The American West is associated with wide open spaces, lots of elbow room and open lands beckoning the frontiersman and woman. This three-part series will explore conversations about the experience of the West through readings from Pulitzer Prize finalists and winners in four areas of Journalism and the Humanities. We will focus on works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and journalism, with facilitators at each session.

Steve Schulte, a Professor of History at Colorado Mesa University will facilitate the first session on July 11th looking at non-fiction selections. Facilitating the second session, Dr. Robin Calland, Associate Professor of English at CMU will focus on poetry and journalism. Maureen Neal, a recently-retired professor of English (CMU Emerita), will wrap up the conversation exploring fiction.

Seating is limited and registration is required. Please only register for this series if you plan to attend all three workshops. Attendees will receive materials to use during the workshop series that will need to be returned to the library at the conclusion of the series. Please pickup the materials and read the first section prior to the first session on Tuesday, July 11.

About the Presenters:

Steve Schulte is a Professor of History at CMU where he has taught since 1989. In 2004 he received its Distinguished Teaching Award. He offers courses dealing with the American West, American Indian History, Environmental History, and Sport History. He loves to do research as well, and has authored numerous articles and two books--one on Colorado Congressman Wayne Aspinall (Wayne Aspinall and the Shaping of the American West, University Press of Colorado, 2002) and another book, As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado's Water Wars published in October of 2016 (University Press of Colorado). When not teaching, he can be found on the tennis courts of Grand Junction, at the CMU Rec Center, camping, hiking, or at a baseball game!

Dr. Robin Calland is an Associate Professor of English at Colorado Mesa University. She studied poetry for her Ph.D at the University of Colorado, Boulder and teaches Composition, Children's Literature, and American Literature classes at CMU. She is thrilled to lead class that allows her to combine her study of poetry with her study of the landscape of the American West and its human and non-human inhabitants.

Maureen Neal is a recently-retired professor of English (CMU Emerita) with a passion for the enormously rich life, literature, and language of the American West. She has been a frequent reader in the CMU Poets and Writers series, where her interests lie in creative nonfiction, and she currently teaches courses focusing on language and sociolinguistics in the New Dimensions adult education Program.