NEWS & EVENTS | News & Interviews
News & Interviews
Selected interviews, reviews and articles featuring Laura Chester’s writing and career are highlighted here. Events and appearances can be found here.
Erin Chandler and Emily Wilhoit celebrate Rabbit House Press’s publication of Spooning with Mojo, a collection of Art and Poetry by Laura Chester and Phil Knoll. Get your copy at rabbithousepress.com or wherever you buy your books! December 19, 2024.
Watch the interview below or here. (45:25 minutes)
Book Trailer for Riding Barranca by Nadia Szold. June 28, 2013.
Rural Intelligence | “Back In The Saddle: Laura Chester Rides Out the Storm of Transition” by Nicole Dupont, editor. May 28, 2013.
“Laura Chester does not like to dwell in the past, especially her own. That’s why the veteran author and horsewoman decided to write a book about it; to get some of that stuff out. But make no mistake, Riding Barranca, Chester’s latest memoir (Trafalgar Square Books, May 2013), is not a melancholy, regrettable foray into a crappy childhood seen through the bitter eyes of a jaded author. It is a journey — both geographical and metaphorical — surveyed through the high-up lens of a wise woman on horseback; one whose greatest solace and joy stem from her daily jaunts through known and unknown territory. Whether it is negotiating the rugged terrain of the Canelo Hills or repairing a broken relationship with her dying mother, Chester chronicles the hurt and healing balm of a whirlwind year all with the help of her larger-than-life equines.
Read the entire article here.
The Authors Road | George Mason met with writer, poet and editor Laura Chester at her winter home outside Patagonia, AZ. “During our talk Laura shared with us the support and encouragement her parents gave her in her writing, and her professional growth from her early years editing and distributing small press publications.” August 31, 2012.
Watch the interview below or here. (25:01 minutes)
Or, listen to the interview below.
Visit The Authors Road website for additional detail and photos from Mason’s visit with the author.
The Short Review | Interview with author Laura Chester discussing her latest book, Rancho Weirdo. Read the interview here.
Senior Women Web | “Rancho Weirdo” by Joan L. Cannon. Rancho Weirdo for the Culture Watch column: “Rancho Weirdo by Laura Chester contains humor that is integral, not incidental, and they are wonderfully irreverent tales.” February 12, 2009.
“A book, no matter what they keep trying to tell us, is an object we can hold in our hands. Ergo, it matters what it looks like and feels like, as well as what it has in its text. Rancho Weirdo is, by these standards, out of the ordinary. It's ‘only paper,’ but it’s illustrated, its cover is eye-catching, and it even has beautiful end papers of a deep red and two pages about the author and illustrator with color photos of each. From the time you pick it up, you know it’s special. …
“Judging from the title, one might be expecting some contemporary horror or shock-and-awe. It’s quite different from that. Quirky is probably the word that jumps first to mind, but it’s even more than that. …
“Every one of these compositions is unusual, inventive, entertaining, and sometimes even shocking. Most are to some extent mysterious. Whatever your taste in literature, it seems likely that you’ll find something here to whet your appetite for short works. Echoes of Kafka and Poe and Woody Allen may suggest themselves to a reader’s bemusement, but boredom will never be a factor.”
Read the entire review here.
First reading in the Bay Area at the San Francisco Poetry Center, age 25.
This film excerpt is included in Nadia Szold’s film, The Figures: An Abstract on Geoffrey Young.