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Name: Lori Van Pelt
Website: http://www.lorivanpelt.com
Lori Van Pelt is an award-winning poet, fiction and nonfiction writer. Her short fiction won the Western Writers of America Spur Award in 2006 and was named a finalist by that same group in 2008. Short stories have appeared in a half dozen national anthologies, most recently in How the West Was Wicked (Pill Hill Press) and Ghost Towns (Pinnacle Books). Her biography, Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit (Forge, American Heroes series) was named to the New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age" list, and she has also authored two books on Wyoming history published by High Plains Press. Recent short nonfiction has been published in The Wyoming Woman and WyoHistory.org. Lori won a 2010 Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry from the Wyoming Arts Council and has completed her first book of poetry. She lives with her husband, Eugene Walck, Jr. on their cattle ranch near Saratoga, Wyo.
Lori enjoys reading short fiction by a wide variety of authors including Louis L'Amour, Ron Carlson and Lorrie Moore. She uses free-writing techniques to produce rough drafts that help lead her to her finished poetry and prose. Lori's high school English teacher encouraged her early poetry-writing efforts and was instrumental in Lori's becoming a writer. Lori continues to correspond with Mrs. Edens, who remains a cherished friend. Lori received her Associate's degree in business from Nebraska Western College in 1981, worked in the banking industry for a decade and then earned a B.S. in Finance with honors in 1993 from the University of Wyoming. She plays classical music on her flute in duet with local trombonist Robby Follum and is learning to play bridge.
