2023

Jan. 21:

 Downsizing, Rightsizing & Living with Loss 

CPW will hold a Zoom meeting Saturday, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. with presenter Rachel Kodanaz who is a speaker, consultant and author of “Living with Loss, One Day at a Time,” “Grief in the Workplace” and “Finding Peace, One Piece at a Time.”

She has been speaking to national audiences of all sizes for 20 years about change, growth and acceptance. Widowed at 31 with a two-year-old, she worked in management for Fortune’s 100 companies.

She brings compassionate, experienced and honest insight to the difficult problem of what to do with possessions, many of which are attached to memories.

According to her website, “Rachel’s book [“Finding Your Peace”] “provides encouragement and tools for those seeking to downsize, rightsize or sort through a loved one’s possessions … [and] shares practical ways to thin, repurpose, and redistribute these possessions so they continue to share the story with future generations.”

See rachelkodanaz.com for more information about her books.

There is no charge for the talk. The Zoom link will be sent from info@coloradopresswomen.org to all CPW members in good standing a week before the talk.

2022

Saturday, November 5

Authors’ lunch features award-winning storytellers

Three noted Colorado authors will share insights on their latest books with Colorado Press Women and guests on Saturday morning, Nov. 5, at the new home of CPW member Gay Porter DeNileon, 13812 W. 59th Ave., Arvada.

Erika Krouse, whose latest book, “Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation,” was recently featured on Colorado Public Radio’s Turn the Page series, will be joined by E.J. Levy, highlighting her historical novel “The Cape Doctor,” and Steven Schwartz, author of “The Tenderest of Strings.”

The annual CPW authors’ event begins at 9:30 a.m., with registration, and will end after lunch with a short business meeting. Lunch will be a variety of salads and sandwiches catered by Bread Winners Cafe & Catering. Cost is $25 for CPW members and $27 for nonmembers.

A writer of fiction and nonfiction, Erika Krouse teaches and mentors for the Book Project at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver. She attended middle school and high school in Japan and earned her B.A. from Grinnell College and M.A. in English Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she also taught creative writing classes. She is the offsite/traveling retreat coordinator for Lighthouse, instructing at The Himalayan Writing Retreat in Uttarakhand, India, and teaches yearly at the Grand Lake Retreat in Colorado. She has won fellowships and scholarships to the Longleaf Writers Conference, Bread Loaf Writers Workshop, Sewanee Writers Workshop and the inaugural Amtrak Residency.

“Tell Me Everything” is Krouse’s memoir of her time as an investigator for a lawyer who won a landmark civil case that changed the way Title IX is implemented and viewed at colleges and universities across the country. Although she never directly names the college or the people involved, the story is clearly about the football recruiting scandal at CU-Boulder during the early 2000s, when young women were sexually assaulted by football players and recruits, then ostracized by the university when they sought justice. Krouse weaves her own experience of sexual abuse throughout her narrative, and the result is a compelling page turner told with lyric beauty and subtle humor.

E.J. Levy taught in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Colorado State University for ten years, before resigning this June to write full time. She has been a film magazine editor in Manhattan, a faculty member at American University in D.C. and University of Missouri-Columbia, and frequently teaches at Kenyon Review’s Summer Writers Workshop. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and in Best American Essays. She has received a Lambda Literary Award, Flannery O’Connor Award, Chicago Literary Award, Michener Fellowship, Pushcart Prize and Loft-McKnight Fellowship, among other honors, and held fellowships to Bread Loaf Writers Workshop, Sewanee Writers Workshop and as an Aspen Institute Writer in Residence. Her award-winning story collection was translated into French; foreign editions of her debut novel are forthcoming in French, Spanish, and Italian.

Her debut novel, “The Cape Doctor,” is inspired by the life of Dr. James Miranda Barry, an eminent nineteenth-century army surgeon who was born Margaret Anne Bulkley but took on a male persona in 1809 to obtain an education and practice medicine, 40 years before Elizabeth Blackwell would receive her medical degree in 1849. A dandy, duelist and advocate for the marginalized, Barry was first to successfully perform a caesarian in Africa and rose to the pinnacle of colonial society in Cape Town in the 1820s, before he was accused in a sodomy scandal with the aristocratic governor, which nearly cost them their lives. The book was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and one of Barnes and Noble’s’ “Best Books of Summer,” and won a Colorado Book Award.

