News Release

Contact: Denise Montgomery
WESTAF 303/ 629-1166 ph
303/ 629-9717 fx
denise.montgomery@westaf.org
www.westaf.org

For Release on May 8, 2000 or Thereafter

WESTAF Announces Winners of Western States Book Awards, Recognizes Western Writers and Publishers

Denver, CO - WESTAF, the Western States Arts Federation, today announced the winners of its 1999 Western States Book Awards. The awards are given annually by WESTAF for poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction written by authors living in the West and published during the year by presses that have their principal offices in the region.

The winner for poetry is Communion, by Primus St. John, published by Copper Canyon Press. The fiction award has been given to Lawrence Coates for his novel, The Blossom Festival, published by University of Nevada Press. The prize for creative nonfiction was awarded to William deBuys for Salt Dreams, published by University of New Mexico Press. Simon Ortiz is being recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The judges elected not to award a prize for translation in 1999. Jurors for the awards were Ursula Le Guin, Rebecca Solnit, and Arthur Sze.

The jurors cited poet St. John as the "composer [of] live-wire lines that are rhythmically sinuous, sharp, visionary, and always engaging." His latest publication, Communion, includes three out-of-print books and nearly forty new poems. Foremost in this collection is the newly revised and republished epic poem, "Dreamer," an imaginative exploration of slavery, with a focus on slave trader John Newton, a sea captain also known as the author of the hymn "Amazing Grace."

In fiction winner Lawrence Coates’ first novel, The Blossom Festival, readers find an evocative portrait of California’s Santa Clara Valley, as seen through the eyes of a varied cast of characters, set during the decades preceding World War II. The judges were impressed with Coates’ "almost Hardyesque sense of fateful change, embodied in a seemingly permanent way of life that is in fact perishing, and in an intensely perceived, beautiful, doomed landscape."

The winner of the creative nonfiction award, Salt Dreams, by William deBuys, is a striking exploration of the concept of "archeology of place" as evidenced in this sweeping portrait of California’s unique Salton Sea, examining not only the geography and natural history of the region, but also "the successive occupations of the area, as though they were a geographic strata, with each layer revealing a new and different story." Throughout the book we meet the dreamers, the eccentrics, and the isolated human element of the area, all brought to life by Joan Myers’ incisive portraits and deBuys’ vivid–and often hilarious–prose.

Lifetime Achievement Award winner Simon Ortiz, a Native writer who sets much of work in his own Acoma Pueblo country, was praised by the jurors for his "unique and invaluable voice."

Ortiz, a poet, essayist and short story writer who brilliantly captures the flavor and oral tradition of Native American language and spirit, was also cited for his short stories, most recently in a collection titled Men on the Moon. Judges noted that "Some of the stories are angry tirades, some are quietly sly and funny, all are full of pain."

The 1999 Western States Book Awards winners will be recognized and give brief readings at an event on June 13, 2000, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. KQED Forum host Michael Krasny will serve as master of ceremonies at the event, which will include a reception from 5:00pm-6:00pm followed by the awards presentation, readings, and discussion from 6:00pm-7:30pm. The event is free and open to the public, however capacity at the event is limited. The event is ticketed and a free ticket is necessary to attend the presentation. Tickets can be obtained at City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway in North Beach. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is located at 701 Mission Street in San Francisco.

WESTAF is dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts. The organization is currently engaged in projects centered on arts-policy research, information-systems development, and the convening of arts experts and leaders to address critical issues in the arts. For additional information, please visit the WESTAF Web site at www.westaf.org.

The Western States Book Awards are sponsored by netLibrary, provider of professional, reference, and scholarly works in electronic format (eBooks). Online books are available from netLibrary at www.netlibrary.com. Additional support for the Book Awards comes from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry and the National Endowment for the Arts.