Larry K. Brown

LARRY K. BROWN: A fifth generation published writer, Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Nebraska in 1960 before entering the U.S. Air Force, where he spent the next twenty years as an Information/Public Affairs officer. During his military career, he graduated from Boston University in 1970 with a Master of Science degree in Public Relations/Mass Communications before earning additional post-graduate credits in Mass Communications at the University of Oklahoma.

In 1980, he went to work for the Sun Company, Inc. and, five years later, was named Director, Public Relations & Communications for Sun Exploration and Production Company, the Sun Company, Inc.'s oil and gas subsidiary. During that time, he gained graduate credits in historical studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. In 1986, Brown joined the staff of the American Heart Association (AHA)'s national headquarters and the following year moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, as the Executive Director, AHA-Wyoming, Inc. He left AHA in 1993 to research and write about the West and its history.

His writing credits include six books. Wyoming Writers, Inc. honored his Hog Ranches of Wyoming: Liquor, Lust, and Lies Under Sagebrush Skies [Glendo, WY: High Plains Press] in 1995 with a "Western Horizon Award." The following year, Cambridge University Press, England, the oldest press in the world, selected the book's text for inclusion in its computerized lexicon. The electronic database is designed for use as a tool for language researchers in creating dictionaries and other reference books for students learning English as a second language. The Old Pen Joint Powers Board in Rawlins, WY, published his Petticoat Prisoners of the Wyoming Frontier Prison (1995) while his third, fourth and fifth books, You are Respectfully Invited to Attend My Execution (1997), Petticoat Prisoners of Old Wyoming (2001) and Coyotes and Canaries: Characters Who made the West Wild . . . and Wonderful! (2002) - a recipient of a coveted Wyoming State Historical Society "Historical Publication Award" - were published by High Plains Press. Brown worked with the State of Wyoming's Department of State Parks & Cultural Resources (Division of Cultural Resources), officials in developing a series of "Coyotes and Canaries" videos featuring characters in his book.

His last book for High Plains Press, Bad in the Good Old Days, contains thirteen little know stories about some of the most unusually notorious men and women criminals, who ever rode the a western range. It was published in 2008.

His writings appear as well in such books as Buckskin, Bullets, and Beans: Good Eats and Good Reads from the Western Writers of America (Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Publishing, 1997), The Wyoming Almanac (Laramie, WY: Skyline West Press, annually since 1994), and, Outlaws and Lawmen of the Old West: The Best of the NOLA Quarterly (Cave Creek, AZ: Barbed Wire Press, 2001).

Brown's "Shoot Out the Old Year" article, which originally appeared in the July-September 1997 issue of NOLA Quarterly, was but one of only twenty-five stories selected of many written by members since the National Outlaw and Lawman Association was founded in 1974.

And his articles were featured in such non-fiction publications as the National Cowboy Hall of Fame's Persimmon Hill, Wild West, True West, Old West, American Cowboy, The Roundup of Western Writers of America, Wyoming Magazine; Annals of Wyoming, Wyoming History Journal, plus the journals of the National and Western Outlaw and Lawman associations. His fictional short stories also have been published in the prestigious High Plains Register literary magazine and articles in such non-fiction publications as the National Cowboy Hall of Fame's Persimmon Hill, Wild West, True West, Old West, American Cowboy, The Roundup of Western Writers of America, Wyoming Magazine; Annals of Wyoming, Wyoming History Journal, plus the journals of the National and Western Outlaw and Lawman associations. His fictional short stories also have been published in the prestigious High Plains Register literary magazine.

The Wyoming Council for the Humanities selected Brown, too, to participate in the Council's 1997-1999 Speakers Bureau, while the Wyoming Arts Council (WAC) chose him as one of its guest speakers for its 1997-1998 and 2002-2003 "Arts Across Wyoming" program as well as the 1998-2000 "Tumblewords" program sponsored by WAC, the Western States Arts Federation, and the Lannan Foundation.

Brown, who was the Membership Chairman for Western Writers of America 1999 thru 2008, makes his home in Cheyenne with his wife, Florence. The couple have four grown children.