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.