The University Libraries at the University of Nevada, Reno is pleased to announce Susan Palwick as the 36th Annual Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame inductee. Megan Edwards will receive the Silver Pen award.
Both authors will be celebrated at the 36th Annual Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame event which will take place Friday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m., inside the University Libraries’ Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center Wells Fargo Auditorium on the University campus.
Single tickets can be purchased online for via the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame webpage. Bulk tickets can be purchased by contacting Maggie Ressel via email, ressel@unr.edu, or by phone at 775-682-5653.
A celebration of the lives and contributions of James Hulse and Larry Struve will also be included in the event. Attendees will enjoy a special program, book signing and dessert reception.
Susan Palwick 2023 Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame Inductee, 2006 Silver Pen Awardee
&w88 online sports betting;Fiction is a vehicle for imaginative empathy. It allows us to explore other viewpoints, to imagine different lives.” – Susan Palwick
Susan Palwick has published four novels, one book of sonnets, several story collections and many works of short fiction appearing in venues such as Asimov&w88 online sports betting;s, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. Her work has been reprinted in a number of Year&w88 online sports betting;s Best anthologies, including several volumes of the prestigious Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series.
Her fiction has been honored with a Crawford Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and an Alex Award from the American Library Association, and has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, the Mythopoeic Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. Prior to her induction into the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame, she received a Silver Pen Award in 2006.
Palwick was born in New York City and educated at Princeton (AB 1982) and Yale (Ph.D. 1996). She lived on the East Coast until 1997, when she accepted a teaching job at the w88 online sports betting of Nevada, Reno. After 20 years as an English professor, and having also served as adjunct faculty at the w88 online sports betting of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, teaching Narrative Medicine, Palwick retired in 2017 to earn a Master of Social Work degree – also from the w88 online sports betting – and to move into healthcare.
“I worked as a healthcare chaplain for many years, first as an ER volunteer while I was still teaching, and later as a paid hospital and hospice chaplain,” Palwick said. “I&w88 online sports betting;m currently a social worker in two dialysis clinics. I&w88 online sports betting;ve watched a lot of people struggling to come to terms with pain, chronic illness and mortality, and many of those experiences indirectly inform my fiction.”
Palwick&w88 online sports betting;s writing is primarily psychological fantasy and near-future science fiction.
&w88 online sports betting;Almost everything I write begins with character, rather than plot or setting,” she said. &w88 online sports betting;Because of family and personal history, I'm very interested in how people navigate loss and grief. I'm also fascinated by the endless varieties of faith -- belief in something larger than ourselves -- and how that sustains or challenges us in times of trouble.”
Palwick said it was a huge honor to be selected as the 2023 Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame inductee.
“I was at work when I got the news, and I have to admit that it was hard to concentrate for the rest of the day,” she said. “I&w88 online sports betting;m deeply moved to be recognized by the state I&w88 online sports betting;ve come to love so much, and to be in such stellar company!”
Palwick said she never thought her name would be on a wall with the likes of Mark Twain and Sarah Winnemucca. Morris Brownell, Gailmarie Pahmeier, Ann Ronald and Bernard Schopen are all cherished w88 online sports betting colleagues of hers, and she said she is humbled to be in their company.
“I’m forever grateful to the people who helped me keep writing,” she said. “My parents supported my desire to write, even though my mother worried about my economic security. My husband Gary reads everything I write and has unerring editorial judgment. My editors, agents, fellow w88 online sports betting, University colleagues and students have all, at various times, offered feedback that convinced me I was indeed connecting with my readers. And on the healthcare side, my patients remind me every day that each of us is a complex, fascinating universe.”
When asked what motivated w88 online sports betting to write and teach, Palwick shared a story from w88 online sports betting youth.
&w88 online sports betting;I learned to read late -- the end of first grade, I think -- but once I started, I didn't stop,” she said. &w88 online sports betting;My favorite books were science fiction and fantasy (SF/F), because they were about change, hope and possibility.”
Palwick said she started making up her own stories very early, borrowing characters she loved from work she&w88 online sports betting;d read or seen.
