On a Benediction of  Wind was just named the winner of the Montana Book Award days before we recorded this episode, so we’re thrilled to feature the beautiful poetry of Charles Finn, and talk to him and Barbara Michelman about how they came to create this fabulous collaboration of poetry and black and […]

  Elise Atchison’s debut novel, Crazy Mountain, was the recipient of the Eludia Award, an award given to first-time women novelists over forty. She worked for over ten years on this book, which features a completely different point of view for each chapter. The novel takes place in a fictional region where the typical struggle […]

  This episode pairs one of the most esteemed Native American authors of our time with a writer who started writing because of his influence and guidance. Debra Magpie Earling took her very first writing class from James Welch at the University of Washington, and would later study with him again at Cornell. Earling’s debut […]

The current poet laureate of Montana is a working class gentleman from Missoula who grew up in Alberton, where his father was a laborer. Mark has also worked in labor, driving truck and moving furniture. He brings an honest, unvarnished attitude to his work, and we have been huge fans for years. And and terms […]

For this episode, we were so honored to have a chance to sit down with our old friend, poet Greg Keeler. Greg taught at Montana State University for forty years, and toward the end of his career, he started writing a sonnet every day. He continues this practice to this day, but in 2018, Elk […]

For this episode, we had the pleasure of talking with our good friend Tom Harpole about his collection, Regarding Willingness. Tom wrote for national magazines for decades, but this collection consists of personal essays that Tom wrote through the years about his adventures in various parts of the world, including skydiving in Russia, and going […]

Breakfast In Montana · Episode Twenty-Six – Corrie Williamson, Stephen Ambrose. and Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs This past year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Undaunted Courage, which has become known as the bible for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This book, written by Stephen Ambrose, had the feel of a novel, and captured […]

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Both Aaron and Russell have since come to the conclusion that Ryan Busse’s book is a self-serving story of a man who could have made the choice to leave his position much sooner than he did. The main reason I have chosen to leave this episode up is because we are both such […]

Breakfast In Montana · Episode Twenty-Four: Alan Weltzien and Thomas Savage Thomas Savage was a novelist who grew up in Beaverhead County, Montana, on a sheep ranch. He published a dozen novels but was sadly overlooked while he was alive, despite receiving resounding critical acclaim for his entire career. His work was rediscovered around the […]

Breakfast In Montana · Episode Twenty-Three – Norman Maclean and John Maclean   John Maclean, son of Montana icon Norman Maclean, has become a fine writer in his own right, and he recently published what he calls ‘a chronicle’ of his life with his father and his own relationship to Norman’s enormously successful novella, A […]