Books

Is any present greater than a book? Perhaps one written here in Colorado.

Mile High culture lovers are spoiled for choice in the days ahead as bookstores, concert venues, and even a cannabis church open their doors to the public for free events.

Grab an eggnog latte and enjoy flipping a few pages, listening to some readings, or just plain toasting Colorado’s literary culture at this five literary events December 11 through December 16, 2017.

Best gift idea? Books. Here are five literary events in Denver December 4-10, 2017, that will be edifying on their own, but also give you a chance to buy some great gifts.

With Thanksgiving behind us, we’re heading fast into gift-giving season. Knock a few names off your shopping list while treating yourself to some thought-provoking talk — and beer! — at the best literary events of the week ending December 2, 2017.

While some voices are dividing us, “Americans are looking for someone who would boldly put in our face the realities of society,” Mayor Michael Hancock said at the culmination of Denver Talks, with poet Claudia Rankine.

This is a week to celebrate both local authors and independent bookstores, with Indies First on November 25, 2017, kicking off Small Business Saturday.

Helen Thorpe answers questions about her new book, The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom.

From Hillary Clinton to Michael Hancock hosting Claudia Rankine, here are the best literary events in Denver November 13 through November 19.

As everyone in Denver tries to re-set their internal clocks (thanks, Daylight Savings Time!), the calendar includes plenty to lit events to illuminate these darker evenings and keep those bleary eyes open for just a few more pages. Here are six of the best.

For the past ten years, Curtis Craddock has been living in a fantasy world. During the day, he works at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, teaching incarcerated felons how to use computers. At night he dreams of a place called Caelum, celebrated in his book An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors.

Mayor Michael Hancock celebrated the reopening of the renovated Shoemaker Plaza at Confluence Park on October 14. And as promised, the plaque embossed with the poem “Two Rivers” by Thomas Hornsby Ferril, Colorado’s first poet laureate, is back on display.

In this op-ed, Tershia d’Elgin, author of The Man Who Thought He Owned Water, discusses “the naked truth” about the Colorado Water Plan.

The writing haunts recommended by some of Colorado’s best wordsmiths.

Madeleine Dodge and Olivia Wischmeyer published their first book before they received their high school diplomas.

The Old West was a weird place — but not weird enough for Denver author and editor David Boop, who rounded up a posse of fantasy/sci-fi writers for the Western-horror anthology Straight Outta Tombstone.

On the eve of the publication of his second thriller featuring Clyde Barr,  A Promise to Kill, author Erik Storey offers a look at “The Still Wild West.”

Terry Tempest Williams’ latest book, The Hour of Land, was seeded in the red rock splendor and expansive salt flats of Utah, where her family’s roots stretch back five generations. The renowned environmental writer, activist, and teacher’s deep affection for the national parks and monuments of her home state prompted her self-described “love letter” in celebration of the National Park Service’s 2016 centennial. In The Hour of Land, Tempest Williams chronicles, through varied narrative forms, the past and present, personal experience of twelve national parks with reverence and a vivid clarity. Tempest Williams says the book’s ultimate scope surprised her: “What I thought I was writing was about our national parks and our public commons. What I think I ended up writing was a history of America and falling deeply in love with the country we call home.”

Former Tattered Cover employee Matthew Sullivan is living the dream with his debut novel, a dark mystery set in — how about that? — an eclectic downtown Denver bookstore.

As they prepared to mark what would have been Ginsberg’s 91st birthday on Saturday, June 3, Kerouac School writers decided to honor the legendary beat poet with a night of live poetry and music at Boulder’s Fox Theater.

Get ready to bust out those library cards. Last night, the winners of the Colorado Book Awards were announced. Among the selection are a biography of Theodore Roosevelt, a primer in counting via the weird world of octopuses (and their three hearts and nine brains), and a history of Colorado.

Local author Sean Eads writes genre novels and short stories. His latest, Trigger Point, is the tale of a massage therapist who tries to find a murderer. In advance of Eads’s reading of Trigger Point, on April 18, at the Tattered Cover, we asked him to share some insight into his new book and the inspiration behind it.