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About Laura In February of 1971, in Fort Collins, Colorado, I got lucky and came into being. After delivery, my father said to my mother, "That was easy. Just like a cow having a calf!" Supposedly she has since forgiven him. I was the seventh of nine children or the first of three, depending on how you look at it (one of those Brady Bunch scenarios). As you can imagine, there was considerable chaos and a lot of connection. When I was seven, my family moved to a small ranch in LaPorte, Colorado. That same year, I wrote in my diary, "I would like to be a riter someday." Since then, I've learned how to spell. Sort of. So, I had a lot of brothers and a couple of sisters and many many pets, including raccoons and rabbits and goats and pigs. I cleared rocks from fields and hauled in firewood, which I liked; and I gathered eggs from the chickens, which I did not. There were newborn calves in our kitchen in the middle of the night, their new soft hooves sliding across linoleum as they tried to nurse from Coke bottles filled with milk. There were peacocks wandering around, some of whom also came into the kitchen. There were cats giving birth into our shoes in our closet, and there were many frozen dead animals in the freezer. I'm still in love with this small ranch in the foothills in the Rocky Mountains, and as I've witnessed the development of the west (one acre of Colorado's land is developed every four minutes; gone forever), I've been compelled to write about it, in fiction (mainly published in The Sun) and in nonfiction (mainly published in High Country News and Orion). A growing sense of loss and alarm has been the impetus for my two latest projects: The Pulse of the River, Colorado Writers Speak for the Endangered Cache la Poudre, and Home Land: Writings for a West that Works (both by Johnson Press). I attended the University of Wyoming for two years, then transferred to Colorado State University, where I got my B.A. and stayed for my M.A. because I didn't know what else to do. Then my new husband and I moved to Minnesota, where I learned what cold was all about. (Residents of those northern states don't rely on sunshine like I do, and I admire them for their inner source of warmth.) Later we moved to Indiana, where James was teaching at Purdue University. I had just had my first child, and was lonely, and so I launched into a PhD program, which I finished a few years later, and which is in Contemporary American Lit. We later moved back to Colorado, where I gave birth to two things: a second child and Sky Bridge. These days, I write from a little house near the mountains. From my window I see red foothills and the blue mountains beyond. I've got some bees and a lot of flowers and a vegetable garden. I've just finished my third book, Blue Moon Mountain: A novel of nature and desire, and am starting several other projects.
So, that's enough about me (unless you're a newspaper person, or some
insane person, and want to see my CV, just click on the link below).
Now, I'd like to hear from you. My email address is l_Pritchett@msn.com.
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