Thomas McGuane Receives Stegner Award

Last night novelist Thomas McGuane was honored by the Center for the American West with its 2009 Wallace Stegner Award. The Stegner Award is given to a “an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West.” McGuane, who is a MidCurrent editorial board member, received the award at the University of Colorado at Boulder. You can find a complete list of McGuane’s books on his Web site.
Interestingly, at the presentation, McGuane was introduced by Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, who used the occasion to remark on today’s closure of the Rocky Mountain News, the oldest business in the state of Colorado. Hickenlooper commented that not having RMN around would be like living without sunrise, then said: “‘On a broader scale, the Internet doesn’t pay for the news rooms and gathering the news and all the things that the Fourth Estate does. Rapidly we’ll see an increase in the superficiality of news coverage.’ He said that he was reminded of his mother’s comment when she saw the first issue of People magazine. ‘This is a bad idea whose time has come,’ she said.” Jenny Shank in New West.