JEFFREY A. LOCKWOOD

The locusts are coming!!! Well, at least Locust: The Opera (an environmental murder mystery with music by Anne Guzzo, libretto by Jeff Lockwood, and set/costumes by Ashley Carlisle) is coming to Laramie. And bringing an opera to the high plains of Wyoming raises some eyebrows and questions. Laramie—really? Well, yes. For centuries opera was the performance art of the people, rather than the wealthy elites. The nobility was often satirized, resulting in some wonderfully u

I recently spent two weeks in Grand Teton National Park on a writing retreat. I’d been there before, but this time I adopted a contrarian perspective. My project became finding the most iconic views—and then looking away to truly see this marvelous place. Then, the question became one of writing constraints. Sticking with the iconoclastic tactic of focusing on what one is not supposed to be observing, I chose death. To described the anti-sights, I decided to use exactly

The following essay was written for my nature/environment column on the Unitarian Universalist World website (https://www.uuworld.org/authors/jeffreylockwood). However, the editors decided that the content was too politically sensitive, that even the most liberal of religions was too politically polarized, and that too many readers would engage the work uncharitably and be offended. Censorship? Not really (I respect the editors’ judgment). But a heartbreaking state of aff

So, what is being said about Behind the Carbon Curtain in Wyoming, the most politically conservative state in the country? In the last few months, I’ve spoken—and listened—in seven cities and towns: Casper, Cheyenne, Gillette, Lander, Laramie, Rawlins, and Sheridan (Jackson is slated for September 14th). That’s a fair sampling from which I offer three observations. First, the people of the state are remarkably civil. Folks have directly but politely challenged my conclusio

I wrote Behind the Carbon Curtain, The Energy Industry, Political Censorship and Free Speech over the course of 5 years—and it will be released in April (http://www.unmpress.com/books.php?ID=20000000006024). When I began, I couldn’t imagine that the president of the United States would evince utter disdain for the First Amendment. This book tells the stories of artists, scientists, and educators silenced by the energy industry in collusion with the government. I hope that m

Talk about darkly fortuitous timing! With the furor over censorship these days, readers should flock to my forthcoming book, Behind the Carbon Curtain: The Energy Industry, Political Censorship, and Free Speech (UNM Press, March 2017). Well, at least left-leaning readers because, as one might infer from the title, the book explores the ways in which those whose wealth and power derived from fossil fuels have manipulated government to shut down artists, fire scientists, and