Monthly Archives: December 2022

Image of the Red Desert and Wind River Mountains

Orienting a Deep Map

Deep Map of Place

A deep map of place.

This phrase rang like truth for me from the moment I first heard it, spoke to my own love of wild places like Wyoming’s Red Desert and Wind River Mountains. The term, which I first heard credited to Wallace Stegner, comes from the subtitle of William Least Heat-Moon’s Prairie Erth (a deep map).

But I didn’t know that back in college and graduate school. My initial understanding of the concept was linked to my study of literary, place-based fiction and non-fiction, and thus I always thought of authors like Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams when I thought of deep maps, of authors who came to know wild places in complex layers — personal and familial experience, history, informal and formal ecology, close-looking and listening, meditation, reflection — and who wrote lyrically and beautifully about them, depicting them from different angles and perspectives, returning to them over and over again like a river-smoothed stone. I strove to create my own deep map of place, one focused on “my” Wyoming, on the Red Desert and Wind Rivers, on the horses that have carried me across the plains and into mountains, on the traditions that have tied my family to these landscapes and to each other for generations.

Since then, my understanding has expanded, has allowed me to see that deep maps are not limited to wild places and literary writing. For example, the HBO show Sex & the City was imminently popular with college women when I was in school, and looking back, I see that the show was, in a way, a deep map of New York City. I have encountered some interesting projects online that extend the what and how and why of deep mapping, like This is Not an Atlas (https://notanatlas.org/#atlas-maps). I have also read academic work in disciplines like Wildlife Biology and Anthropology that are excellent examples of the nuanced layering required of deep maps.

And I have realized that, though I bandy about the term frequently, I am far from being an expert on what it means. Therefore, I am beginning a, well, deeper exploration of the concept while also embarking on expanding my own deep map of place, and I invite you to join me.

Ann sitting by a river

Author’s Update from Ann

Author Update

“What do you do?” It is long been one of the toughest questions I receive on a regular basis. It used to be easier to answer, back when I was working full-time as an academic advisor at the University of Wyoming, though even then I’d sometimes tack on a weak, “And I write, too.” It has gotten more complicated as I moved to a part-time role split between advising and teaching and then to part-time teaching only so that I could focus on my writing more in my “off” hours.

When I was advising and teaching full-time, people usually asked me follow up questions about that work, not the writing, which made sense since I was leading with the more understandable, contained career. And it seemed easier to answer those questions, simpler, cleaner. Less revealing.

But my answers weren’t quite true, though they were factual. Because at my core, I am a writer. For years, I have written regularly, and now I write nearly every day and have recently finished the manuscript for my first novel. I am researching and beginning to query agents. I have published essays in literary journals (you can find links to those journals here) and hope to place more of my writing soon. I have cut my teaching back even further, a decision predicated almost entirely on my drive to prioritize my writing. Now, I am at a jumping off point, trying to move from doing the work behind the scenes to putting it out into the world.

Though I still feel awkward when people ask me what I do, I tell them I write. Then I struggle to gracefully explain what I, you know, really do as a writer because there are a lot of ways to be a writer, a lot of reasons to write, and a lot of things to write about. Through this blog, I intend to practice answering those questions, and I want to make it easy for people to find my writing so they can experience it for themselves.

Why? Because, as I’ve stated elsewhere, I believe stories matter, that they connect us, make us feel less alone, and enrich and inform our experiences as human beings. I feel the most authentic, the most in my internal integrity, when I write regularly and when I am brave enough to share that work. And I want to own my vocation when people ask me what I do. Because when we ask each other that question, we are, at least in part, asking, “Who are you?”

Thanks for reading this author’s update! This is the first of many posts I will be making from here out. Throughout the month, I want to share a little about my process and my author’s journey with you. I will also write short pieces of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and some reviews of books, films, and music that have inspired me as an artist and that I think you might want to check out.

In each author’s update, I will also link to a few things that have caught my attention and which you might find interesting as well. Here are those links for this inaugural update:

  • I just re-read Patricia McKillip’s the Riddle Master trilogy. It is one of my favorite epic fantasy books, and I highly recommend it. http://patriciamckillip.com/portfolio/riddletrilogy/  
  • I’ve been listing to a lot of the Vandolier’s music. Many of their songs are thematically resonant with the sorts of relationships, experiences, and characters I write about in my fiction. http://vandoliers.com/music
  • I have stuck with a meditation practice for almost two months (a record for me) thanks in large part to Insight Timer. https://insighttimer.com/