Gary Short offering poetry reading and workshop in Silver City

Poet Gary Short, the only Nevada writer in the history of the state to win the Western States Book Award, is the visiting artist at the Resident Artist Program in Silver City during June. He’ll offer a poetry reading, followed by an optional, free poetry writing workshop, on Saturday, June 2 at 2 p.m. at the Silver City School House (community center) at 385 High Street.

These days Short makes his home in Guatemala, but he lived for years on the Comstock at American Flat. The Online Nevada Encyclopedia (ONE) explains, “Gary Short has surveyed the universe of Guatemala, Albania, Mexico and, most recently, Tasmania. Throughout all of these journeys, he has returned to the landscape that claims him: the Comstock. He thinks of this last place and Guatemala as his twin homes, his private domain that both welcome the itinerant one on his terms.”

Gary Short been a Stegner fellow at Stanford, a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and has had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, the Drew University MFA program and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He received a Pushcart Prize for 2008 and has been awarded grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Nevada Arts Council, the Sierra Nevada Arts Council, Writers at Work, and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

He is also a former editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review, Shankpainter, and Great Basin Magazine. He’s been on the faculty at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Old Dominion University, the University of California, Davis and University of Mississippi, and was a guest lecturer at the University of Tirana in Albania.

Copies of his first three volumes of poetry, including Flying Over Sonny Liston, Theory of Twilight and 10 Moons and 13 Horses, will be available for signing and purchase during the book signing event.

About the Resident Artist Program in Silver City: Located in rural Nevada 3 miles from Virginia City and 29 miles from Lake Tahoe, Silver City is a small, unusually creative and productive community on the Comstock within one of the nation’s federally designated historic landmarks.

The Resident Artist Program provides a venue for those from other parts of the U.S. and the world to engage with people of the region through the arts. Those creating in the performing, visual, or literary arts are invited to apply to reside for up to 3 months at McCormick House, a geodesic dome designed in the 1970s by Nevada artist Jim McCormick. In exchange, visiting artists offer public performances, exhibitions, readings, workshops, etc. in Silver City and other northern Nevada communities. The Program is privately funded and directed. For more information, contact director Quest Lakes at (775) 847-0742.