2023-25 Montana Poet Laureate

Chris La Tray is an Anishinaabe/Métis storyteller, a descendent of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North and a citizen of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. His multi-award winning third book, Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, was published by Milkweed Editions on August 20, 2024. His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large (2018, Riverfeet Press) won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award. His book of haiku and haibun poetry, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, was published in 2021 by Foothills Publishing.

Chris served as the 2025 Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Montana and was awarded the 2025 Montana Heritage Keeper Award by the Montana Historical Society. He has facilitated workshops for The Missoula Writing Collaborative, Yellowstone Forever, the Freeflow Institute, Writing the Wild, Orion, Torrey House Press, and others.

Chris writes the weekly newsletter “An Irritable Métis” and lives near Frenchtown, Montana. He was the 11th Montana poet laureate (Aug. 2023 – Aug. 2025).

“Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home” was selected to receive the 2025 Great Reads from Great Places award by Humanities Montana and as the focus of One Book Montana, a statewide read.

Poet Laureate Project

Métis storyteller and Little Shell Chippewa member Chris La Tray approaches the practice of poetry the same as he does the spiritual life of an Anishinaabe person: which is to say, if one lives an Anishinaabe life, with particular attention to the seven guiding principles of the Seven Grandfather teachings – Humility, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Truth, Respect, and Love – then every footstep becomes a prayer. Similarly, if one approaches poetry in a similar fashion, recognizing that everything that happens may be viewed as a poem, and that every moment in life is an experience best paid constant and careful attention to, then every footstep becomes a poem. Whether as words on a page or shared orally, poetry becomes another means for telling and sharing stories; La Tray’s programs exist to remind people that their stories matter, that they are the only ones who can properly tell them, and that poetry, however it is defined, is a beautiful means for doing so.