&w88 online sports betting;I spent a lot of time in a complicated imaginary world where Aslan from Narnia and Elsa from Born Free had cubs, and where three princes I&w88 online sports betting;d invented evaded assassins while zipping around on jet-packs fastened to their shoes,” she said.
Palwick got sent to the guidance counselor because she wasn&w88 online sports betting;t paying attention in class. She said the machinations of the three princes were much more interesting to her than memorizing times tables.
“The counselor asked me what I was doing instead of paying attention,” she said. “I told him I was imagining, and he asked me what I was imagining. Then, he wound up digging out an old typewriter, typing what I dictated to him, and having me illustrate it. He wasn&w88 online sports betting;t angry at me. He seemed impressed. That was the first time I realized that telling stories was even slightly unusual. I&w88 online sports betting;d thought everyone did it.
“At that point, I started writing my stories down. I wanted to do for other people what the w88 online sports betting I loved had done for me. About 20 years later, I realized that becoming an English professor was a way to be part of a community that cared about stories, a place where my job would be to talk about reading and writing with students and colleagues.”
On being published for the first time
Palwick began working on w88 online sports betting first novel, Flying in Place, in 1988. w88 online sports betting is a ghost story about child sexual abuse.
“I&w88 online sports betting;d been making notes for what I thought would be a short story, and ultimately had ninety-seven pages of notes,” she said. “I&w88 online sports betting;d worked too hard on the project not to submit it for publication, but to be publishable, it needed a plot. I revised, and revised again, and revised some more.
“It came in at 53,000 words: short for a novel, but too long for a short story. I sent it to a friend who was editing a novella series for Tor Books. He bought it, and I left town to start my Ph.D. program. That September, on my 30th birthday, he called and said, ‘Congratulations on publishing your first novel!&w88 online sports betting; The head of Tor had been looking for something short to read on a plane flight, saw my thin manuscript in a stack of thicker ones, and plucked it out of the pile. He loved it and decided to publish it as a standalone novel.
&w88 online sports betting;That was a long time ago, but even now, whenever I have something accepted for publication, it feels like I've eaten way too much sugar.”
Flying in Place is not autobiographical. Palwick said she was terrified that readers would say she&w88 online sports betting;d gotten everything wrong.
“I was worried about what survivors would say,” she said. “Instead, they told me, ‘That's exactly what it was like.&w88 online sports betting; And one day I got a letter that said, ‘I was going to kill myself, but then I read your book, and I didn't.&w88 online sports betting;”
Palwick&w88 online sports betting;s work has been impactful to survivors of abuse.
“People have told me that watching my characters cope with grief helped them cope with their own,” she said. “w88 online sports betting readers have responded warmly to my stories set in Reno. And sometimes, as a writer, you learn that you changed someone’s life.”
Palwick w88 online sports betting stories save lives.
&w88 online sports betting;They offer sanctuary, because page 73 of a given book will always say the same thing, no matter how much the world is falling apart,” she said. &w88 online sports betting;They show readers that beauty and change are possible. They assure us that we aren't alone.”
What’s next for the newest member of the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame?
Palwick is currently working on a fantasy trilogy. w88 online sports betting is set in a future after our current ecological crisis, when surviving humans and other animals have taken on new forms and developed new abilities.
“A lot of it&w88 online sports betting;s about oppression and persecution of difference, and how people respond when they learn that their cherished traditions depend on subjugating others. No contemporary relevance there, eh?” she said.
“It started as a standalone novel, and then it got too long and turned into two short books, and then a friend read it and said, ‘No, it needs to be three.&w88 online sports betting; I just hope I succeed in finishing it, and that it can find an audience. A lot of my work is really dark -- my husband says that making readers cry is my superpower -- and this project ratchets that up about 10 levels.”
Palwick also has a lot of story drafts she’d like to finish, as well as two partial novels. One of the novels is historical fantasy set in nineteenth-century w88 online sports betting, and the other’s a fantastical meditation on her family’s history with hospitals.
“I tend to write very slowly, and my process is usually non-linear,” she said. “I&w88 online sports betting;ll start something, run into a wall and stop, and come back to it years later. Sometimes that sequence repeats two or three times before I actually finish a project. I&w88 online sports betting;d be a much more prolific writer if I could outline, but I most often write to find out what&w88 online sports betting;s going to happen. If I know the ending too far ahead of time, I lose interest.”
