Mark your dance card for the Humanities Montana Festival of the Book, October 28-30 in downtown Missoula!

Festivities begin Thursday night October 28th with a kick-off party at the Top Hat—one of Missoula's favorite literary haunts—to benefit Cutbank, The University of Montana Creative Writing Program's literary journal. Friday morning the five-ring circus begins with over 75 authors reading, greeting, signing, and discussing straight through till Saturday night when the Festival will wrap up its eleventh year with a Gala Reading at the Wilma Theatre. In between take part in the Festival Poetry Slam, catch readings by some of the West's most compelling new voices, and meet your favorite writers at the Friday evening Author Reception. Join nationally recognized writers including Robert Wrigley, Benjamin Percy, Jess Walter, Alison Hagy, Jim Lynch, and many, many more at the inland Northwest's biggest literary event.

Also look for these festivals in your region... (see next month's newsletter for more information)

• High Plains Bookfest, Billings, October 7-10
• Helena Festival of the Book, November 4-6
• Children's Festival of the Book, Bozeman, November 6

Reflections On..."Otherness"

Chris Love facilitates Reflections On..."Otherness" using Imtiaz Dharker's poem "They'll Say: 'She Must Be From Another Country'" to initiate discussion about judgment, assumption and defiance.

"Reflections On..." discussions are an online extension of Reflect: Community Readings and Conversations, a Humanities Montana program designed for communities, nonprofit groups, and government organizations that uses literature to provoke conversation about civic engagement.

Join Discussion of Hugo's Selected Poems

Frances McCue, author of The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs: Revisiting the Northwest Towns of Richard Hugo, is leading an online discussion of Richard Hugo's Selected Poems from July through December. Go to the Humanities Roundtable and join the conversation. And consider hosting a reading and discussion of this year's One Book Montana in your town. For much more information about materials available to spark your discussions, email Kim Anderson or call her at 243-6022.

Major NEH Grants to Two Montana Organizations

Congratulations to the Montana Historical Society and the Montana Preservation Alliance for receiving major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Historical Society received a $179,998 Landmarks of American History grant for two one-week workshops for 80 school teachers on gold, silver, and copper mining in the American West. The Preservation Alliance received a $49,146 Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant to develop the Touchstone Project, an interactive online archive of local history and cultural heritage that links local digital repositories to the online Montana Memory Project.

Upcoming Grant Proposal Deadlines

Our next deadline for grants $5,000 and less is November 20. Full information on grant guidelines and deadlines is available at Grants.

September Humanities Montana-Supported Events

To find out about Humanities Montana-sponsored events, visit our online Calendar.

Support the Humanities in Montana

What happens when you teach kids how to use digital cameras and conduct oral histories, then set them loose on their town? What happens when we take the time to share our histories? Or sit and listen to a story with our children? What happens when a whole town gathers to hold community conversations? Or when people from across the state meet each year to celebrate books? What happens is humanities magic. While we receive base funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, your gift-whether through Humanities Montana's annual fund drive, its endowment with the Montana Community Foundation, a bequest, or some other way-will bring the humanities, their insights and joys, to ever more Montanans, now and in the future. We especially welcome planned gifts, which often qualify Montana donors for generous tax credits. Gifts are tax-deductible under the IRS 501(c)(3) category of nonprofit educational organizations and may be donor-restricted to specific programs or purposes. Gifts may also be matched by the National Endowment for the Humanities or other funding entities. If you would like to donate today via credit card click here or contact Ken Stolz.

Thanks to our Generous Supporters—August 2010

Organizations
Billings Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
First Interstate Bank Billings
Friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula
Friends of the Madison Valley Public Library
Front Street Capital Management
Grandma Georgie Books
Lewistown Area Chamber of Commerce
Montana Arts Council
Stoneydale Press Publishing Co.

Individuals
Rose Marie Aus**
Jean Lemire Dahlman**
Margaret S. Davis** in honor of Jamie and Jock Doggett
Julie Dial*
Stephen L. Fenter**
Paul Filicetti*
Yvonne Gritzner**
Danell Jones**
Twylla McPherson
Christopher Pinet**
Richard S. Sims
Corby Skinner**
Nicolet G. Whearty**

*Current Board and Staff Members
**Former Board and Staff Members

For More Information...

Humanities Montana is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the humanities to Montana, enriching the intellectual, cultural, and civic lives of its residents. Much more information on Humanities Montana and its many programs and services is available on our website. Write us at 311 Brantly, Missoula, MT, 59812-7848, or info@humanitiesmontana.org, or call us at 406-243-6022, toll-free in Montana, 1-800-624-6001.