S. J.  Dahlstrom

Mentoring Authors: How I Was Mentored and How I Return the Favor 

 S.J. Dahlstrom presents how he was mentored by West Texas writer John R. Erickson and how he passes along those lessons to his creative writing students.

 

 Several Lubbock middle school students will speak and reflect on what they have learned. 

 

S.J. Dahlstrom lives and writes in West Texas with his wife and children. A fifth-generation Texan, Dahlstrom’s Wilder Good series is a four-time winner of the Wrangler Western Heritage Award, the Will Rogers Medallion six times, a finalist for the Lamplighter Award four times, and a Spur award along with two Spur finalists from the Western Writers of America.

Interested in all things outdoors and creative, he writes poetry while bowhunting and collects wildflower seeds when doing ranch work. He lives by the twin mottos ‘Be Wilder’ and ‘Find Beauty’ and is happiest when he doesn’t have to comb his hair. 

S.J.’s writing draws on his experiences as a cowboy, husband, father— and founder of Whetstone Boys Ranch. He says, “I wrote these stories about Wilder Good for kids who grew up in the outdoors and for kids who long for the outdoors…working, fishing, hunting, farms, ranches, mountains and prairies. We should not forget that we have real adventure to offer kids if we can have the courage to turn off our machines and screens and go outside.”