Author Explores How Trails Shape Our World

In celebration of the National Parks Centennial, these Texas poets laureate are traveling across the country to visit 50 National Parks to write poems about them. They talk about Yellowstone, and what it’s like to write poetry that transmits powerful emotional experiences.

The Irish writer reads from his new novel, Days Without End, and discusses the pleasures and pitfalls of writing historical fiction. He traces adventure in America from the Civil War era to his time hitchhiking across the country in the 1970s, and looks hopefully toward the future for outsiders in the States.

Nina McConigley talks about her in-progress, untitled novel – breaking down the particulars of how she approached writing about identity, diversity, and 1980s Wyoming. Backtracking through her own memories of growing up in Wyoming, she compares the past and present state of Wyoming’s diversity, and talks about the challenges she has overcome in writing her novel. 

Western authors write about more than just cowboys. In this episode, we hear about writers exploring topics ranging from women’s issues to dying languages.

A new book focused on the people who live and work in Yellowstone is out. Called People of Yellowstone by Steve Horan and Ruth W. Crocker, it features wonderful photography by Horan with prose by Crocker. Horan photographed 120 people who work in and around the park. It features 87 photographs and stories of people who have a number of jobs and roles. Horan says the idea was pitched to him by his brother and it took several years to complete.