Writer-in-Residence

Bradley A. Evans is the Writer-in-Residence at The Avon in Silverton, Colorado. Inspired in part by Ernest Hemingway’s time at The Lodge in Sun Valley, Evans works in seclusion in Silverton, a remote Victorian mining town located at 9,318 feet in the San Juan Mountains.

The Avon—built in 1904, renovated in the 1970s, and restored in 2017—is a historic hotel, live music venue, and bar. Evans describes it as “a confluence of art, irreverence, and high-altitude eccentricity—where Paris’s Beat Hotel in its Burroughs-and-Ginsberg era meets Aspen’s Hotel Jerome during Hunter S. Thompson’s campaign for sheriff.”

Evans first visited The Avon in the fall of 2025 while traveling across the country. His route took him through Birmingham, New Orleans, Galveston, Austin, Santa Fe, Telluride, Aspen, Little Rock, and Memphis. Originally planning to stay in Telluride, he made a detour to Silverton and was drawn to the town’s dirt streets, the historic Carnegie Library, and the infamous lobby of The Avon.

Fear and Loathing in Aspen—the Hunter S. Thompson biopic written and directed by Bobby Kennedy III—was filmed at The Avon, selected for its resemblance to Aspen and Hotel Jerome during the 1960s–70s.

From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, The Avon was one of southern Colorado’s most notable hotels. Today, it is undergoing a revival. Silverton sits two hours from Telluride and four hours from Aspen—far enough to feel remote, but close enough for those in the know.