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Owen Wister Review

2007

Owen wister review2007

The Literary & Arts Journal of the University of Wyoming

Edited by Ken Steinken

Owen Wister Review 2007

Ken Steinken, Editor

Beth Buskirk, Art EditorSarah Norek, Fiction EditorLuke Stricker, Poetry Editor

ASSiStANt EditorS

Alan BarstowJane HawleyPatrick MisitiJosh Olenslager

EditoriAL ASSiStANtS

Christie KoltiskaJessica PatrickLynn Ruggles

dESigN & LAyout

Michelle Winchell

StudENt PuBLicAtioNS

Jim Fuerholzer, Design & Production AdviserBarbara Thorpe, AdvertisingCary Berry-Smith, Student Publications Adviser

Student Publications at the University of Wyoming publishes the Owen Wister Review annually. The single copy price is $8.95. Annual Subscriptions are available: add $1.50 for postage and handling. Back issues are available: 2 for $5, plus postage.

Correspondence: Student Publications Depatment 3625 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, Wyo. 82071

owr@uwyo.eduwww.uwyo.edu/studentpub/owr

Cover: Art: “Hospital Rock” by Elizabeth PapenfussCover Design by Michelle Winchell

coNtENtS

FEAturE iNtErViEW Writing the West – A Conversation with Kent Meyers 97

Nature Writers – Leah Shlachter [Poem] 9

Eight Stories concerning My Father that i’m only Now remembering to Write down– Megan Marshall [Fiction] 10

ghost Lake – Barclay Franklin [Essay] 14

dear Joy Harjo, or the Land of 10,000 Panthers – Ryan G. Van Cleave [Poem] 16

Horseback on Sunday – Bill Croke [Fiction] 17

raven and taylor gydeway – Eric R. Wright [Essay] 25

Plenum – Rick Kempa [Fiction] 30

clearing in Light – Joshua Auerbach [Poem] 32

dakota Winter – Bill Schulz [Poem] 34

road to My Father’s death – Bo Moore [Essay] 35

“and as a pumpkin moon rose in the east” – Christine Stebbins [Fiction] 39

An open Afternoon – Mark Taksa [Poem] 41

Brown – Justin Robertson [Fiction] 42

Lesson at a dusk-ringed Foothill – Biman Roy [Poem] 50

Spotted Horse, Wyoming – Julianne Couch [Essay] 51

Asclepiads – J.E. Bennett [Poem] 55

Left Luggage – Marvin Adelson [Poem] 56

inspiration – Anthony Teneralli [Photograph] 57

Landbridge – Chancey Jahnig [Wood Block Print] 58

Lunar Flare – Chancey Jahnig [Mezzotint Print] 59

Heart Mountain – Kevin French [Linocut Print] 60

the Not So red desert – Michelle Schanzenbach [Solar Plate Print] 61

take off – Elena Smith [Digital Painting] 62

Fleeting trains – Lisa Lofgren [Oil Painting] 63

Featherstone – Elizabeth Papenfuss [Oil Painting] 64

uniform – Bo Batts [Sculpture] 65

Hangers on – Ginnie Madsen [Oil Painting] 66

roadway Afternoon – Ginnie Madsen [Linocut Print] 67

Balance – Jim Fuerholzer [Sculpture] 68

Escape from the city – Jeff Hubbell [Oil Painting] 69

All the Way – Jon Madsen [Oil Painting] 70

the Fog Set in – Anne-Marie Jandura Collins [Monoprint] 71

go with the Flow – Mike Cotterman [Photograph] 72

the School Bus route – Marvin Adelson [Poem] 73

the Wild Boy and the community Stew – Linda M. Hasselstrom [Essay] 74

gradual dissolve: two Views of Eakins’ Photographic Portrait of Whitman (1891, A year Before Whitman’s death)

– Dean Kostos [Poem] 80

Hard rock Miner – Julie Stern [Fiction] 82

Approaching Hibernation – Patricia Frolander [Poem] 92

Harbingers of Spring – Meg VB Wood [Essay] 93

Liudyte and the dead Fish (for Holly) – Carol Hattrup [Poem] 95

uncle Marty – Rose Black [Poem] 96

in a New york restaurant’s Hallway – Eli Langner [Poem] 102

Jake – Bo Moore [Essay] 103

gutting – Joanne Lowery [Poem] 105

Contributors 106

editOr’s nOte

With his baseball cap and wavy hair flowing over his shoulders, the man in his early 20s looks like the singer from AC/DC. But there he sits, listen-

ing intently to the panel discussing the cowboy myth at the Equality State Book Fest in Casper.

When I speak to him after the session, I discover he is a fantasy writer who is often frustrated when people think he should write about the West because that’s where he lives. Then why did he choose this session instead of another? Because he is smart enough to realize that the more he knows about the images and expectations of literature of the West, the better equipped he will be to do the type of writing he wants to do.

Thirty years ago a group of people from the University of Wyoming gathered together to discuss forming a literary magazine. The group wanted to “produce a magazine that reflected the talents of writers and artists in our com-munity, recognizing them in the great tradition of Western literature and art.” The group stated the desire to not only join, but also “mold this tradition.” First published in spring of 1978, Owen Wister Review grew from those conversations.

The founders chose to name the publication after Owen Wister, a man from the East who spent time in Wyoming and wrote The Virginian based in part on his observations in this part of the West. They felt Wister helped add “to the cycle of the Western myth.”

Sometimes writers in the West feel the mythic West to be an ominous cloud hanging over them. But one may choose to mold the tradition instead of being molded by it. One may decide to write fantasy or to chronicle urban life in Denver or the social fabric of the energy boom in the Powder River Basin.

The OWR editorial team guided its selection for this issue with an eye “for works that move beyond conventional ways of viewing land, nature, energy, and life in the West.”

We also decided we would select the highest quality work we received regardless of the topic or the author’s place of residence. We wanted to avoid creating a Western literary ghetto, where people are published because of what they write about rather than having the quality of their work be the primary consideration. This is our attempt to “mold this tradition” by challenging writ-ers and artists in the West to produce at a level that matches the best anywhere.

We applied our philosophy to the submissions we received from more than 250 individuals from 33 states, Washington, D.C. and three foreign countries. Despite the international scope of submissions, Wyoming contributors dominate our final selection, which also includes works from 10 other states and Quebec.

We believe that what you hold is the best from Wyoming, the West and beyond.

Ken Steinken

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