5:45 a.m. "Why not nominate Annie Proulx?" the interior conversation in my mind asked in committee in regards to West Hollywood's participation in the "One City, One Book" program?
If the camera man for the @#?! Awards Ceremony couldn't even find her face in the Kodak Theatre when she was being thanked by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurty, why not make her the star of an event centered around her and her contributions to literature --she's probably been invited to half of the gay pride celebrations in the country already, but it's a good guess that those doing the inviting haven't read but the one short story that has propelled her again into the public eye.
While her many stories of rural America contrast with WeHo's urbanity, she is an award-winning author of the highest caliber (the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, twice an O. Henry award winner; an NEA grant recipient, to name but a few honors) --and a senior to boot (she thus covers two of WeHo's three main constituencies).
I could imagine an award designed especially for her (mind you, this was as I was half asleep and bolting up out of bed) in the shape of the door with the shrine to Brokeback Mountain and Jack Twist that Ennis del Mar makes at the end of the movie.
I'd like to see a campaign to nominate/draft her now, enlisting any litterati or even the West Hollywood city council on the bandwagon (they've never been known to shy away from a win-win media opportunity). Heck, I could envision her entering an auditorium to thunderous applause and a standing ovation in this town.
Especially in light of the LA Times using that commercial/trailer in movie theatres and print ad that says, "Because you prefer the movie to the book."
...and given that most of WeHo has probably already read the original New Yorker story of Brokeback Mountain, this community is already well acquainted with her work. Most of her stories are all-ages appropriate, too.
If you have any suggestions, admonitions, comments, please tell me.
Or maybe I should just be more careful what I eat before I go to bed.
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