Colorado State University English Professor Wins Colorado Book Award in Poetry; Reading is Dec. 2 in Denver

Colorado State University English Professor Bill Tremblay recently received the Colorado Book Award in Poetry for his book, "Shooting Script: Door of Fire." The prestigious award, sponsored by the Colorado Center for the Book, was presented to Tremblay Nov. 18 at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver.

Twelve other Colorado writers also received awards, which are presented annually to honor the state’s authors and to promote their books. Writer and former Broncos running back Reggie Rivers served as master of ceremonies. The keynote speaker at the event was Harold Evans, author of the recently released book, "They Made America – From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators."

Tremblay’s "Shooting Script," published by Eastern Washington University Press, is an experiment in voice becoming camera to reveal the erotic and politically charged world of Diego Rivera’s Mexico. In addition to Rivera, the danse macabre presented in Tremblay’s work includes Leon Trotsky, the actress Paulette Goddard, Surrealist kingpin Andre Breton, and Rivera’s strange and beautiful mistress, Frida Kahlo.

Tremblay follows these characters as they circle inside their mortal questions, failings and desires, somehow working toward an integration of the personal, political and esthetic obsessions that drive them on.

The book recently was given an exceptional national review in the July/August 2004 issue of "American Book Review," in which critic Frank Allen said: " ‘Shooting Script’ has the impact of a movie, the intricate vividness of a painting. These poems are intense and expressionistic. They explore inner feelings and the world, the ‘devouring teeth’ of politics, the ‘shattered fragments’ of artistic vision. Dissolving barriers between genre, commemorating the Hispanic heritage of the Americas, they are multi-layered ‘color-streams’ about extraordinary characters, privileged and doomed to pass through a ‘door of fire,’ who kept enduring faith in ‘the next life’ to the bitter end."

Tremblay also is author of a book of poetry, "Rainstorm Over the Alphabet" (Lynx House Press), and "The June Rise: The Apocryphal Letters of Joseph Antoine Janis."

Tremblay received an M.F.A. in creative writing in 1972 from the University of Massachusetts and joined Colorado State’s faculty the following year. He lives in Fort Collins with his wife, Cynthia.

The Colorado Center for the Book, a program of the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities, is the state affiliate of the Library of Congress. The center is housed in the Thomas Hornsby Ferril House, a Literary Landmark home in Denver. Ferril, who was a poet, essayist, columnist and co-editor with his wife of The Rocky Mountain Herald from 1939-1972, was appointed Colorado Poet Laureate in 1979. He was born in Denver and died there in 1988.

Tremblay will read at the Ferril House, 2123 Downing Street in Denver, at 7 p.m. Dec. 2. The event is free and open to the public.  

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