Published: Oct. 4, 1999

Note to Editors: A photo of Deming is available by calling (303) 492-3119.

Renowned poet and essayist Alison Deming will lecture on "Forty Acres and a Rattlesnake: Living in the New Wild West" at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Friday, Oct. 15.

The Center of the American West's 1999 Annual Distinguished Lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in room 270 of the Hale Science Building. The event is free and open to the public.

Deming also will present the lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, in the Adirondacks Room of the Tivoli Center on the Auraria campus of CU-Denver.

Deming is director of the Poetry Center and associate professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She is the winner of numerous literary awards and fellowships and her work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies. She is the author of "Science and Other Poems" and "Temporary Homelands," and the editor of "Poetry of the American West: A Columbia Anthology."

She will address how the power of the West as it lives in our imaginations -- wild, magnificent, spacious and free -- is challenged by our awareness of the West's careless development, degraded habitats, toxic waste and social inequity. She will explore how to find a new vision of the West that honors its beauty and openness while owning up to the damage of our excesses.

The Boulder lecture is sponsored by the CU-Boulder Center of the American West, which explores the distinctive character and issues of the region and sponsors programs to help Westerners become well-informed, participating citizens in their communities.

For more information call (303) 492-4879 or visit .