Montana has a rich history of high quality literature, and nobody can really explain why. But for the past century, Montana, or Montana writers, have produced many of the most influential books to come out of the West. The reputation has become such that many established writers move here and adopt the state, as with Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison, Rick Bass, and Debra Magpie Earling, the most recent chairman of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Montana.

But Montana’s strong reputation was mostly built on the backs of wonderful writers who were grew up in Montana, writers like A.B. Guthrie, Dorothy Johnson, Ivan Doig, and Norman Maclean.

Breakfast in Montana is a podcast where two Montana writers, Russell Rowland and Aaron Parrett, discuss two Montana books per episode, in an effort to explore what it is about this state that inspires so much incredible literature. In each episode, Rowland and Parrett will discuss one book from the past and one contemporary book, in hopes of giving some of the rising stars more of a platform for their work, as well as bringing new life to some books that are in danger of being forgotten.