Insidethisissue - aha Creative Ink

faculty authors
lication review, from the highly
influential Kirkus, called the
book, in a starred review, “a
remarkably accomplished first
collection” about “a family’s
tragic trajectory viewed
through the kaleidoscope of
time in stories that make an
immensely satisfying whole.”
The book begins in 1958 in
West Texas when a series of
unusual incidents—a daughter’s
elopement, a sobering holiday
trip, a vicious attack by the
family dog, a lightning strike—
provokes a mother of five to
abandon her children. The rest
of the stories follow the fortunes
of the children and grandchildren
of this woman, stories
that take them to Houston,
Dallas, Nashville, Amarillo, Las
Vegas, and Costa Rica.
More information about K.L.
Cook and Last Call is available
at www.klcook.net.
Stories and Stone: Writing the Ancestral
Puebloan Homeland • Edited by Reuben Ellis,
Arts and Letters
Chaco Canyon, Canyon de
Chelly, Mesa Verde, Hovenweep
. . . For many, such historic
places evoke images of stone
ruins, cliff dwellings, pot
shards, and petroglyphs. For
others, they recall ancestry.
Remnants of the American
Southwest’s ancestral Puebloan
peoples (sometimes known as
Anasazi) have mystified and
tantalized explorers, settlers,
archaeologists, artists, and
other visitors for centuries. And
for a select group of writers,
these ancient inhabitants have
been a profound source of
inspiration.
Collected here are more than
50 selections from a striking
body of literature about the prehistoric
Southwest: essays, stories,
travelers’ reports, and
poems spanning more than four
centuries of visitation. They
include timeless writings such as
John Wesley Powell’s The
Exploration of the Colorado
River and Its Tributaries and
Frank Hamilton Cushing’s “Life
at Zuni,” plus contemporary
classics ranging from Colin
Fletcher’s The Man Who Walked
Through Time to Wallace
Stegner’s Beyond the Hundredth
Meridian to Edward Abbey’s
“The Great American Desert.”
Reuben Ellis’s introduction
brings contemporary insight
and continuity to the collection,
and a section on “reading in
place” invites readers to experience
these great works amidst
the landscapes that inspired
them. For anyone who loves to
roam ancient lands steeped in
mystery, Stories and Stone,
published by the University of
Arizona Press, is an incomparable
companion that will
enhance their enjoyment.
Published in 2004, the book is
available in the Prescott
College bookstore, barnesandnoble.com,
or from the publisher
at http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/books/bid1535.htm.
Julie Comnick
joins faculty in
Arts and Letters
Julie Comnick is the
newest Arts and Letters faculty
member. She comes to
Prescott College from Hyde
Park Art Center in Chicago
Ill., where she taught Oil
Painting: From Representation
to Abstraction and
Multi-level Figure Drawing.
Comnick also taught art
appreciation at Moraine
Valley Community College
in Palos Hills, Ill., and representational
drawing at
Montana State University.
Comnick has many awards
to her credit, including first
place in the Narration:
Emblem and Sequence in
Contemporary Art Creative
Arts Workshop in New
Haven, Conn.; honorable
mention in the Tacoma Art
Museum’s The End: Northwest
Biennial Competition;
and second place in the Beall
Park Art Center’s Sweet Pea
1999 show. She is the recipient
of the Montana State
University Foundation
Graduate Achievement
Award of Excellence in the
Master’s Program and the
Montana State University
Presidential Scholarship.
Her work is in the public
collection of the Polk
Museum of Art in Lakeland,
Fla., and the Dean’s Gallery
of the School of Art and
Architecture, Montana State
University. She holds a bachelor’s
degree in studio art and
humanities from The
Evergreen State College in
Olympia, Wash., and a master’s
of fine arts in painting
from Montana State
University, Bozeman, Mont.
Fall 2004Transitions
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Julie Comnick