Steven Schwartz is a Professor Emeritus of English at Colorado State University, where he taught in the MFA Creative Writing Program. He also taught at the Warren Wilson College Low-Residency MFA Program and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. His fiction has received the Nelson Algren Award, Sherwood Anderson Prize, Cohen Award, Colorado Book Award, two O. Henry Prize Story Awards, Foreword Review Gold Medal for Short Stories and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell and Bread Loaf. He is currently fiction editor for the Colorado Review.

His third novel, “The Tenderest of Strings” tells the story of Reuben and Ardith Rosenfeld and their two children as they move from Chicago to the fictional small town of Welton, Colorado, where Reuben purchases the local paper. Ardith stays home and copes with the task of fixing up an older house in great disrepair and carries on a secret affair. One night, after a cookout at friends’ farm, a fatal hit-and-run shocks the community, exposes a secret and rips apart the Rosenfeld family. Like most of Schwartz’s work, “The Tenderest of Strings” focuses on families and their psychological motivations.

Registration for the authors’ lunch can be made via PayPal/credit card using the registration below (a processing fee has been added) or by mailing a check to Teresa Ford (email her for address), by Friday, Oct. 28.

Parking is limited, so please carpool to the event if possible. Also, out-of-town members are encouraged to contact their CPW friends in the metro area as many have guest bedrooms and welcome visitors who want to attend the event.

May 14: A conversation about podcasting, honors

The ins and outs, ups and downs of creating and hosting a podcast will be discussed by a panel of experts on Saturday, May 14, during CPW’s annual membership meeting.

Presenting their experiences of creating podcasts will be Jo Ann Allen, host of Been There Done That, Denise Gorant Gliwa, host of the podcast Bite Your Tongue, and Pam Moore, host of Real Fit podcast. On Been There Done That, Allen interviews people of the Baby Boom Generation about the unique experiences that shape their lives. She recently retired from Colorado Public Radio, where she was the steady voice of CPR’s broadcast of All Things Considered. Gliwa has worked in the public relations and marketing profession in Denver, New York City and China for more than 35 years. Bite Your Tongue is a look at exploring that next chapter in parenting: building healthy relationships with adult children. From money and finance to relationships and sibling rivalry, Gliwa and co-host Dr. Ellen Braaten bring together experts, parents and young adults to discuss this next phase of parenting. Pam Moore is an occupational therapist-turned-award-winning health and fitness freelance writer and speaker who’s a regular contributor to the Washington Post. Her podcast features conversations with women athletes about body image, confidence and more, a natural segue for a six-time marathoner who finished the Ironman twice.

The meeting is in the Thersa Dando Meeting Room at Sheridan Public Library, 3425 W. Oxford Ave., Sheridan, in the southwest metro area with registration starting at 9:30 a.m. while attendees enjoy coffee or tea, and the program starting at 10 a.m. followed by lunch and recognition of CPW’s winners in the NFPW Communications Contest. This annual CPW meeting also includes a discussion of CPW finances and succession planning, and a look at future events.

Registration for in-person attendance costs $24 and includes a box lunch with a deli sandwich from Biscuits and Berries. A variety of sandwiches will be provided, including vegetarian. Register online by clicking the button below (processing fee added). If you wish to pay by check, contact Treasurer Teresa Ford at tfordco@gmail.com for her mailing address.  Registration deadline May 10.

An effort will be made to make this meeting available by Zoom for the convenience of members living outside metro Denver. If you’d like to receive the Zoom link, send an email to info@coloradopresswomen.org. If we’re able to secure a meeting location for free that we can broadcast from, there’ll be no charge for a Zoom link.

Questions? Contact CPW Program VP Ann Lockhart, ajldenver@aol.com, 303-388-6978.

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On the Front Line

Panel features public information pros

Managing public information in times of community crises—shootings, fires, medical emergencies—is the job of public information specialists, several of whom will speak to Colorado Press on Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 4:00 p.m. The Zoom event will feature Jacki Kelley, Kyle Patterson and Sara Spaulding discussing their experiences as media leads for governmental entities. The panel on breaking news will be moderated by CPW member and former PIO Marilyn Saltzman.

The timely panel discussion is free for members and nonmembers alike; but registration is required so the Zoom link can be provided prior to the event. Send a note of interest to Sharon Almirall at salmirall@yahoo.com by Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Jacki Kelley is Public Information Director for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. A retired police officer with more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, Kelley has also served as a public information officer for the Westminster Police Department. She has broad experience in handling communications during crisis events, including the deadly shootings at Columbine and Platte Canyon high schools, New Life Church and Arvada theater, the Lower North Fork Fire in 2012 and, most recently, assisting during the immediate aftermath of the devastating Marshall Fire.