She added, “I&w88 online sports betting;ve published two story collections. I hope to live long enough to produce a third. But I&w88 online sports betting;m satisfied with the work I&w88 online sports betting;ve done so far, and that&w88 online sports betting;s a very good feeling.”
Megan Edwards 2023 Silver Pen Awardee
The Silver Pen award was established in 1996 as part of the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame to recognize w88 online sports betting who have shown substantial achievement. The award is designed to honor their talent and encourage other emerging w88 online sports betting.
Megan Edwards is the author of A Coin for the Ferryman (Imbrifex, 2022). w88 online sports betting other books include the travel memoir Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, the award-winning Copper Black mystery novels Getting off on Frank Sinatra and Full Service Blonde, and the award-winning novel Strings: A Love Story. Edwards holds a B.A. in classics from Scripps College and an M.A. from Claremont Graduate w88 online sports betting.
Edwards spent nearly seven years “on the road” living and working in Central America, Europe and the United States in roles ranging from teacher and administrator to journalist and editor. She co-founded RoadTripAmerica.com, a site that provides planning advice for North American road trips, and she is founder and editor of Living-Las-Vegas.com, a site that focuses on “real life in the shadow of the Strip.” Her work has appeared in national newspapers and magazines as well as the Las Vegas Weekly, KNPR’s Desert Companion, and two volumes of the Las Vegas Writes anthologies commissioned by w88 online sports betting Humanities. Edwards lives in Las Vegas where she is working on her next book while enjoying both the natural splendor and the neon glow the area offers.
“My writing career brought me to w88 online sports betting, and w88 online sports betting beguiled me into staying with her enchanting landscapes, colorful inhabitants and fascinating history,” Edwards said. “It’s an especially sweet honor to be recognized in the state I’ve called home for more than two decades.”
Edwards is best known for w88 online sports betting novels that often incorporate w88 online sports betting real-life experiences and travels into fictional tales. w88 online sports betting books have won numerous awards, including three Benjamin Franklin Gold medals.
Edwards&w88 online sports betting; life took an unexpected turn in 1993 when a California wildfire destroyed her home and belongings. This event led her to embark on a six-year road trip across the United States and Canada with her husband and dog. Her travels became the inspiration for her highly praised memoir, Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier.
“Without that life-changing fire, I&w88 online sports betting;d probably not be living in Las Vegas,” Edwards said. “It was delightful serendipity how it all happened. Twenty-three years later I am happy and proud to call Las Vegas home. It is the perfect community for me.”
Rising from the ashes
In 1993, Edwards was working w88 online sports betting first paid job for a Los Angeles-area paper. Just as w88 online sports betting first column was to publish, and w88 online sports betting second was coming due, w88 online sports betting home in the hills above Los Angeles burned down in a wildfire.
&w88 online sports betting;I was in total shock,” she said. &w88 online sports betting;I had the best excuse ever to ask my editor for a deadline extension, or to even miss the deadline altogether. I made the deadline and my husband and I decided to hit the road and use the loss of our home in the fire as an opportunity to start over.”
Edwards wrote for the Los Angeles-area paper from her motorhome during the emergence of the World Wide Web. w88 online sports betting she loved the idea of being able to work while she traveled.
&w88 online sports betting;E-mail was relatively new at the time, but I did have a FAX machine in the motorhome, and we installed a car phone (with expensive roaming and service fees), but it worked,” she said. &w88 online sports betting;I had the chance to do a job I loved, from the road, while traveling. It was thrilling to watch the Internet unfold during this revolutionary time. There was a transformative power to it all. History was being made and I was a part of it all.”
Settling in Las Vegas
After working and traveling on the road for several years doing a variety of different jobs, and after her first book came out, Edwards found herself in Las Vegas on Boulder Highway in an RV Park doing research for a protagonist character w88 online sports betting had an idea for.
