hand.”
The festival follows the third annual Mesa Verde Writers Conference, which will take place this year at Mancos Commons on Thursday, July 10 and Friday, July 11. The conference is sold-out.
Participating authors include Suzanne Stauffer; Fleur Bradley; Mario Acevedo; Bethany Turner; Jim Tritten; Kevin Jones; Chuck Greaves; Angie Hodapp; Renata Golden; Nikki Flynn; Sid Sibo; Gail Binkly; Susan Carpenter Noble; Dan Chiras; L.E. Harrison; Catlyn Ladd; Mariko Tatsumoto; Eugenio Volpe; Jasmine Tritten; Charlie Chase; Jim O’Donnell; Kase Johnstun; Travis Tougaw; Karen B. McCoy; Mark Fleisher; Scott Graham; Karin Anderson; Shannon Lawrence; DelSheree Gladden; Annette McGivney; Monica Barron; Wendy J. Fox; A. D. Uhlar; Dita Dow; Saleema Ishq; Katayoun Medhat; Terry Nichols; Kathleen Saville; William A. Liggett; Katie Ramos; P K Stuart; Kathryn Wilder; Sylvia McDaniel; C.C. Harrison; Deidre Bjorson; Jenny Dandy; Lisa C. Taylor; and Art Goodtimes.
A complete list of festival authors is also available here.
More about the Mancos Creative District:
https://mancoscreativedistrict.com/