KentHaruf

  • Bestselling Author
  • April 25, 2012

While you will fight鈥攊n the most gracious and persuasive way鈥攁nyone who calls you a 鈥淲estern鈥 or 鈥渞egional鈥 writer, the Center of the American West will not surrender the right to celebrate your deep and lasting contribution to the cause of our region鈥檚 self-knowledge. Having pulled the rug out from under sentimentality and stereotypes, you have given life to the people who have the courage to count each other as kinfolk and who take the risk of believing that trouble is a prerequisite for redemption. Having made the most of the opportunities for observation offered to a preacher鈥檚 kid, you have rejected 鈥渢he easy way out鈥 offered by cynicism. In your novels, the light from the sun and from the stars illuminates the beauty and brutality, the kindness and cruelty of human conduct in Holt, baby直播app, located squarely at the intersection of the local and the universal. In the words of Maggie Jones, the force of connection in Holt and the fictive co-founder of the Center of the American West, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e here now. This is where you are.鈥 This is where we are, in the company of your words and your spirit.