Author Announcements
Mountain Words Festival brings together a diverse lineup of nationally and internationally acclaimed authors and presenters for a three-day celebration at nine thousand feet.
Stay tuned—exciting author announcements are coming your way! We’re thrilled to reveal a lineup of incredible voices you won’t want to miss at the Mountain Words Festival. Keep an eye out as we share new names and exclusive details in the months ahead!
Tickets and passes on sale January 2026!
Terry Tempest Williams
REFUGE: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Big news! Terry Tempest Williams, author of over 20 books, will be joining the 2026 Mountain Words Festival as a key speaker!
Terry Tempest Williams is a celebrated author, naturalist, and passionate advocate for environmental and social justice. Known for her eloquent and fearless voice, she has spent her career showing how environmental issues are deeply intertwined with human rights and ethics. Called a “citizen writer,” Williams’ work challenges us to reimagine power, equity, and our connection to the natural world. Her acclaimed books, including Refuge, When Women Were Birds, and The Hour of Land, are considered classics of environmental literature.
Over her distinguished career, Williams has testified before Congress, collaborated with artists and photographers worldwide, and received numerous honors, including the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She currently serves as writer-in-residence at Harvard Divinity School and co-founded the Constellation Project, dedicated to imagination, creativity, and planetary health. Whether camping in remote wilderness, working as a “barefoot artist” in Rwanda, or speaking from the world’s most prestigious stages, Williams inspires restoration—of the land, of the sacred, and of our shared humanity.
Nina McConigley
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
Nina McConigley, author of Cowboys and East Indians, will be joining the 2026 Mountain Words Festival as a featured presenter!
Nina McConigley is an award-winning author whose work explores identity, belonging, and the intersections of culture in the American West. Her short story collection, Cowboys and East Indians, won the PEN Open Book Award and the High Plains Book Award, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Orion, Ploughshares, Salon, and American Short Fiction, among others.
The recipient of numerous honors—including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard, and recognition from the Wyoming Arts Council—McConigley is known for her sharp wit, insight, and ability to illuminate the complexities of immigrant life in rural America. Her play Cowboys and East Indians was recently commissioned by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and presented at the Colorado New Play Summit in 2024.
She currently teaches at Colorado State University and in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. Looking ahead, McConigley will release her debut novel How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder with Pantheon Books in 2026, along with an essay collection from the University of Georgia Press.
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We can’t wait to meet you in the mountains.
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As a non-profit organization, contributions from supporters are essential to our ability to continue the important work of uniting communities through the power of storytelling while keeping the Festival open and accessible to all communities.
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