We won’t be able to gather in Billings this fall–and Billings always feels like coming home–but I’m honored Fall Back Down When I Die is a finalist for the 2020 High Plains Book Award in Fiction. And really jazzed to share this honor with friends Pam L. Houston (Deep Creek, Creative Nonfiction) and Jory Mickelson (Wilderness//Kingdom, Poetry).
…and you think it’s good. You do. And even after your agent has said it’s good, and after a great publishing house has grabbed it, and your amazing editor at said publishing house works with you on it and says now it’s ready–well, you still think it’s good, but, the thing is, you’re not quite sure. At least until the amazing Pam Houston says so.
Oh, wow. Reveling in these words:
“With passion matched only by his compassion, Joe Wilkins has crafted a novel that perfectly explicates the clash between the cowboys and ranchers of the old west and the environmentalists and seekers of the new. No polemic, Fall Back Down When I Die is populated by vibrant characters drawn with fairness and deep heart, boys and men, girls and women who will get under your skin and stay there, and vivid descriptions of the Montana landscape that are spot on and swoon-worthy. Finally, this is book about America, its violence, its traumas, its entitlements and its stultifying rage.” -Pam Houston, best-selling author of Cowboys Are My Weakness and Deep Creek
As part of Scott Temple’s Wyld-Er-Ness documentary series, Pam Houston and I sat down on a snowy spring day in Boston and talked writing and nature. You can find the newly released video at Orion Magazine’s blog.
joewilkins.org 