“My protagonist had to be from a place like this,” she said. “We came to Las Vegas and agreed to stay for six weeks. I rode every Las Vegas public bus to the end of the line, got to know many different people, fell in love with the natural surroundings, the creative community, scientists from the Test Site, the UNLV community and more. Many people dislike Las Vegas, but if you look closely, and spend time getting to know it … you may discover that you&w88 online sports betting;ve fallen in love with it.”
Edwards moved to Las Vegas in 1999.
“That book I came to Las Vegas to do research for all those years ago, I had an agent, but it didn&w88 online sports betting;t sell,” she said. “I had to shelve it and begin working on other things. My last novel IS that book! It took a long time to see the light of day! It is a full-circle moment for me, seeing it published.”
On receiving news of her Silver Pen award, Edwards said w88 online sports betting was very surprised.
“This award means so much to me because I love w88 online sports betting and Las Vegas so much,” she said. “I love living in the ‘Wild West,’ appreciate the independent spirit of the people and enjoy finding places where conversation happens.
“There is something special about w88 online sports betting,” she said. “The essence of what it means to be ‘Battleborn,’ the attitude of we are all in this together and let’s make it good. I love this place.”
Imbrifex Books Publisher Mark Sedenquist said, “Megan&w88 online sports betting;s prolific writing career spans more than 30 years and is a testament to diligence, effort and putting in the time to become a skilled wordsmith. I congratulate her on this wonderful achievement.”
In memoriam
James W. Hulse was professor of history at University of Nevada, Reno and lifelong expert on Nevada politics and history. He wrote for the Nevada State Journal, first as a student, later while in military service in Germany and France, and finally as a reporter before joining the University faculty in 1962. He authored many books on Nevada and European history, including the centennial history of the University of Nevada, six editions of The Nevada Adventure: A History, and Oases of Culture on the history of Nevada libraries. Jim was active in many causes, including civil rights and nuclear non-proliferation. He was inducted into the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame in 1997 and continued to attend and support the Hall of Fame until his passing.
Larry D. Struve devoted more than 25 years to public service in support of the state of Nevada. He served as deputy district attorney in Washoe County, before becoming chief deputy for Nevada Attorney General Richard H. Bryan, and later, Governor Bryan's Director of the Department of Commerce. After retirement, Larry served as a legislative advocate for the Religious Alliance in Nevada, and supported numerous philanthropic causes including the w88 online sports betting Libraries, the Reno Philharmonic and the Fletcher Foundation. A published author himself, Larry was a stalwart supporter of the Nevada Writer’s Hall of Fame, and instrumental in the establishment of the Silver Pen award in 1996. Before his passing, Larry helped to establish the Nevada Writer’s Hall of Fame Endowment.
About the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame
The Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame was conceived by former Friends of the University Libraries President Marilyn Melton in 1988. She envisioned two purposes: an annual event honoring Nevada's finest w88 online sports betting, and a stimulus to encourage excellence among emerging w88 online sports betting in the Silver State.
The first selection committee met at Marilyn&w88 online sports betting;s home and chose Robert Laxalt and Walter Van Tilburg Clark as the recipients. Since that time, the Hall of Fame has become an annual event.
The names of all the authors who have been inducted into the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame are now prominently displayed on a wall of honor in the Leslie Harvey and Robert George Whittemore Tower Entry and Reception Gallery of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center.
Honorees are selected based on their body of work, critical recognition, and a strong connection to w88 online sports betting through the themes of their writing or residence in the state.
The Silver Pen Award was established in 1996 as part of the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame to recognize w88 online sports betting who work in or write about Nevada, are mid-career, and have already shown substantial achievement.
The award is designed to honor their talent and encourage other emerging and mid-career w88 online sports betting. It is hoped through their outstanding work they may one day be inducted into the Nevada w88 online sports betting Hall of Fame.
About the w88 online sports betting Libraries
The w88 online sports betting Libraries embrace intellectual inquiry and innovation, nurture the production of new knowledge, and foster excellence in learning, teaching and research. During each academic year, the Libraries welcomes more than 1.2 million visitors across its network of four libraries: the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, the DeLaMare Science and Engineering Library, the Savitt Medical Library and the Prim Library at the w88 online sports betting of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. Visitors checked-out more than 80,000 items and completed more than two million database searches.
