The Four Corners Writers will unveil their 2025 anthology, Four Corners Voices, Volume 2, at a launch event at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at Maria’s Bookshop in downtown Durango.
Author and last year’s anthology editor Chuck Greaves will host the evening, which will feature live readings by eight contributors.
Poets Kirbie Bennett, Geneva Toland, Lawrence Blair Goral and Stephanie Moran will present original works. Fiction writers David Feela and TJ Patton will share excerpts from their short stories. Nonfiction selections by Paddy Keelan and Margaret Grayson will round out the event.
Poetry editor Sarah Carr said she looked for writing that captured the spirit of the Four Corners region, aiming to balance poems about the land with those that reflect local life, identity and diverse voices.
“I held a strict line of wanting at least two-thirds to be new work,” she said.
The 2025 edition is the second installment of the annual anthology spotlighting writers from the Four Corners region. This year’s volume includes 25 poems, 13 short stories and 13 essays.
Books will arrive from the printer within days, and preordered copies are already shipping. The paperback is available through the Four Corners Writers bookshop on http://www.bookshop.org, where purchases support the organization and independent bookstores. It is also available on Amazon and other retailers.
Local outlets Maria’s Bookshop and Hand in Hand in Durango will carry copies as well.
A second celebration is scheduled for 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19, at the Sunflower Theatre. Fourteen contributors will read brief excerpts, with author Bethany Turner serving as emcee. Tickets are $12. Seating is limited, and last year’s event sold out. Books will be available for purchase on site.
The Four Corners Writers plan to release Volume 3 in 2026.
“There are so many talented, unpublished writers in the area, and we (want to) amplify their voices more,” Carr said, encouraging writers to submit work for the next anthology. “Don’t be scared, just try … it’s a really special Four Corners community thing that I hope just keeps growing.”
The inaugural Four Corners Voices, published in December 2024, earned the 2025 Colorado Book Award in the anthology category during a July 26 ceremony in Denver. The awards were hosted by Colorado Humanities and the Center for the Book at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
The first anthology featured more than 40 writers from the Four Corners region in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Editors included Greaves, Lisa C. Taylor and Mark Stevens.
More information about the anthologies and the Four Corners Writers is available at http://www.fourcornerswriters.com.
