Pam Steele, a former resident of Wallowa known for her poetry, has published her first novel, “Greasewood Creek.”

Steele held her first reading in Wallowa County in Joseph before Thanksgiving, and will now be hosted at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, by the Wallowa Public Library.

Steele, who now lives in Echo, remains active in such local activities as Tamkaliks and Fishtrap. She lived in Wallowa for five years as a child and later for 11 years as an adult, and maintains many friendships here.

Steele said that she studied poetry in a master of fine arts program at Spalding University in Louisville, Ky. After graduating in 2004, she wrote three short stories about the same character, but was unsuccessful in turning them into a novel.

Three years later she took a year-long novel workshop. “I shudder now to think I submitted those horrible short stores to Jane Vandenburgh as my admission proposal for the workshop,” she said.

“Greasewood Creek” is based in Eastern Oregon, but Steele said it’s “not very” autobiographical and only one character is modeled on a real person, a Vietnam vet who worked on ranches all over the West.

“None of the major events happened to me, personally, but some of the day-to-day experiences did, especially those involving horses and cattle,” Steele said.

She is now working on her second novel.