Three poets (whose work amplifies cross genre-possibility) will read and present: Elizabeth Colen, a hybrid-master, having penned, among other things, a poetry/lyric essay hybrid and novel in prose poems; Jeff Alessandrelli, a writer who also runs Fonograf Editions, a vinyl-record only poetry press; and Nance Van Winckel, whose visual poems refuse definition, reimagining, for example, the scrapbook, the encyclopedia and the vintage advertisement.
The event you’ve been waiting for. Steamy, racy, saucy, raunchy, sassy and crass original erotic fan-fic from the sexiest monsters around. Part 2 of a partnership with Get Lit!, this evening’s focus will be robots, vampires and Frankenstein. Our beasts and bots: Sheri Boggs, Laramie Dean, Kris Dinnison, Acton Douglas, Melissa Huggins, Colin Johnson, Mara Panich-Crouch, Aileen Keown Vaux, and Emily Thomas. Emceed by Rachel Mindell with special surprise guest.
Brains Over Brawn: Small Talk About Big Games, is a monthly radio show on KBGA Missoula focused on a sports-related book, film, or piece of long-form journalism. Brains over Brawn addresses literary sports artifacts, and each episode features the work of a particular writer, filmmaker, or journalist.
Our panel would be moderated by hosts Robert Stubblefield and David Jensen and feature selected recent guests and/or writers who write about sports employing a literary approach. Each participant would briefly address their interest in sports and particularly sports literature. Discussion would involve favorite books, writers, subjects, and electronic media including radio, television, and podcasts. The panel would wrap up with an approximately fifteen-minute question and answer period.
The Bookfest Art Walk begins at Radius Gallery, a contemporary fine art gallery in the historic Higgins building. Gallery owner and literary scholar Lisa Simon will take you on a spin of the current exhibition which features three Montana artists--James Todd, Megan Moore and Josh DeWeese. Especially for the bookfest, Radius will exhibit the original wood-engraved portraits of writers first seen in The Last Best Place Anthology 28 years ago! Richard Hugo, James Welch, