The Humanities Montana Festival of the Book brings together the region’s finest writers to celebrate reading and writing in one of the Inland Northwest’s biggest cultural events. Two days and three nights of events highlighting the incredible richness of Montana’s literary landscape will take place for the 11th straight year, October 28-30, 2010.
Several University of Oklahoma Press authors will take part in the festival during panel discussions and readings on Friday, October 29.
David Emmons will be featured on the panel discussion “History Doesn’t Write Itself”. David is a University of Montana Professor Emeritus of History and now lives with his wife along Rattlesnake Creek just north of downtown Missoula, Montana, and 120 miles northwest and downstream of Butte, the capital of western America’s “Irish Empire.” His new book Beyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West, 1845-1910 explores America’s love-hate relationship with one of its most prominent immigrant groups. David will also be reading from his new book during the festival.
Dan Flores will explore the region’s diversity and richness with personal reflections in his talk “Visions of the Big Sky: Art in the West”. A writer and professor, Flores divides his time between homes in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley and New Mexico. He holds the A. B. Hammond Chair in Western History at the University of Montana, Missoula, where he specializes in the environmental and cultural history of the West. His most recent book is Visions of the Big Sky: Painting and Photography the Northern Rocky Mountain West which blends art and cultural history to explore the region’s character.
Ruth McLaughlin will participate on the panel discussion “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been: The Memoir”. McLaughlin lives in Great Falls, Montana, where she teaches literacy and writing. The grand-daughter of Swedish –American homesteaders, Ruth will also read from her new book Bound Like Grass: A Memoir from the Western High Plains, in which she explores her family’s connection to the land.
Kim Allen Scott will be included on the “Bookishness in Montana: Great Booklovers in Our Past” panel. University Archivist for Montana State University, Kim is the author of the biography Yellowstone Denied, the story of Gustavus Cheyney Doane, one of the men claiming to have “discovered” Yellowstone National Park.
Mark Matthews will read from his latest book Droppers: America’s First Hippie Commune, Drop City which features Missoula resident Eugene Bernofsky. A former wildland firefighter and freelance journalist, Mark is also the author of Smoke Jumping on the Western Fire Line: Conscientious Objectors during World War II and A Great Day to Fight Fire: Mann Gulch, 1949. Currently residing in Arlee, Montana, Mark teaches writing at The University of Montana—College of Technology in Missoula.
For more information about the Humanities Montana Festival of Books and a complete schedule of events please visit:
http://www.humanitiesmontana.org/BookFestival/bookfest.php
