Just in time for summer solstice, Gail Binkly, Cortez-based editor and co-founder of the Four Corners Free Press will bring stories and readings from a new novel to Stories & Poems Norwood at the Lone Cone Library on June 18, 2025, at 6 p.m.
“For years Gail provided the Montezuma County community with a monthly paper that spoke truth to power and tried to showcase voices from the full political spectrum,” said Art Goodtimes, director of the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program. “She is a brave and tireless truth-teller. And her new young adult novel was mesmerizing, even for an old man.”
Binkly has been in journalism for more than 25 years and has won numerous awards for all manner of writing, from news and features to editorials and arts criticism. Her new novel, Trek of a Bird-Woman, is her first journey into fiction and was released in 2023.
In addition to editing and writing, Binkly also ran a bi-monthly radio show on local news, with station manager Jeff Pope, at KSJD-FM Dryland Community Radio.
The Stories & Poems free series happens on the third Wednesday of each month. Our featured guest will give a 30-40 min. presentation, followed by a short question and answer period after the presentation. Then there’s a passing of the gourd, where community members in attendance are encouraged to share stories or poems.
For those who like prompts for stories or poems, this month’s prompt is: “All the news.”
A collaboration of the Lone Cone Library and the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds poetry program, Stories & Poems Norwood is free and open to all ages, thanks to the generosity of the library, a Town of Telluride CCAASE grant, private donors and Talking Gourds’ Fischer and Cantor poetry contests.
Both the Fischer and Cantor contests are currently open for submissions.
For more information on poetry contests and Talking Gourds programs, visit the website www.tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds. For questions about the event, text 970-729-0220 or email Goodtimes at art@tellurideinstitute.org
