Plains & Pages

Plains & Pages has been intertwined with the intellectual life of the University of Wyoming for nearly five decades, serving as an off-campus literary salon where students, professors, and townspeople mingle over shared enthusiasms. The creative writing section is the heart of the store, reflecting the strength of the university's MFA program and the many accomplished writers who have passed through Laramie. The environmental humanities shelf speaks to the unique concerns of life on the high plains, where questions of land use, water rights, and wildlife management are not abstract but immediate and urgent. A rare books room on the second floor holds first editions of Western writers from Willa Cather to Annie Proulx, along with a collection of vintage University of Wyoming press publications. The store hosts a weekly open mic that has launched numerous literary careers, and its annual winter reading series, held during the long dark months when Laramie's winds howl across the plains, is one of the town's most cherished cultural traditions.