Writer in our midst
After nearly 10 years in the biz, seems The Telegraph is finally getting a little recognition. OK, so it’s recognition by a six-degrees-of-separation sort of thing, but we’ll take it.

This week, regular “La Vida Local” contributor David Feela was nominated for a Colorado Book Award for his latest collection of musings, How Delicate These Arches, published by local outfit Ravens Eye Press.

Feela, who lives in the outerbanks of Montezuma County, said he was a bit surprised by the news that the book was one of four finalists in the Creative Nonfiction category.

“I must say that reports of my impending award might be greatly exaggerated, especially because I have yet to be personally notified of even being a finalist by the Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book,” said Feela via e-mail Wednesday morning.

“I did look on their site and found my title nestled into the category of Creative Nonfiction, and I also got a note out of the blue from a writer friend who told me ‘You are in the top two!’ which I also have no clue about. I hope she’s right.”

When not penning his monthly columns for the Telegraph and the Four Corners Free Press, Feela makes most other writers look like slackers, biding his time writing poetry, free-lance writing and teaching others to do the same. Oh, and he also collects books.

His work has appeared in High Country News, the Mountain Gazette, Utne Reader and as a “Colorado Voice” for the Denver Post. A poetry chapbook, Thought Experiments (Maverick Press), won the Southwest Poet Series. His first full length poetry book, The Home Atlas, is now also available.

Feela’s competition for the award includes: Breaking the Chain: How I Banned Chain Restaurants From My Diet and Went From Full to Fulfilled by Allyson Reedy; Dances in Two Worlds: A Writers-Artist’s Backstory by Thordis Simonsen; and Finding Uri by Sandy Munro.

The ever humble Feela said in closing, “I never knew it could be so much fun writing myself into one of the Four Corners.”