Montana Book Festival

How did MSU graduate Doug Coombs overcome a severe childhood accident to become one of the greatest outdoor athletes the world has ever known? Join Robert Cocuzzo for a multimedia presentation of Tracking the Wild Coomba: The Life of Legendary Skier Doug Coombs, the result of five years of research over the steepest slopes of Montana, Alaska, France, and beyond.

"Is it more foolish to risk your life or risk wasting your life?" Before Brendan Leonard became a celebrated writer, he had only a tenuous grip on sobriety and his list of bad decisions included multiple arrests, wrecked cars, broken bones, fistfights, and ruined relationships. In Montana, he took his first steps into the Rocky Mountains, unwittingly beginning a decade-long journey that would take him all over the West and Europe. Hear from a barstool storyteller who left the bar and found adventure, redemption, and a life that almost never happened.

When you see a bird diving for a fish, landing on a perch, or singing from a fence post, do you wonder what it’s saying or thinking? While staking out nests or waiting for the perfect shot on cold mornings, photographer Kate Davis has wondered plenty. Join Kate and special bird guests for this hilarious presentation from Birds Are People, Too.

Whether poets or prose writers, for many of us, our writing is deeply affected by the mountains, valleys, and rivers we call home. This wild landscape enters our work, and shapes its images and narratives. So what might happen when a writer lives even closer to the land and further from civilization? Hear from three authors who each enjoyed the writer’s life by living off the grid, two at the PEN Northwest Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency and one at the Bob Marshall Wilderness Residency. Each writer will read an excerpt from work written at the residency, and will share in a conversation about the joys and hardships of writing from a seat in the wild.

Join four authors with incredible tales of wild encounter: Bruce Smith (Stories from Afield: Adventures with Wild Things in Wild Places), Jon Turk (Crocodiles and Ice: A Journey into Deep Wild), Julie Riddle (The Solace of Stones: Finding a Way through Wilderness) and Susan Marie Conrad (Inside: One Woman’s Journey Through the Inside Passage).

A dynamic pair in conversation: eco-aficionados Jordan Fisher Smith (Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight over Controlling Nature) and Seth Kantner (Swallowed by the Great Land).