PAM HOUSTON + DORIANNE LAUX: Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference Public Readings

Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference faculty, Pam Houston and Dorianne Laux, will give public readings of their work at the Porter Center on the Brevard College campus on Friday, May 17 at 7:30 pm.

Pam Houston is the author of two collections of short stories “Cowboys Are My Weakness,” which was the winner of the 1993 Western States Book Award and has been translated into nine languages, and “Waltzing the Cat,” which won the Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction; two novels, “Contents May Have Shifted” and “Sight Hound,” and three collections of autobiographical essays, “Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country,” from which Cheryl Strayed chose an essay for inclusion in the forthcoming “Best American Travel Writing” and another essay will be included in the forthcoming Pushcart Prize anthology, “A Rough Guide to the Heart,” and “A Little More About Me.”

Her stories have also been selected for The O. Henry Awards and The Pushcart Prize. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, and The Evil Companions Literary Award. She is a regular contributor to O, the Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, and many other periodicals.  She divides her time between UC Davis and southwestern Colorado at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

Dorianne Laux is the author of several collections of poetry, including “What We Carry,” a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; “Smoke;” “Facts about the Moon,” chosen by the poet Ai as winner of the Oregon Book Award and also a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; “The Book of Men,” which was awarded the Paterson Prize; and “Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems,” Laux’s sixth collection, which was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and has been a Pushcart Prize winner. Her latest collection is “Life On Earth” which will be released in January of 2024.

Laux has taught creative writing at the University of Oregon, Pacific University, and North Carolina State University; she has also led summer workshops at Esalen in Big Sur. She is the co-author, with Kim Addonizio, of “The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry.” She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference (LGRWC) is a unique creative experience for writers which aspires to foster reading, writing, creativity, and a sense of place in Transylvania County.  The Transylvania County Library is a vital, trusted source for discovery, inspiration, and innovation at the heart of a community that celebrates learning, creativity, and curiosity.  Brevard College provides an experiential liberal arts education that encourages personal growth and inspires artistic, intellectual, and social action.

As partners, Brevard College and the Transylvania County Library Foundation seek to enrich the cultural and educational life of Transylvania County by nurturing and developing the LGRWC. Through intensive community-building creative workshops and public readings, the LGRWC will offer Transylvania County residents the opportunity to interact with renowned authors, engage in meaningful conversation about writing and place, and strengthen ties across generations by reaching out to the diverse population of Transylvania County.