It was a powerhouse year for women at the Jackson Hole Writers Conference, June 26-29. I was beside myself with anticipation of my favorite mystery writer, Elizabeth George, one of the keynote speakers. (She's second only to P.D. James in my mind.) George gave a humble and inspiring talk about her journey from high school English teacher to self-taught mystery crime writer to international bestseller. I've started reading her latest book, Careless in Red, which finds our hero Thomas Lynley walking the English coast and grieving a terrible loss that took place in George's With No One As Witness. I'm already captivated!
My favorite talk was by Jane Hamilton. I totally adored her perspective on sorry market for literary fiction in America. She described meeting a woman on a plane who, when she learned that Jane writes fiction, asked if Jane writes "thrillers." Since Jane considers reading great fiction to be "thrilling," she answered yes. The woman got really excited and asked if Jane wrote "smutty thrillers." Jane said that since her mother considers the sex scenes in Jane's books to be rather racy, she thought it wasn't too much of a stretch to say yes again. "Really, really smutty thrillers?" the woman next to Jane replied, nearly apoplectic. Jane "decided to go the distance" and said yes. It was hilarious and we were all laughing.
The biggest crowd-pleaser was local writer Alexandra (Bo) Fuller, who had us laughing and crying with her presentation about her latest book, The Legend of Colton H Bryant. All reports say its a run-don't-walk must-read.
I was really moved and inspired by another local talent, Laurie Gunst of Dubois. Gunst spoke about "the stories that tell us," and described her experience writing nonfiction journalism and a memoir of being raised white and Jewish in the South by an African-American nanny.
Gail Tsukiyama also gave a great talk about becoming a fiction writer and her experience being Asian-American - and often wishing she could just tell American stories, and not be pigeon-holed into "ethnic" literature.
Several of the male presenters were great too, and I appreciated Tim Cahill's nod to the original female staff of Outside magazine and their talent and vision.
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