Montana Conversations and Speakers in the Schools presenters are available for bookings this fall and winter! Work with trained facilitators who lead various Montana-based cultural conversations and speakers who guide students in literature workshops and history discussions. Our speakers bureau programs are always free and available to museums, libraries, community organizations, schools, and more. With these programs, Humanities Montana covers honoraria and travel costs associated with the speaker presentations. Montana Conversations applications have a $75.00 co-pay that can be waived upon request, and Speakers in the Schools applications are always free. To learn how to book these programs, visit our webpages for Montana Conversations or Speakers in the Schools.
Montana’s Poet Laureate
The Montana State Poet Laureate, Chris La Tray, who is a Métis storyteller and Little Shell Chippewa, has been busy traveling Montana presenting his “Montana’s Poet Laureate” program!
The program explores La Tray’s approach to the practice of poetry, which he models on the spiritual life of an Anishinaabe person. La Tray notes that 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 with the recognition that everything that happens may be viewed as a poem and that every moment in life is an experience best given constant and careful attention, then every footstep becomes a poem.
Whether as words on a page or shared orally, poetry becomes a 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, no matter how you define it, is a beautiful means for doing so. Discover “Montana’s Poet Laureate” on our website.
The Montana Center for the Book Attends the 2024 High Plains Book Awards
Representatives from the Montana Center for the Book attended the 2024 High Plains Book Awards at the Billings Public Library in Billings in early October. Congratulations to Montana Conversations Speaker Christopher Preston, who won best nonfiction for Tenacious Beasts at the book awards!
Moreover, the Montana Center for the Book’s 2023 Great Reads from Great Places author, Bryce Andrews, won two awards this year! Andrews took home best creative nonfiction and the Big Sky awards this year for his book, Holding Fire. To learn more about their books and the High Plains Book Awards, visit the High Plains Book Awards website.
