Montana Center for the Book, Great Reads from Great Places Selections Announced
The Montana Center for the Book is thrilled to announce that it has selected two books for the 2024 Great Reads from Great Places program as part of the Roadmap to Reading at the National Book Festival. These titles are representative of Montana’s local and regional literary and cultural heritage.
The titles chosen are: The Lost Journals of Sacajawea, by Debra Magpie Earling (adult selection), and Bob Marshall: Defender of the Wilderness, written by Linda Elovitz Marshall and illustrated by Jeanne Bowman (children’s selection).
Lost Journals of Sacajawea by Debra Magpie Earling
The Lost Journals of Sacajawea
In The Lost Journals of Sacajawea, Montana author Debra Magpie Earling challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajawea. She brings to life a mythologized figure, while casting an unsparing light on the men who brutalized her and re-centering Sacajawea as the arbiter of her own history. Written in lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Lost Journals of Sacajawea is an astonishing work of art and a powerful tale of perseverance—the Indigenous woman’s story that hasn’t been told. The Lost Journals of Sacajawea was the winner of the 2023 Montana Book Award.
Bob Marshall: Defender of the Wilderness by Linda Elovitz Marshall and Jeanne Bowman
Bob Marshall: Defender of the Wilderness
Bob Marshall: Defender of the Wilderness, is by author Linda Elovitz Marshall and Montana-based illustrator Jeanne Bowman. This book celebrates the life and accomplishments of Bob Marshall, who through his own efforts at work with the U.S. government, saved five million acres of American wilderness and inspired the protection of over 110 million acres of wilderness. Bob Marshall: Defender of the Wilderness offers children the story of Bob Marshall and his passion for the outdoors.
Charles Finn and Barbara Michelman
Photopoetry: Photography and Poetry as a Single Canvas
Montana Conversations welcomes Charles Finn and Barbara Michelman and their program, Photopoetry: Photography and Poetry as a Single Canvas, to the speakers bureau! Their book, On a Benediction of Wind: Poems and Photographs from the American West won the 2022 Montana Book Award.
In this program, Havre-based poet Charles Finn and Missoula photographer Barbara Michelman will lead a lecture, discussion, reading, and slideshow focusing on the history of photography and poetry as seen through the increasingly popular genre combining the two—photopoetry, including its importance and place in Montana and the West. Leaning heavily on historical and current examples from their award-winning collaboration, On a Benediction of Wind: Poems and Photographs from the American West, as well as from other Montana authors and photographer teams, Finn and Michelman will discuss the art of combining words and images that, when skillfully done, are greater than the sum of their parts. We welcome Charles and Barbara to Montana Conversations!
Fire burning at Pictograph State Park on March 16, 2024, during Dave Caserio’s Writing Montana program
Montana Conversations
On a chilly, damp, Montana Saturday morning, Dave Caserio presented his Writing Montana program to 26 participants, during vernal equinox. In this workshop, writers and non-writers were guided to observe the natural world and explore the historical, cultural, and geographical background of Pictograph State Park.
Dave’s Writing Montana program began with a brief discussion of the writing process and the purpose of the workshop, while enlisting the expertise of a local guide for a short tour and orientation of the workspace. Writers wandered and explored to find inspiration for their own writing. At the end of their time together, participants gathered to share their work.
Writing Montana, like all Montana Conversations programs, is free and open to the public. If your organization is interested in booking a program, please visit our Montana Conversations page to learn more!
