For our ninth episode, we break away from our usual format of talking about two Montana books to focus on a singular Montana writer, Richard Wheeler. Richard has published more than 80 novels in his lifetime, despite not getting published until he was almost fifty years old. His novels have been finalists for the Spur […]

In the eighth episode of Breakfast in Montana, authors Aaron Parrett and Russell Rowland discuss two outstanding memoirs. The first is The Story of Mary MacLane, also known as I Await the Devil’s Coming, a worldwide sensation when it was published in 1902 by a nineteen-year-old aristocrat from Butte. The second is Driven: A White-Knuckled […]

For this episode, we discuss two powerful poetry collections. The first is a collection called Notes for a Novel, by Frieda Fligelman, who was a strong presence in Helena in the early twentieth century, but not that well known as a poet. She was a scholar in linguistics and an activist in many political causes, […]

For Episode Six, Aaron and Russell discuss two underappreciated Montana books. Matt Pavelich published a collection of short stories called Survivors Said, and it includes one of the best short stories either of us have ever read, called “Himself, Adrift.” This story, told from the point of view of Thomas Meagher, the second governor of […]

Ivan Doig was one of the most popular writers from Montana, the author of eleven books, seven of which were novels, including English Creek and Dancing at the Rascal Fair. Three were nonfiction, including the highly acclaimed memoir This House of Sky, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. A former ranch hand, […]

In this episode of Breakfast in Montana, hosts Russell Rowland and Aaron Parrett discuss two books by Montana authors, The Hanging Tree by Dorothy Johnson, and Shaking Out the Dead, by Kate Cholewa. The Hanging Tree was made into a film, one of several Johnson stories that made it to film. We discuss the myth about women writers having a different style.

For the third episode of Breakfast in Montana, we discuss A Good Day to Die, by Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall and other classic novels about the West, as well as a novel by his daughter Jamie Harrison Potenberg called The Widow Nash. There are several interesting parallels between these two novels, despite the fact that they take place in different times and despite the fact that they are very different writers.

For this episode, we discuss two mysteries. Both of these novels feature protagonists that are poets, which makes for an interesting discussion.

The theme of the first episode of Breakfast in Montana was Butte, which has a much richer history of good literature than most people would guess. This episode was produced by Brie Ripley, and features the music of Aaron Parrett and Ricky Skaggs.