Life After Dead Pool shortlisted for a Reading the West Book Award

Voting is open until May 31

Thanks to everyone who has picked up a copy of Life After Dead Pool over the last six months, selected it for your book club, or attended one of my events. I’ve loved taking the story of Glen Canyon’s recovery out on the road and meeting so many great people along the way.

The events have finally slowed down, but there’s been some great recent news in the awards department. Life After Dead Pool is a shortlist title for the Reading the West Book Awards, and I need your help.

If you’ve enjoyed the book, please go to ReadingTheWest.com and vote for it in the nonfiction category by Saturday, May 31. My publisher, Torrey House Press, has been hit hard by DOGE cuts as have the humanities nationwide. A Reading the West Award would be huge for the Utah-based nonprofit publisher and for my account of the Glen Canyon Dam’s increasing obsolescence.

VOTING IS OPEN NOW

I’m also pleased to announce that Utah Humanities has selected Life After Dead Pool as one of the 2025 Utah Book Award finalists in nonfiction. Winners will be announced this summer.

Utah Humanities is a tireless supporter of authors in the state, and I’ve been fortunate to attend many events they’ve sponsored since Confluence was published in 2019. In another DOGE-related attack, the National Endowment for the Humanities operating grant that helped keep Utah Humanities afloat has been terminated. I recommend fellow Torrey House Press author and Utah Center for the Book program manager Kase Johnstun’s op-ed in The Salt Lake Tribune for more details.

Finally, I’ll be the guest author on a Holiday River Expeditions trip down Cataract Canyon from September 7-12, 2025. Feel free to spread the word!

That’s all for now.

Drain it,

Zak