Kyle Patterson is the Management Specialist/Public Affairs Officer at Rocky Mountain National Park, which was hit by two huge fires in 2020. Her main duties include media relations, community outreach and overseeing the park’s digital media presence, including the website and social media channels. As a member of the park’s Leadership Team she is engaged in a number of park efforts. She has been in this position since 2001. Prior to this she was the Public Information Officer at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Sara Spaulding is the Public Information Officer/Communications Manager for the City of Wheat Ridge and the Wheat Ridge Police Department. Her 25+ years of experience include serving as spokesperson for emergency medical services agencies, hospitals, non-profit organizations and corporations. As the PIO for Swedish Medical Center in the 1990s, she handled communications following the crash of an AirLife medical helicopter and when wounded Columbine High School students were transported to Swedish. She has served as a volunteer PIO for six memorial services for Colorado Law Enforcement officers and as a media liaison for the families of victims killed in the Boulder shooting last year. She also volunteered in the Joint Information Center as a PIO supporting the response to the Marshall Fire in January of 2022.

Marilyn Saltzman has more than 30 years of experience in public relations, including crisis communications, internal relations and media relations. She was a manager in the Communications Services Department of Jeffco Public Schools, Colorado’s largest school district, during the aftermath of the Columbine shootings.

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2021

Three Colorado authors to speak Nov. 6 at Buell Center

Mystery, history and an award-winning collection of short stories are on tap as three local authors speak to Colorado Press Women and friends on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 9:30 a.m. at the Buell Public Media Center, 2101 Arapahoe St., Denver.

Patricia Raybon, award-winning Colorado author, former journalist and University of Colorado/Boulder professor emerita, will talk about her debut novel in a 1920s mystery series set in Colorado’s dangerous Klan era. Denver historian Mark Barnhouse’s new book, “Tattered Cover Book Store: A Storied History,” covers the book store’s first 50 years with tales from the thousands of author events it has hosted over the decades. Jennie Shank’s new award-winning book, “Mixed Company,” reveals moments of grace and connection between people of her hometown, Denver, through a collection of short stories that contrast the city during its oil-bust era of economic troubles and court-ordered crosstown busing for racial desegregation with the burgeoning and gentrifying city of recent years.

Raybon’s “All That Is Secret” is a riveting puzzle about a prim, poor but clever young Black female theologian—a fan of Sherlock Holmes—trying to solve her father’s cold-case murder in a city ruled by the Ku Klux Klan. The award-winning Colorado author, essayist and novelist writes stories of faith by day and mystery by night. Her previous books have included “My First White Friend,” a racial-forgiveness memoir; “I Told the Mountain to Move,” a candid prayer memoir; “The One Year God’s Great Blessings Devotional”; “Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace”; “Bound for Glory,” a tribute book honoring African American spirituals; and “Beautiful Blessings from God,” a daily devotional.

Raybon’s essays on family and faith have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Country Living Magazine, Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, Guideposts, In Touch Magazine (In Touch Ministries), Our Daily Bread, Christianity Today, and Today’s Christian Woman. She earned a B.A. in journalism from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“Tattered Cover Book Store: A Storied History” was commissioned by the store to celebrate a half century in business, starting with just 950 square feet, and growing into a multistore operation and important cultural institution. The store has been a forum for ideas, with hundreds of writers visiting each year to sign books and greet readers. Barnhouse, a Denver native, worked at the bookstore from September 1994 through March 2000, in Cherry Creek and LoDo.

A graduate of the University of Colorado-Denver, double majoring in history and English, he has researched and written about Denver’s history for 25 years. His most recent books include “Vanished Denver Landmarks,” “A History Lover’s Guide to Denver” and “Lost Department Stores of Denver.” See ArcadiaPublishing.com for a full listing. He is a member of one of Denver’s oldest western history groups, the Denver Posse of Westerners. Find him on Facebook: “Denver History Books by Mark A. Barnhouse.”

Among the stories in Shank’s “Mixed Company” is “Casa del Rey” in which a cautious pregnant woman must contend with her out-of-control and intrusive neighbor. In “Hurts,” a girls’ basketball team at a majority Black Denver high school clashes with a white mountain team. In “La Sexycana,” a bottom-feeding journalist ventures to a dance club to confront the young Latina woman she mentored as a teenager who then cut off all contact with her. These fictional stories and others address real human issues in a complicated world through humor, heart and grit.

