An Evening with Becky Jensen in Conversation with David Fanning

Date and Time

Thursday, May 14, 2026 6pm - 7pm

Location

Details

Old Firehouse Books is delighted to welcome Becky Jensen to the store to celebrate her memoir, No Man's Land: Unpacking One Woman's Worth on the Colorado Trail! Becky will be joined by Colorado Hiking Trail Legend David Fanning in store on May 14th from 6:00-7:00PM for a special evening to celebrate her memoir No Man's Land -- a story of personal transformation on the 500-mile Colorado Trail.

10% of all proceeds from book purchases this evening will also be donated to the Alliance for Suicide Prevention of Larimer County. If you'd like to purchase a copy beforehand, they are available on our shelves and online!

Trigger Warning for this event: This book deals with heavy topics such as grief and loss, women's health and safety, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation. If any of this are potential triggers for you, we ask that you think about your own health when considering joining us.

About No Man's Land:

WHAT MAKES A LIFE WORTH LIVING?

At forty-five, Becky Jensen was raising two sons, engaged to be married, living the dream in Colorado. She was also suicidal and had no idea why. What did she have to be depressed about?

The question haunted Jensen, leading her to take a bold step: to hike the five-hundred-mile Colorado Trail in search of answers. Leaving everyone and everything behind, Jensen shouldered a backpack loaded with camping gear, her father's ashes, and the inherited burdens of womanhood-trudging off alone into no man's land.

In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Jensen confronts dangers lurking in the wilderness, including her own internalized misogyny, repressed memories, and suppressed outrage about her undervalued gender. With each mile, she sheds the weight of female conditioning and begins to carry herself differently, finding the strength and clarity to determine not just if she wants to live, but how.

Raw and relatable, No Man's Land will resonate with readers who habitually put their own needs last, crave change in their lives, and seek nature as medicine.

No Man's Land is equal parts gripping survival story, midlife reckoning, and lush nature writing. Perfect for readers who seek memoirs written by women about women, and who are eager for more books like Cheryl Strayed's Wild.

About Becky Jensen:

Becky Jensen is an author, freelance writer, and podcast contributor who lives and works in a little cabin on the Poudre River. In addition to her debut memoir No Man’s Land, she wrote the lead story in Rise: An Anthology of Change, winner of the Colorado Book Award. When she’s not hiking in the mountains, she’s working on her next book about moving in with her mom (who has Alzheimer’s) during a ten-week evacuation from the Cameron Peak wildfire. You can find her at beckyjensenwrites.com.

About David Fanning:

Photographer and author, David Fanning, fell in love with the 500 mile Colorado Trail on his first hike in 2014. Since then, he has hiked the trail an additional seven times, always with the aim of interacting with other trail users to learn their motivations for being on the trail. His book, Voices of the Colorado Trail, documented these ordinary, profound, sad, funny, and inspiring stories of people drawn to the trail for both know and unknown reasons. His own approach to the trail is one of pilgrimage, a walking meditation, which he claims makes him a better father, husband, and friend. Fanning's outstanding photography, self depreciating humor, and philosophical musings and stories about life on the trail are a welcome presence on the trail's social media feeds and make him a well-known presence on the trial.

This event is produced by an outside organization and is unaffiliated with the Downtown Development Authority. The DDA website serves as a marketing outlet for events and promotions occurring inside the Downtown boundary. For questions regarding the event, please contact the event producer.