Podcasts about cowboys are my weakness

We welcome romance author Jennie Marts to the show, where we cover Claude Dallas, the Killer Cowboy; the sad death of Kelsey Berreth; and Kentucky hauntings.Support the show

Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness, Deep Creek, and Contents May Have Shifted, joins us to talk about her one true Hemingway sentence. 

Along with her dedication as a writer and coach to other writers, Pam Houston has had a long love affair with nature and has been a fierce advocate for environmental protections. Her memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, is a love story to the ranch she calls home and bounty of beauty that she's found all over he world. The memoir won the 2019 Colorado Book Award, the High Plains Book Award and the Reading The West Advocacy Award. Her most recent work is, Air Mail: Letters of Politics Pandemics and Place coauthored with Amy Irvine. She is also the author of Cowboys Are My Weakness and Sight Hound, as well as four other books of fiction and nonfiction, all published by W.W. Norton. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level on a 120-acre homestead near the headwaters of the Rio Grande and teaches at UC Davis and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is cofounder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing by Writers and the fiction editor at the Environmental Arts Journal Terrain.org.

I am excited to introduce today’s Extraordinary Women Radio guest, Pam Houston: Author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country and Cowboys Are My Weakness. Pam is one of my favorite authors of all time! I read Pam’s book, Cowboys Are My Weakness, many, many years ago. Her books a series of short stories about her life – so many which mirrored my own life at that time – and her fun writing style made me feel like I was in the room with her. Fast forward all these years later, and one of my clients casually asks, "Have you ever read any Pam Houston books? She has a new book out that made me think of you." "OMG – yes I know who she is! I love her writing!" And I instantly proceeded to order her most recent  book, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country. Deep Creek tells Pam’s story of finding her ranch in Creede, CO. At 31 years old, she was fresh off a tour promoting her book, Cowboys Are My Weakness. ,She had “no job, no place to lie except her North Face tent.” On an impulse and a good instinct, she spent her royalties on a 120-acre ranch near Creede, Colorado. It was more than she could afford, and required more maintenance than she could manage. And yet, 25 years later, it’s the piece of land that’s defined the largest part of her life. Deep Creek tells the remarkable story of “that girl who dared herself to buy a ranch, dared herself to dig in and care for it, to work hard enough to pay for it, to figure out what other people mean when they use the world ‘home.”’ So you can imagine how excited I was when I reached out to Pam as I was reading Deep Creek, and said – hey can I feature you on Extraordinary Women Radio – and within minutes she emailed back and said “Sure!” What’s really fun for me, is I’ve trail ridden in the mountains above Pam’s ranch. This is deep high country, and it is where my father’s ashes are spread, high atop a mountain range, 16 miles from any roads. This country is wild, rugged and magically spirit-filled. I feel Pam’s love for this land. It truly was a delight to feature Pam in this interview. She is also the author of Contents May Have Shifted, Waltzing the Cat, the novel, Sight Hound, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The 2013 Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, The Evil Companions Literary Award and multiple teaching awards. She co-founded the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers, is a professor of English at UC Davis, teaches in The Institute of American Indian Art, and at writer’s conferences around the country and the world. To learn more about Pam, follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It is my pleasure to introduce you to one of my sheroes, Pam Houston. Pam Houston Show Notes  

Here, prize-winning author and teacher of writing Houston takes us through the life journey that led her to buy a piece of ranch land in the southwest corner of Colorado. She knew nothing about ranching but with the help of many people and animals her wandering life became tethered to the land. She also gives insight into the process of writing. Her books include Cowboys Are My Weakness (W.W. Norton 2011), Deep Creek: Finding Hope in High Country (W.W. Norton 2019), Contents May Have Shifted (W.W. Norton 2012)Tags: Pam Houston, Terry Tempest Williams, Irish Wolfhounds, Creed Colorado, donkeys, Fenton Johnson, wildfires, Milky Way, metaphor, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Animals, Writing 

Pam Houston is a prize-winning author and professor of English at the University of California Davis. She cofounded the literary non-profit Writing by Writers and also teaches in the Institute of American Indian Arts, Low Residency MFA Program and at writers conferences around the country and the world. Her books include Cowboys Are My Weakness (W.W. Norton 2011), Deep Creek: Finding Hope in High Country (W.W. Norton 2019), Contents May Have Shifted (W.W. Norton 2012)Tags: Pam Houston, Ranching, wildfire, Bob Pinckley, Belted Kingfisher, donkeys, Irish Wolfhounds, power of routines, Living in extreme temperatures, Animals, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Community

Pam Houstonis the guest. Her new essay collection, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, is available now from W.W. Norton & Co. Houston's other books include two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound, two collections of short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century, among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award and several teaching awards.  She teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Award Winning Author Pam Houston discusses her memoir, Deep Creek Finding Hope In The High Country. Listen in as she shares her writing and editing process, the moment when her editor read the first draft and said it wasn't the book she was expecting and how Pam manages life as a writer, teacher and mentor while raising a family of animals on her beautiful 120 acre Ranch in the Colorado Rockies. Pam Houston is the author of the memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, as well as two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound, two collections of short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton.  Her stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award and several teaching awards.  She teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

With the money she made from her first book, Cowboys Are My Weakness, 31-year-old Pam Houston bought a 120-acre ranch near the headwaters of the Rio Grande. She joins us on this week’s episode—25 years later—to discuss Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, a profound new essay collection expressing a deep appreciation for the lessons she learned from the land.

Pam Houston's most recent book is Contents May Have Shifted, published in 2012. She is also the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, the novel, Sight Hound, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The 2013 Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, The Evil Companions Literary Award and multiple teaching awards. She directs the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers, is professor of English at UC Davis, teaches in The Institute of American Indian Art's Low-Rez MFA program, and at writer's conferences around the country and the world. She lives on a ranch at 9,000 feet in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.