Author Deanne Stillman will speak on the magic of horses and deserts

FALLBROOK – Author Deanne Stillman, winner of the 2013 Western Writers of America Spur Award, will be the featured author at the Tuesday, Jan. 14 Writers Read at Fallbrook Library in the community room, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

In a recent interview, Stillman described the common theme of the desert in her books, “Desert Reckoning: A Town Sheriff, A Mojave Hermit and the Biggest Manhunt in Modern California History,” which won the Spur Award, “Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West,” and “Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave.”

“It’s so full of promise and new beginnings,” Stillman said of the desert. “It’s the land of dreams, broken and fulfilled and continuing. The ancient prophets didn’t paddle down a river for enlightenment. They wandered into the desert.”

As the desert pervades Stillman’s nonfiction books, so does her compassion for the people – and animals – she writes about. “Mustang” was inspired by a notorious 1998 massacre of 34 wild horses in Nevada, a crime that horrified the nation that horses helped build.

“Horses provided us with a new form of transportation and allowed us to travel basically wherever we wanted to across lands,” Stillman said. “Horses have transformed every culture they’ve come in touch with. Their magic has been quite palpable since people first came in contact with them.”

Stillman is on the faculty at the UCR-Palm Desert M.F.A. Low Residency Creative Writing Program. She will be available after the reading to sign her books, which will be on sale.

The author’s presentation will be preceded by open mic. The library is located at 124 S. Mission Road. For more information, contact Girija Karamcheti at (760) 731-4653 or email [email protected].