OCOB Finale Celebration - Oct 21

Fremont County’s One County One Book literacy event concludes with a final celebration with the author scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 21 at the Lander Valley High School Auditorium. Community members are invited to attend this free event to discuss “Lifting the Sky".

Readers of all ages have been reading the novel and participating in book discussions since early September when Fremont County libraries kicked off the event. The book won the Fiction Award from the Wyoming State Historical Society and is the first novel by D’Arge. “Lifting the Sky” is about Blue, a young girl who finds a home when she and her ranch-hand mother move to a tumbledown ranch near Crowheart.

A Q&A forum will be offered to learn more about the author and the novel and d’Arge’s tapestries will also be available for viewing.



More about author Mackie d'Arge:

"Bloom where you're planted" could be the motto of both the author of "Lifting the Sky" and Blue, her main character. Mackie d'Arge was born in Panama in 1941. On her 9th birthday her dad, an engineer, got a job in Turkey. From there they moved on to Greece, Morocco, and Italy. Mackie studied art in Lausanne, Florence, and Paris.

In France she started out on a metaphysical quest that led to a study of folklore and traditions of indigenous cultures. She headed off to lead a simple life in villages in southern France, Crete, and Sri Lanka. After marriage and the birth of a son in Hawaii, she moved with her new family to India.

Two years later she was divorced and back in France, where she met and soon married a professor who brought her to Wyoming in 1975. Within two years she was on her own again, with a whole new way of life raising two young sons on a windswept, rundown ranch on the side of Elk Mountain.

In 1981, after the death of her father, she began making applique tapestries with her mother, June McBride, as a form of therapy. She moved to the Wind River Reservation in 1989, and now lives in the mountains above Crowheart with her ranching partner and husband, Rod Johnson.

She is now working on something that involves both writing and painting. In visiting with children at schools around Wyoming, Mackie has become aware of how little many of them know about the reservation and the people who live there. She hopes her book gives a sense of that place, and of its real landscape and its inhabitants.

http://www.mackiedarge.com

St. Stephens has a date!

Ron Chesmore from the St. Stephens school library has scheduled a book discussion at the St. Stephens Elementary School at 5pm on Tuesday, Oct. 12. We'll see you there!

CWC Library kickoff

Brenda Barlow, Kathy Vincent and Barbette Hernandez pick up their copies of Lifting the Sky Tuesday evening at the Central Wyoming College Library.

Look for the poster!

One County One Book kicks off Sept. 7, 2010

Join us this fall as young and old alike read and discuss the book Lifting the Sky, by Crowheart author Mackie d'Arge. You can check the book out at any Fremont County library (including Central Wyoming College) beginning at 4 pm on Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Full press release below:

Libraries, reservation and CWC present ‘One County One Book’

Central Wyoming College, the Wind River Reservation and Fremont County libraries kick off “One County One Book” Sept. 7 to get everyone in the county reading the same book.
Every library in Fremont County has copies of “Lifting the Sky,” a young adult novel by Crowheart artist and author Mackie d’Arge. Librarians at CWC, Dubois, Riverton and Lander branch libraries officially start the event by checking out the books from 4-6 p.m. on Sept. 7.
The literacy event not only celebrates reading and community, but also fosters dialogue, said CWC Librarian Coralina Daly.
Readers are asked to attend one of 10 book discussions scheduled throughout the county during September and October. Middle and high school students will also be reading and discussing the book at their respective schools.
One County One Book concludes with a final celebration with the author scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 21 at the Lander Valley High School Auditorium.
“Lifting the Sky” is the first novel by D’Arge, who lives on the Wind River Reservation near Crowheart. The book is about Blue, a young girl who finds a home when she and her mother move to a tumbledown ranch near Crowheart.
CWC is also planning a hike to see Dinwoody Petroglyphs, which figure prominently in the book.
For details on the hike, discussion dates, places and times, contact the CWC Library at 855-2141 or go to www.fremontcountyreads.blogspot.com.