In May-June 2020, Alan retired after forty years as a full-time English professor, the first 11 years at Ferrum College (Ferrum, VA) and the past 29, at the University of Montana Western (Dillon, MT). In October 2020, his biography of neglected Montana novelist, Thomas Savage, was published by the University of Nevada Press. It’s titled “Savage West: The Life and Fiction of Thomas Savage.” New Zealand film director, Jane Campion, is releasing, this summer, her own film adaptation of Savage’s best novel, “The Power of the Dog” (1967; rpt. 2001). It’s her first feature-length film since 2009.
More recently, Finishing Line Press is publishing (May 2022) a chapbook of his poems, “Through the Basement of Time.” A smaller, letter-press version of this chapbook (Territorial Press, Helena, MT) was released (50 copies, signed) in April 2021.
A chapbook-length personal essay, “When The Smiles Stopped,” will be published by FootHills Publishing before the end of 2021.