Wyoming Arts Council

Bo Moore of Green River, winner of the 2007 Frank Nelson Doubleday memorial writing award, has a new book. Writing under the pen name Dexa! Dog, the title is “Raw Days/Candid Views on Manic Depression and the Human Condition.” The book is available on amazon.com using search words Dexa! Dog or Raw Days. Here’s the link to the book’s amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Days-Candid-Depression-Condition/dp/1440405263/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225464511&sr=1-1. You can also e-mail Bo at dexadog at ymail.com and she will sell you a copy. Bo says that she is working on two more books as Dexa! Dog.

Here’s how amazon.com describes the book:

Candid essays on manic depression from a bipolar writer. Her experiences have launched personal, cultural and social inquiry into how we understand ourselves in the interplay between physical reality and the mind.

Here’s what Colorado writer and 2007 Blanchan/Doubleday judge Laurie Wagner Buyer has to say about Raw Days:

Dexa Dog may be an alias, but the woman behind the mask in Raw Days delves deeply into the essence of identity and what it means to be alive in a troubled culture. While not even the best scientists or spiritual leaders know why the human mind works or does not work, Dexa Dog does a beautiful job of exploring the dark labyrinths and circuitous passages into how we define reality and how we fail at supporting brilliant minds that function outside the box of what most consider normalcy.

Whatever label one wishes to place on the condition called bipolar, manic depression or mood disorder, it is clear that people who live, work and create within this altered state of being are both blessed and cursed. Stretching our somewhat staid literary parameters by blending memoir, poetry and commentary on today’s culture, Raw Days is a must read for anyone who is intrigued with the ever-expanding universe called the human mind.

Interesting that Bo’s book arrives in the same month in which Congress approved mental health parity legislation that, according to Mental Health America, “will broadly outlaw health insurance discrimination against Americans with mental health and substance-use conditions in employer-sponsored health plans.” Good news for the estimated 67 percent of adults and 80 percent of children requiring mental health services who do not get it.

Next week, Nov. 5-6, is the Governor’s Roundtable on Children’s Mental Health at Little America in Cheyenne. Guest speakers include Governor Dave Freudenthal (of course), Dr. Brent Sherard, Rodger McDaniel and Beth Stroul, among many others. There will be music by recording artists Lindsay Rush and a session about the fantastic Wyoming Sage Photovoice Project that features visual diaries of teens and families with mental health issues. Perhaps you saw the recent exhibition at Metro Coffee in Casper. All conference events are free, but you have to register for luncheon and banquet. Get more info at Wyoming Uplift.

It always comes back to the arts, doesn’t it?