The publishing editor of Coloradan BK Loren’s first book, The Way of the River, marveled that BK “wrote like she was raised by wolves.” “I try to live up to that daily,” BK says. And you instantly feel life’s wildness in both her writing and when she speaks–as she will on April 9th, during this spring’s Experts & Entertainers series.
Her first novel Theft captures that animal energy and spirit so masterfully that it won two coveted prizes this past year, the 2013 WILLA award for fiction and the 2012 Reading the West award from independent booksellers in the West.
“I find that my writing is richer when I’m out in nature,” she says. But as a “writer trying to survive,” sh
e has tackled a host of challenging, unlikely and urban jobs—ranging from cook for a gourmet catering service in New York to college writing professor, an aide in a locked psych ward, as well as a hired hand on a small Taos cattle ranch. Her one criterion for any job: it had
to give her the “psychological space” essential for her writing. You can hear the triumph and delight in her voice when she notes, “But I’m just writing now.”
Currently she is working on two books simultaneously, a daunting task for any author. She devotes each morning to her new novel, “while I’m closer to the dream world.” She turns to her book of nonfiction in the afternoons. Occasionally she’ll offer a workshop, do a reading or speak to a lucky group like The Academy. To find out more about her appearances and writing, check out www.bkloren.com.