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Patricia Frolander Bio
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I try to balance family, ranching, and writing and
have a passion for each of them. My husband, Robert, and I own his
family ranch in the Black Hills of Wyoming. Ties to land and
livestock have provided a wonderful variety of subjects to journal and
pen. Our family includes three children, seven grandchildren, two
great-grandchildren, all of whom live close to the ranch. Managing
family or ranching is like trying to rope the wind. In Wyoming,
the wind is either bringing a storm or ushering in sunshine. I love the
changes, although as I age, moderate weather is appreciated.
My hobbies include reading, writing, travel, and genealogy.
Married Into It
Winner of:
The prestigious National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Wrangler Award 2011
Women Writing the West WILLA Literary Award 2012
High Plains Book Award Winner of Best Woman Poet 2012
What happens when a young urban woman marries into a fourth generation rural ranching family and must learn the traditions, customs, and lifestyle of the land, all under the scrutinizing eye of its close knit community? Author Patricia Frolander’s clear-eyed poems chronicle her forty-six years of challenges and triumphs, bruises and breakthroughs, as she moves from outsider to neighbor in Married Into It, the newly released poetry collection from High Plains Press.
Kent Meyers, award-winning author of The Work of Wolves, says of the new release: “Patricia Frolander writes of a place and way of life where disaster can be measured in seconds and where the most harrowing loss can emerge from the simplest of mistakes. Frolander understands just how indifferent the world is to human presence, but she makes of that understanding a quiet grandeur. Against indifference, these poems insist on redemptive beauty and the power of relationship.”
Readers will find themselves rooting for Frolander as she discovers her strength, wit, wisdom and heart in the Wyoming soil she tends, all the while nurturing a piece of land, and a life, she can call her own.
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Additional information, interviews, photos or review copies are available by contacting author Patricia Frolander pfrolander@rangeweb.net. Excerpts of her work can be also found at www.bearlodgewriters.com/patfrolander.html. To purchase your copy of Married Into It please visit www.highplainspress.com or call 1-800-552-7819.
Earlier Days
"Earlier Days"
Photo by Greg Lamp
Publication Credits
PUBLICATIONS:
Married Into It
Poetry
High Plains Press, 2011
Kent Meyers, award-winning author of The Work of Wolves, says of the new release: “Patricia Frolander writes of a place and way of life where disaster can be measured in seconds and where the most harrowing loss can emerge from the simplest of mistakes. Frolander understands just how indifferent the world is to human presence, but she makes of that understanding a quiet grandeur. Against indifference, these poems insist on redemptive beauty and the power of relationship.”
Grassland Genealogy
Finishing Line Press
Paperback Chapbook
27 pages
price- $14
ISBN- 978-159924-471-6
"The poetry in Grassland Genealogy draws heavily and effectively on Patricia Frolander’s authentic knowledge of ranch life. But these moving poems about family ranching in Wyoming also develop a reader’s appreciation for her understanding of the subtle strands of heart and mind that tie humans and animals to each other and the grasslands they share."
Robert Roripaugh
Wyoming Poet Laureate 1995-2002
Poetry Appearing in Anthologies:
Open to Interpretation: Intimate Landscape
A Juried Book Competition of Photography, Poetry and Prose, 2012
Wyoming Fence Lines, An Anthology of Prose and
Poetry, Wyoming Humanities Council, 2007
In the Shadow of the
Bear Lodge, Editor, Bearlodge Writers, Many Kites Crazy Woman Creek:
Women Rewrite the American West, Houghton Mifflin, 2004 Hard Ground IV: Writing
the Rockies, Pronghorn Press, 2003 Woven on the Wind:
Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West, Houghton Mifflin,
2001 Trail Dust: A Limited
Edition Collection of Western Poetry, WY Agricultural Leadership
Council, 2000 Awards and Recognition:
High Plains Book
Award Finalists, 2012 2012 WINNER of
the WILLA Literary Awards for Poetry, given by Women Writing the
West. American Life in Poetry: Column 275
2011 Neltje Blanchan Award for poetry, coordinated by the Wyoming Arts
Council 2009 winner of the 17th Annual National Senior Poets Laureate
Competition, sponsored by Amy Kitchner's Angels Without Wings
Foundation. Literary Reviews, Magazines, Journal
Publications, and Newspapers: Judgings: Range Writers Poetry Contest, 2006 Wyoming Writers Free Verse Poetry 2009 Wyoming Writers Traditional Poetry 2010
Frolander Ranch
Press, 2006
Cowgirl Poetry: One Hundred Years of Ridin' and Rhymin', Gibbs Smith,
2001
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 American Life in Poetry is
made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It
is also supported by the Department of English at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
WyoPoets, Wyoming Paintbrush, 2007
Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship Honorable Mention, 2006
WyoPoets National Contest: First Place and Honorable Mention,
2006
WYOPoets Chapbook, Wind Whispers Down Wyoming, 2005
WYOPoets National Contest, Honorable Mention, 2003
WYOPoets National Contest, Honorable Mention, 2002
WYOPoets Chapbook, Seasons of Wyoming, 2002
Featured Poet at the 2007 Alzada Cowboy Poetry, Music and Art Show
Guest Poet at the Matthews Opera House feature, Stars Shine, 2008
Owen Wister Review, University of Wyoming, 2007
Wyoming Rural Electric News Magazine: 1999, 1998, 1995, 1993,
1992
Farm Journal: 1993
Cow Country: 1995, 1992, 1991, 1990
Wyoming Livestock Roundup, Sundance Times, Moorcroft Leader,
Billings Gazette
Excerpt of Writing
Who Would I Be if I Didn’t Have a Name?
Wisdom-edged woman in Levi’s,
lover of ponderosa, buffalo grass, and a cowboy.
Collector of rock and bone.
Companion of grandchildren, sagebrush
and a buckskin mare with velvet muzzle.
Driver of posts, stretcher of wire
on sweat-drenched, blue-sky days.
Seeker of deer in bur oak shade,
of hidden springs of earth-cooled water.
Reader of history, mystery, and love.
Poet-emerging.
Wide-hipped, opinionated,
callous-handed mother and friend.
My epitaph? The shadow of a prairie falcon
gliding over the prairie.
Water Song
Water trills light soprano
over murmuring alto sedge,
watercress, and mint.
Rustling leaves of Russian olive,
hawthorn, oak
complete the ensemble.
I sing with them,
a heart-deep melody
as sunshine dapples tender shoots.
Supple pine
bend and sway with blushing clouds.
Skimmers and dragonflies dance
while
I breathe my lover’s scent,
watch the gentle breeze tease
his light brown curls.
We compose our own music
as, softly, the grass grows.
Get to know Patricia
Some Favorite Books:
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Cheyenne Autumn by Mari Sandoz
Graining the Mare; The Poetry of Ranch Women, edited by Tereasa
Jordan
Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser
Favorite Children's Book: Where the Red Fern Grows
Favorite Color: Peach
Favorite Song: Amazing Grace
Favorite Place: Home
Dream Trips: Travel Ireland, Cruise Alaska, Rail Southern
Canada
Quote Me: Laughter is always
a gift worth giving.
Favorite Quote:
"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all of your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fear." Cesare Pavese
Email Patricia