Spoken Words 26: Adrian Shirk—And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy

Novelist Alyson Hagy has been a professor at the University of Wyoming for 20 years and her last three novels were set in a realistic American West. But for her eighth novel, Scribe, Hagy ventures into very new territory, a dystopia in the Blue Ridge Mountain of Virginia, an area where Hagy spent her childhood. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards asked Hagy where the inspiration for such a radical new direction came from. Hagy says it all started on a visit home.

From the Gros Ventre Valley of Wyoming to a Walmart parking lot in Logan, Utah, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb traveled to all kinds places for his new book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. Goldfarb says beavers have super powers. In fact, he calls them ecological and hydrological swiss army knives. And in the right circumstances, Goldfarb says they can tackle all kinds of problems that plague the West. Wyoming Public Radio’s Maggie Mullen spoke with the author ahead of his visit to Teton County Library Wednesday, September 26 starting at 5 p.m.  

Alyson Hagy’s new novel Scribe is about the power—and dangers—of storytelling. Amid a population decimated by civil war and disease that relies on a barter system, a woman known as Scribe exchanges her skill in letter-writing to get what she needs. One day, a strange man shows up in need of a letter, setting off a series of terrible events that bring Scribe to a crossroads she can escape. 

In Wildness, John Hausdoerffer and his co-editor Gavin Van Horn bring together authors from a variety of landscapes, cultures, and backgrounds to share their stories of what “wildness” looks like when people take an active role in becoming co-creators of well-being with the places they live, work, and play. In re-imagining the possibilities for wildness, Hausdoerffer discusses his hopes for creating communities attuned to the wild in their midst and able to work together across differences to care for these places.