“Mixed Company” won the George Garrett Fiction Prize from publisher Texas Review Press. Established in 1998, the prize highlights one book a year for excellence in a short story collection or novel. Shank’s first novel, “The Ringer,” won the High Plains Book Award. Her stories, essays, satire and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Prairie Schooner, Alaska Quarterly Review and numerous other publications. Her work has been honorably mentioned by The Best American Essays, the Pushcart Prize anthology and her mother. Shank publishes The Tumbleweed, a monthly newsletter about books, writing and publishing, and she teaches in the Mile High MFA program at Regis University and the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver. She lives in Boulder.

REGISTRATION & COST:  The cost is $27 for members and $32 for guests. (Friends and fellow readers are more than welcome!) Because we’re renting a room with enhanced A/V capabilities, the online via Zoom cost is $10; your email address is furnished by PayPal when you register. Sign up by Saturday, Oct. 30. Register online using the button below (processing fee added) or mail a check to “Colorado Press Women,” c/o Mary Parmelee at 586 S. Gaylord St., Denver, CO 80209. Her email address is taijidancer126@gmail.com. Registration starts at 9:30 a.m., while members and guests enjoy coffee or tea. Each of the authors will have 40 minutes to talk and answer questions, followed by a break to allow then to sign and sell their books. Biscuits and Berries Catering Company will provide a box lunch of a sandwich, chips, fruit, salad and cookie. Masks are required in the building, and CPW requests all attendees be fully vaccinated to participate in person.

DIRECTIONS & PARKING: The Buell Center for Public Media at 2101 Arapahoe St. is located several blocks from Coors Field between two one-way streets. Parking lots are at two corners of 21st Street and Arapahoe, facing from The Buell Center.

CPW recognizes local news to celebrate 80th

Colorado Press Women was founded 80 years ago by a statewide consortium of women who primarily covered community news for their local newspapers. Appropriately then, Linda Shapley, publisher of Colorado Community Media, will be the featured speaker at CPW’s 80th anniversary on October 2, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., at the Buell Public Media Center, 2101 Arapahoe St., Denver.

The celebration begins with a hardy brunch of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, pastries and fruit catered by Colorado Catering. Then we’ll launch a Zoom meeting at 10:45 a.m. for a presentation on our organization’s past by CPW historian Lee Ann Peck, assistant professor of media ethics at Colorado State University and co-editor of Media Ethics at Work: True Stories from Young Professionals.

Next up is Shapley, who was named publisher of Colorado Community Media in July. A longtime denizen of Colorado journalism, Shapley has a 30-year history at news publications including the Greeley Tribune, The Denver Post and Colorado Politics, as well as a volunteer on the boards of Colorado State University’s student media alumni group, the Denver Press Club and Society for News Design.

She leads CCM’s two-dozen Colorado newspapers and websites as the company’s first publisher since its spring sale to The Colorado News Conservancy, a partnership of The Colorado Sun and the National Trust for Local News dedicated to fostering community journalism. The state’s largest community media outlet, CCM newspapers serve Adams, Arapahoe, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Jefferson and Weld counties, reaching more than 300,000 people each week.

Following the presentations, participants can tour the Buell Public Media Center, the new home of Rocky Mountain Public Media—parent company of Rocky Mountain PBS (KRMA Channel 6) and KUVO Jazz 89.3-FM. The center is also the new base for Colorado News Collaborative (COLab), The Associated Press, Chalkbeat Colorado, Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, Colorado Media Project, Colorado Press Association, The Colorado Sun, KGNU Community Radio and Open Media Foundation, as well as Metzler Family Learning Center, Masterpiece Studio, Bonfils-Stanton Performance Studio and the 5,000-square-foot Community Media Center, a classroom and production workspace for students supported by Emily Griffith Technical College and the city and county of Denver.

Cost for the in-person celebration is $25; the price is $10 for Zoom only. Send checks, made out to Colorado Press Women, to arrive by Sept. 23 to Sharon Almirall, 955 Eudora St., #605, Denver, CO 80220 or pay online using the button below. A small processing fee will be added to online payments. Zoom-only registrants need to include their email address if paying by check.

In-person registration opens at 9:45 a.m. and the presentations via Zoom begin at 10:45 a.m.

Masks are required in the building, and CPW requests all attendees be fully vaccinated to participate in person. Ann Lockhart, Sandy Graham and Sandy Nance are offering accommodations for fully vaccinated members from outside the metro area who wish to attend in person.