Whether you are a fan of fiction or nonfiction, we've got an assortment of staff suggestions penned by fellow Coloradans.
If you'd like to explore even more Colorado authors, this ongoing spreadsheet has a list of over 150 that we have in our collection with links to our catalog.
Your new favorite assortment of New Weird Lit stories about car-vampires, fascist deer, memory-devouring tree gods, and the torment matrix.
Set in 1979 and 2004, Anyone But Her tells the story of Suzanne—named for the Leonard Cohen song and adored by her mother, Alex, who is killed during a robbery at Alex’s record store when Suzanne is 14. Both as a teen and later in adulthood, Suzanne searches for clues about unresolved circumstances around Alex’s death. But what happens when she discovers what she thought she wanted to know?
Every year Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to northern Maine where they camp, hunt, and hike, leaving much from their long friendship unspoken. Although the state has convulsed all summer with secession mania--a mania that had simultaneously spread across other states--Jess and Storey figure it's a fight reserved for legislators or, worse-case scenario, folks in the capitol. But after two weeks hunting moose off the grid, the men reach a small town and are shocked to find a bridge blown apart, buildings burned to the ground, and bombed-out cars abandoned on the road.
Ellie Christie is thrilled to begin a new chapter. She's recently returned to her tiny Colorado hometown to run her family's historic bookshop with her elder sister Meg and their beloved cat Agatha. Perched in a Swiss-style hamlet accessible by ski gondola and a twisty mountain road, the Book Chalet is a famed bibliophile destination known for its maze of shelves and relaxing reading lounge. At least, until trouble blows in with a wintry whiteout: a man is found dead on the gondola and a rockslide throws the town into lockdown--no one in, no one out.
Brewed in 1859 near what is now the heart of downtown, Denver's first beer quenched the thirst of fortune hunters following the gold rush. It lubricated the city's transformation from Wild West town to the Queen City of the Plains until Prohibition brought a sudden end to the brewing culture. By 1979, only the famed Coors brewery remained. But then something frothy happened.
Drawn from true stories of Colorado history, Gilded Mountain is a tale of a bygone American West seized by robber barons and settled by immigrants, and is a story infused with longing--for self-expression and equality, freedom and adventure.
A history of the Denver neighborhood known as the Holly and the controversial anti-gang activist Terrance Roberts.
This stunning collection of images celebrates the remarkable career of Burnis "Mac" McCloud, Denver's premiere Black photographer between 1950 and 1980. His remarkable photographs, focused on Denver's Five Points community, captured the ordinary lives of African Americans during a period that witnessed the end of Jim Crow segregation and the beginning of the Civil Rights era... At a time when much of what McCloud photographed is being swept away by gentrification and urban change, this collection of images preserves a time and place important not only for Denver but for all of Black America.
In this magical tale of self-discovery from New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a young widow taps into the power that will change the world--if the man's world she lives in doesn't destroy her and her newfound friends first.
An investigation into the restorative benefits of nature draws on cutting-edge research and the author's explorations with international nature therapy programs to examine the relationship between nature and human cognition, mood, and creativity.
Chronicles the campaigns for and against holding the 1976 Olympic Games at Denver, which became the first city to reject having the event, opposition having arisen among wealthier residents looking to protect their communities' natural beauty, young activists hoping to expand civic participation in the name of liberal causes, and Denver's excluded minority communities.
A richly engaging collection, Poems for the End of the World explores climate change, heartbreak, a pandemic, grief, race, and growth all woven together. In these poems, Suzi Q. Smith meditates on trees, fires, her best friends, her grandmother, and the love of it all. Smith offers us humor and warmth in the midst of grief, courage in the face of fear, and celebrations of small beauties. Poems like "How to Make Love" remind us how to care for ourselves and our loved ones, while "Ocotillo" and "the found women" feel like an encouraging conversation with a best friend.
Welcome to Denver, Colorado. Everyone knows that an historic downtown has enormous character but no one captures it with as much artistry and detail as Karl Christian Krumpholz. In Queen City, the skyline springs to life to tell this town's rich history. Booms and busts, historic moments, and colorful characters are all presented in this collection with personality and finesse. Over time, businesses close, structures crumble, and, the memory of how things were in a happier past fades.
Reading Colorado, a high-octane road trip through the diverse literary landscapes of the Centennial State, gathers narratives of exploration, stories from the mining and agricultural frontiers, urban tales reflecting the emergence and growth of Denver and the Front Range, and a diverse range of contemporary voices, from the Plains to the Peaks, who invite readers into their home territory. The travel guide format is perfect for exploring Colorado in a hammock strung between some aspens, on the couch with your feet kicked up by the fire, or by hitting the road with your favorite traveling companion.
A harrowing, never-before-told story of life and death in the Colorado mountains—thirty hours that changed lives forever and forced a reckoning about the cost of adventure.
1916. The two-street town of Wallace is not exactly what Ellen Webster had in mind when she accepted a teaching position in Wyoming, but within a year's time she's fallen in love--both with the High Plains and with a handsome cowboy named Charlie Bacon. Life is not easy in the flat, brown corner of the state where winter blizzards are unforgiving and the summer heat relentless. ... Ellen finds purpose in her work as a rancher's wife and in her bonds with other women settled on the prairie. ... They look out for each other, share their secrets, and help one another in times of need.
Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil's nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal.
A queer, political, and feminist collection guided by self-reflection. The poems range from close examination of the deeply personal to the vastness of the world, exploring the expansiveness of the human experience from love to illness, from space to climate change, and so much more in between. One of the most celebrated poets and performers of the last two decades, Andrea Gibson's trademark honesty and vulnerability are on full display in You Better Be Lightning, welcoming and inviting readers to be just as they are.