For the final episode of Breakfast in Montana, Russell Rowland and Charles Finn talk to poet Mary Jane Nealon about her remarkable memoir, Beautiful Unbroken, which was the recipient of the Bakeless Prize for Non-fiction, which is awarded by the Breadloaf Foundation. Nealon’s account of working with AIDS patients in New York City just after the epidemic broke out is heartbreaking but also filled with a surprising amount of hope about how we can all find peace and redemption through our good works.

We also talk about the work of a woman who has served as one of Mary Jane’s most trusted mentors, Montana poet Sandra Alcosser, who has been a professor in Missoula for decades, and her collection, A Fish to Feed All Hunger.

For this episode, we were also happy to feature the music of John Lowell, from his album The Long Stretch of Gravel.

You can find out more about John’s music here:  John Lowell

I would like to extend my personal thanks to Aaron Parrett for co-hosting this podcast for the past five years, and Charles Finn for c0-hosting the last two episodes. And I would like to especially thank all of the authors who agreed to participate in this exploration of the best of Montana literature. And our sponsors, below.

Sponsors

Breakfast in Montana is sponsored by Isle of Books in Bozeman, Montana, and The Bookstore in Dillon, Montana. We have also received generous support from the Montana Arts Council, as well as from many of our listeners. If we talk about a book you’d like to order, we strongly encourage you to order them through these fine bookstores by clicking on the links below.