Podcast Debut Features Wiesner Media’s Darla Worden
An accomplished Author, Wiesner Media Vice President, and Editor in Chief of two magazines, Worden is used to wearing many hats
Photo: Amy Stark
“Scaling New Heights” is the title of the inaugural episode of Hamilton House Media’s podcasts and focuses on the career of Wiesner Media’s Darla Worden. Worden currently serves as vice president of Wiesner Media and editor in chief of both Mountain Living and Colorado Homes & Lifestyles magazines. She provides invaluable mentorship and is a wealth of knowledge about the Mountain West. An acclaimed author, she wrote Cockeyed Happy: Ernest Hemingway’s Wyoming Summers with Pauline.
The granddaughter of homesteaders in Wyoming and Montana, Worden was raised in Sheridan, Wyoming. Fueled by an innate sense of curiosity, and what she refers to as a “homesteader mentality,” she learned that strength of conviction and tenacity puts impossible dreams entirely within reach.
Darla Worden, V.P. Weisner Media, Editor-in-Chief Mountain Living and Colorado Homes. | Photo: Eleanor Williamson
Cockeyed Happy by Darla Worden. | Courtesy of Chicago Review Press
A Wyoming cowgirl turned Parisian author, the podcast episode explores Worden’s long-standing interest in Ernest Hemingway, her early career as an entrepreneur and founder of a public relations firm in Jackson, Wyoming, her flourishing career at Wiesner Media, and her work as a successful author. Her experience wearing these many “hats” has contributed to Worden’s depth of knowledge about architecture, design, and history through what she refers to as, “random coincidences that somehow work together.”
Her interest in Hemingway’s summers in her hometown gave Worden the impetus to begin researching his life from 1928 to 1939. Acquiring private letters between Hemingway and his wife, Pauline, along with documents and history of the time gave Worden the reference material for Hemingway’s life during these years. Thorough research provided the backbone for the budding novel occupying a place in Worden’s imagination.
Photo: Courtesy of Left Bank Writers Retreat
The pandemic isolation afforded Worden the quiet time and space to begin writing. Approaching the task like a full-time job, Worden wrote daily. She combines quotes, dialogue, and facts to create accurate and compelling storytelling. The finished project is a creative non-fiction book that “reads like a novel” and faithfully conveys the time and place of those warm months in Wyoming long ago.
Inspired by travel, Worden conceived the idea of The Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris while on a trip there herself. The encouragement of a family friend led to the establishment of the retreat, which is an annual event accommodating eight individuals dedicated to the creative arts. Exploring the Parisian neighborhoods favored by Hemingway, and experiencing the magic of French culinary tradition, landscape and art, and a lifestyle differing from the everyday, is designed to foster inspiration and fellowship.
Photo: Courtesy of Left Bank Writers Retreat
For Hemingway fans, Worden promises a future project now in the works focusing on his life in Paris during his later years.
To listen to Hamilton House Media podcasts hosted by Suzanna Hamilton, please visit the website or find them on your favorite source for podcasts including Apple, Spotify, and iHeart Radio. Cockeyed Happy: Ernest Hemingway’s Wyoming Summers with Pauline can be purchased wherever fine books are sold.
