Win Blevins - 1938
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I. Biography Win Blevins is a western historical fiction writer. He has been a professional writer since 1972 and is now the
consulting editor for TOR-Forge Books. Before 1972, he worked regularly for the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner as a reviewer of movies, theater,
and classical music. Blevins also taught at several colleges. Blevins was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 21, 1938, and comes from Welsh,
Irish, and Cherokee ancestory. Like his ancestors, he thrives to go to far, exotic places. When Blevins was young and living on his family farm, his father worked for the railroad.
He went to St. Louis to Texarkana and then to Denver. Blevins and his brother went to school in St. Louis, but spent their summers working for the railroad. He went to several
colleges and universities and at New York's Columbia University got a Master's degree in English with honors. As a young adult, Blevins was in a hurry. He got married young and
had two children. He was in such a hurry that the marriage quickly ended in divorce. He now has a wife-Meredith, two sons, a daughter, and three grandchildren.
Blevins lived in Bozeman, Montana, from 1995-1998. Living in Montana affected his writing by putting him more in contact with Native Americans, especially Crow. Blevins
also has lived in California, Wyoming, and is currently living on the edge of the Navajo reservation in Utah. Blevins was born to write and has wanted to be a writer since he was a child. He gets his
ideas to write from movies, newspapers, conversations, television, and mostly daily life. Blevins likes to read stories about adventure, history, mysteries, and spiritual books. His
favorite writers are Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and E.E. Cummings. Give Your Heart to the Hawks is the title of Blevins first book, which was published in
1972. This book is about mountain men that headed west 30 years before pioneers. Stone Song, a Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse, was published in 1995 and won the Mountains
and Plains Booksellers award for best fiction and the Spur Award for Novel of the West. This book is about Crazy Horse's entire life; including his childhood, his love of the
honors of being a Lakota Warrior, his victory at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and his love for a women. The title of his most current book is Ravenshadow, which was published in 1999. This is
Blevins's first book that takes place in the present. This book is about an alcoholic that tried to commit suicide. This character then decides to make something of his life and
becomes no longer an outcast. The character attends a ceremony about the killings that happened beside Wounded Creek on December 19, 1890. He realizes why his people live in
despair and degradation after reliving the past. Blevins is currently working on a book, which is contemporary, like Ravenshadow. His next book consists of a setting in the
canyon country in Utah near the Four Corners region and the characters include present Navajos, Mormons, archaeologists, ancient Anasazi, aging hippies, and lovers of untamed country.
Blevins has also published three non-fiction books, nine novels, sold five screenplays, including one based on his novel Stone Song, and has written for many newspapers and magazines, including Outside and
Smithsonian. Blevins is going on an adventure… "An adventure is a catastrophe rightly construed." II. Literary Works Ravenshadow III. Blevins on the Web
The Rock Child, A Novel of a Journey
Stone Song, A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse
Give Your Heart to the Hawks, A Tribute to Mountain Men
Dictionary of the American West
Charbonneau: Man of Two Dreams
The Misadventures of Silk and Shakespeare
Roadside History of Yellowstone Park
History from the Highways: Wyoming
The High Missouri, from the River West series
The Yellowstone, from the River West series
The Snake River, from the River West series
Powder River, from the River West series
This essay was submitted by a student of Steve Gardiner, a teacher at Billings Senior High School in Billings, Montana.