Breakfast In Montana

For this episode of Breakfast in Montana, a podcast about Montana books, we discuss two award-winning novels, both by women. The Flicker of Old Dreams, by Susan Henderson, won the Spur Award for Fiction, as well as the Willa Cather Award, and is a finalist for the High Plains Book Award for fiction. Mildred Walker's Winter Wheat, which was published in 1945, was a finalist for the National Book Award. These two finely crafted novels explore many of the same themes of the dynamics of small towns in Montana and the complicated relationships between young people and their parents in these places.

In this episode, we discuss two books from Missoula writers. Chris La Tray's book One Sentence Journal won this year's Montana Book Award, and it's an interesting collection of vignettes, and aphorisms that take you deep into the heart of a man who is searching for his place in Montana. We believe the second book is one of the most overlooked novels in Montana history, but long-time Missoula resident Rick DeMarinis. DeMarinis published many novels, but The Burning Women of Far Cry was his best, and it was recently republished by Drumlummon Institute in hopes of giving it the following it so richly deserves.

For episode twelve, we discuss two books by legendary Livingston writers. Tim Cahill was a writer for Rolling Stone back when they were first getting off the ground, and went on to co-found Outside Magazine, which published most of the stories in his collection, Jaguars Ripped My Flesh. William 'Gatz' Hjortsberg published many novels, the most well-known of which was Falling Angel, which was made into a film called Angel Heart, starring Robert DeNiro, Mickey Rourke, and Lisa Bonet.

In our 11th Episode, we talk about the latest award-winning collection of poetry by Missoula poet Henrietta Goodman, as well as The Hawkline Monster, a gothic Western by acclaimed writer Richard Brautigan.

For their tenth episode of Breakfast in Montana, Montana authors Russell Rowland and Aaron Parrett discuss the poetry of former Montana Poet Laureate Earl Craig, discussing his most recent collection, Woods and Clouds Interchangeable. and from the final collection of poetry by Butte poet Ed Lahey, titled Moving On.

For their ninth episode of Breakfast in Montana, Montana writers Russell Rowland and Aaron Parrett take a break from their usual format of discussing two Montana books to honor a writer who has published more than 80 novels. Richard Wheeler has been a finalist for ten Spur Awards, the highest honor for Western literature, and won the award six times. And he didn't get published until he was almost fifty!! Hear more about his story and his writing here.

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 Ride to Heartbreak and Back, a book that explores Melissa Stephenson's experience with her brother's suicide. Stephenson's unique approach to this story is through the cars that she and her family owned over the course of their lives.

For this episode, Montana writers Aaron Parrett and Russell Rowland discuss two poetry collections by poets from Helena, Notes from a Novel by Frieda Fligelman and Natalie Peeterse's Black Birds, Blue Horse, the winner of the Gold Line Press Chapbook competition. We also interview Natalie about her writing process as well as her own small press, Open Country.

For this episode of Breakfast in Montana, writers Russell Rowland and Aaron Parrett discuss two books that should have received more acclaim, Matt Pavelich's short story collection, Survivors Said, and a 1979 novel published by Dirck Van Sickle called Montana Gothic.

For the fifth episode of Breakfast in Montana, Russell Rowland and Aaron Parrett discuss two of the most commercially successful Montana writers, Ivan Doig and Jamie Ford. We talk about the mysterious nature of successful books, and Jamie Ford tells us about his responsibility to write about the stories of Chinese immigrants in America.

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 starring Gary Cooper, another Montanan, one of several Johnson stories that made it to film. And yet she has never gained quite the status of male writers from her era like A. B. Guthrie. Cholewa's novel explores many similar topics, and 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. But one thing we both agreed on...Jamie got the writing gene. The prose in each of these novels is stellar.

For this episode, we discuss two mysteries, the first being Death and the Good Life, one of only two novels written by notable Montana poet Richard Hugo, who was instrumental in developing the reputation for the Creative Writing department at the University of Montana. The second is a terrific mystery called A Bloom of Bones, by Allen Morris Jones, who is currently the editor of Big Sky Journal, as well as the publisher for Bangtail Press and a wonderful writer in his own right. Both of these novels feature protagonists that poets, which makes for an interesting discussion.

In this first episode, Russell and Aaron talk about two books from Butte, Mile High, Mile Deep by Richard K. O'Malley, and Brave Deeds, by David Abrams. These two books represent two of the interesting facets of Montana literature in that one of them, (Mile High) was written while O'Malley was the Associated Press Bureau Chief in Paris. But it's considered the quintessential Butte novel. The other, Brave Deeds, is about the war in Iraq, but it was written in Butte. So we discuss what constitutes a Montana book, what it is about Butte that has inspired so many good books, and what some of the common themes are that emerge from this fascinating town.