Kent Nelson 1943
1 book in the catalogue, published 1998.
Kent Nelson is a fiction writer who lives in Ouray, Colorado, and whose stories and novels are often shaped by place and by environmental and social themes. Born in 1943, he has published four novels and six short story collections. Western Reflections Publishing issued Discoveries, his 1998 collection of stories set in the San Juan Mountains, and it is the one Nelson book in our catalogue.
About Kent Nelson
Our catalogue's author record lists a run of honors. Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still won the Colorado Book Award and the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award. Language in the Blood won the Edward Abbey Prize for Ecofiction, and The Spirit Bird won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Wikipedia also notes an earlier National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. His stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart anthologies and The O. Henry Awards.
The same record calls him a Yale graduate and Harvard-trained environmental lawyer who has also been a doorman, dishwasher, tennis pro, innkeeper, city judge, ad salesman and ranch hand. He has traveled North America looking for birds, with a list of 771 species, and he has run five marathons. That last detail matters here, since a marathoner turns up in one of the Discoveries stories.
Books
What the books share
Nelson's own website describes Discoveries as stories set in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, where the people and events change from page to page. The shared ground is a hard landscape and the harder terrain of feeling. His characters are ordinary people caught between heart and mind, and the stories work on questions of privacy, loss, risk and what a person owes the land. The wider list of his novels and collections follows the same interest in place.
The subjects this author is catalogued under. Open Library record.
Next steps for readers of this author
Starting with one Nelson collection
Discoveries is the Nelson book we publish, and its library page has the details we can verify. If you like short fiction tied to a landscape, it is a sensible first step into his work, and the author record lists his other books to look up next.
Reading fiction beside the place
Some readers like to learn the real county first. Read the Ouray County entry, then the forest page, and see which valleys and passes the stories seem to move through.
Planning a research visit
If you want local background on Ouray, call the historical society to arrange a Research Center appointment. Bring a clear question, such as a mine, a family or a road, so the staff can point you to the right shelf.
Go deeper
Kent Nelson lives in Ouray, Colorado, and his one book in our catalogue is set in the San Juan Mountains around it. These sources cover the county and the forest where such stories take place.
Research Center in Ouray
The historical society's website says its archives hold over 25,000 documents, over 8,000 photographs and a mining history library of about 10,000 books. It lists the Research Center as open by appointment only.
Ouray County Historical Society archives → (opens in a new tab)
Ouray County in brief
This encyclopedia entry sets out the county's geography, its naming after Chief Ouray and its history, a handy primer before you read fiction rooted in the area.
San Juan National Forest
The Forest Service describes about 1.8 million acres in southwestern Colorado, from high desert mesas to alpine peaks. Its recreation pages list roads and trails across that country.
Good to know
How many Kent Nelson books does Western Reflections publish?
Where does Kent Nelson live?
What else has he written?
Writers like this one are how the list was built
We have published Colorado and Western writers since 1996, and every submission is still read by a person. Send yours, finished or half written.