On June 1st, author Peter Anderson released First Church of the Higher Elevations with Conundrum Press and before the upcoming academic year will be driving cross country to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire with his wife, his two daughters, his fifteen-year-old dog, and, “only because [his] lovely wife insists on it,” two cats.

       Bennett Fellows, authors who have not yet published a novel, are awarded a one year fellowship which involves a stipend, meals, housing, and an office on campus in order to provide the writer the necessary time and freedom to get serious work done on writing, with special focus on writing a novel. Looking forward to the upcoming year, Anderson said, “I’ve only attempted fiction in the form of a few short stories and that was thirty years ago, so writing a novel, if I can pull it off, will be a major change.”

     “I will be finishing up a collection of short prose sketches and prose poems that Conundrum will be publishing next year, I hope. The working title is Nightlife. It consists of a number of short pieces about living in an end-of-the-road town in the American West. I will also be working on a novel set in a town not unlike my hometown of Crestone, Colorado. It is a story about someone gone missing in the Sangre de Cristos and an unlikely team of investigators,including a retired English professor and a former rancher turned Zen deputy sheriff, who try and find out what happened.

Anderson will be returning to the east coast after moving out west forty years ago. Future explorations and meditations, like those he described in First Church, will be put on hold for more “novel” pursuits.  “I will be catching up with some old friends and I’m sure some old memories will be catching up with me,” he said, “No doubt we’ll have a little play time on the Atlantic and on a few eastern rivers and mountains, but for the most part I hope to dwell in a few imagined places and bring them to life. In other words, I hope to hunker down and try and write a novel.

More info on the Bennett Fellows can be found here, and First Church of the Higher Elevations can be purchased online from Conundrum Press or anywhere fine books are sold.