Posts tagged Wallace Stegner Award
CU names McPhee for Stegner award
Oct 12th
AUTHOR JOHN MCPHEE TO RECEIVE STEGNER AWARD
FROM CU’S CENTER OF THE AMERICAN WEST ON OCT. 27
FROM CU’S CENTER OF THE AMERICAN WEST ON OCT. 27
John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Encounters With the Archdruid” and “Coming Into the Country,” will receive the Wallace Stegner Award from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center of the American West on Oct. 27.
The center’s highest award will be presented at a 7 p.m. event in the Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus. The evening will feature a discussion with Mc
arch typical Druid
Phee conducted by Patty Limerick, professor of history and chair and faculty director of the Center of the American West, and Charles Wilkinson, d
The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and people are encouraged to arrive early.istinguished professor and Moses Lasky Professor of Law at CU-Boulder.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of McPhee’s “Encounters With the Archdruid,” a book Limerick has long heralded as the Center of the American West’s “founding text” because of its inspiring demonstration of civil dialogue on contentious issues. McPhee also is the author of “Basin and Range” (1981), “In Suspect Terrain” (1983), “Rising from the Plains” (1986), “The Control of Nature” (1989) and “Assembling California” (1993).
“Each time I have assigned to a class, I take great pleasure in reading it again,” said Limerick. “Since I assign it in nearly every course I teach, that means I may be coming up on my 50th reading of it. If there is anyone who cares about the West but who has not read this book, it’s time to take action.”
Each year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, or lore of the West. Past recipients include Tom McGuane, Sandra Day O’Connor, Ivan Doig, John Echohawk, Billy Frank, Terry Tempest Williams, John Nichols, Vine Deloria Jr., Ted Turner and many more. This year’s award was made possible by Alan and Carol Ann Olson.
CU-Boulder’s Center of the American West addresses a variety of regional issues, including water management, relationships between federal agencies and communities and economies, land planning, Native American identity, recent art and literature, and the balance of power between tradition and innovation in Western life. The center takes as its mission the creation of forums for the respectful exchange of ideas in pursuit of solutions to the region’s difficulties.
For more information visit the Center of the American West’s website at http://www.centerwest.org or call 303-492-4879.
-CU-
Ted Turner hits Boulder at C.U
Sep 28th
It’s Ted Out of Control ! Buffalo In Big Sky or on a Bun
Boulder, Colorado, Tuesday, September 28: Ted Turner, “Call Me Ted, ” received the Wallace Stegner Award today at the Wolf Law Building on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus where about 250 guests listened to his comments. The event was sponsored by Al and Carol Ann Olson. The Stegner Award is presented to individuals who have sustained contributions to the American West culture via literature, environment, etc. In Turner’s case, it’s a lot of bison. That’s right!
Boulder, Colorado, Tuesday, September 28: Ted Turner, “Call Me Ted, ” received the Wallace Stegner Award today at the Wolf Law Building on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus where about 250 guests listened to his comments. The event was sponsored by Al and Carol Ann Olson. The Stegner Award is presented to individuals who have sustained contributions to the American West culture via literature, environment, etc. In Turner’s case, it’s a lot of bison. That’s right!
“Keep an open mind,” he said referring to his inviting Rupert Murdoch to lunch because Turner was “tired of him.” But, Turner said he believes the right wing should have a voice. How nice!
Coloradoan John Malone said “Ted just does it.”
Turner said the difference between being a winner or loser is that winners keep on going like his Atlanta Braves. He turned them around from being the biggest losing team to the biggest winning one for 14 years. “I just couldn’t quit,” he said.
Turner’s words were inspiring in part. He went to military school and even made military type movies like “Gettsyburg” and “Andersonville.” He said he respects the military but doesn’t think we should be in any wars.
Turner likes to sail and has several types of flags on his boat. “I will not surrender,” he said adding that the one flag he doesn’t have is a white one! He used four letter words often in his presentation but the words seemed natural as they rolled off his still southern tongue!
Turner doesn’t like cattle and said he really doesn’t like American westerns because of it. “Old western movies have too many damn cows in them,” he said. “Hard to like them both.”
“The media mogul Ted Turner cannot be controlled or led!” the host said. And as to Ted’s Montana Grill she quipped, “Bison were starting to fade but now they are saute’d.”
Turner referred to himself as “old” at 71 years of age but actually looked a bit older when he entered the room hunched forward. He said he fell in love with the west and studied bison because they were nearly extinct. Thirty-one years ago he had three and now has 55,o00 bison. “Call it exponential growth,” he said. He bought 15 million acres to raise the largest mammals in the USA. “The ranches are for sale,” he said.
“When discouraged, fight to the bitter end,” he told the audience. Turner is Chairman of the United Nations Foundation, Turner Enterprises and others.
“These days,” Ted Turner said, “I’m leaning toward… I have nothing more to say” which brought laughter from the quite elderly audience.
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