Helena Festival of the Book
2011
All events Saturday, November 12, 2011
Home • Schedule of Events
at Montana Historical Society
225 North Roberts - 444-269
11:00 a.m. – Thomas Savage's Novel Lona Hanson
a presentation by Alan Weltzien
Savage (1915-2003) was an extraordinary chronicler of the American West, and Lona Hanson was one of his best-selling novels. It was recently re-issued by Riverbend Publishing/Drumlummon Institute. Weltzein is a long-time English professor at The University of Montana Western in Dillon and a lively, engaging expert on Savage’s works. When Savage’s novel The Pass was reissued just a few years ago, reviewer Jenny Shank of New West wrote, “I’d never heard of Thomas Savage until I came across The Pass, and after falling into this beautiful, multi-layered, funny, heart-wrenching novel of the Montana prairie, I’m kicking myself for not reading his books sooner.” Come see why you’ll want to read this amazing voice in Montana literature.
1:00 p.m. - I Do: A Cultural History of Montana Weddings
by Martha Kohl
Martha Kohl, author of I Do: A Cultural History of Montana Weddings, will share stories of weddings throughout the last 150 years of Montana history, from the 1860s gold rush to the internet age. Kohl’s fascinating research and winning presence take us into the lives of ordinary people—Finnish homesteaders, Chinese restaurateurs, Métis fiddlers, struggling miners, Blackfeet students, Jewish merchants, and more—on one of the most important days of their lives. A book you never thought you’d see, and won’t want to put down
2:00 pm - Book signing and reception with coffee and cookies provided by the Friends of the Montana Historican Society
2:30 - Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana
by Chere Jiusto and Christine Brown, authors, with Tom Ferris, photographer
Authors Christine Brown and Chere Juisto, with photographer Tom Ferris, will discuss their new, extremely popular architectural history, Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana. Hand Raised, which includes lavish and beautiful photographs by Tom Ferris, details the history and significance of the hand-crafted stone barns, round barns, Dutch barns, and log barns that are symbols of the agricultural settlement that transformed Montana's landscape and culture. Come learn what Montana’s historic barns can tell us about life in Montana, past and present.
at the Holter Museum of Art
12 East Lawrence - 442-6400
6:00 pm – Authors' Reception
7:00 pm - Gala Reading featuring Lee Ann Roripough and Montana's new poet laureate, Sheryl Noethe
Sheryl Noethe's second book of poetry The Ghost Openings won the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Award and the William Stafford Poetry Award. Her most recent collection, As Is, was published by Lost Horse Press in 2009. Widely anthologized, Noethe is the founder and artistic director of the Missoula Writing Collaborative, which sends published poets into the public schools to teach children to write poetry.
Lee Ann Roripaugh’s third volume of poetry, On the Cusp of a Dangerous Year, was released by Southern Illinois University Press in 2009. A second volume, Year of the Snake, also published by Southern Illinois University Press, was named winner of the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award in Poetry/Prose for 2004. Her first book, Beyond Heart Mountain (Penguin Books, 1999), was a 1998 winner of the National Poetry Series, and was selected as a finalist for the 2000 Asian American Literary Awards. The recipient of a 2003 Archibald Bush Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, she was also named the 2004 winner of the Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, the 2001 winner of the Frederick Manfred Award for Best Creative Writing awarded by the Western Literature Association, and the 1995 winner of the Randall Jarrell International Poetry Prize.
Sponsored by:
and by:
Writers and authors
who live right here.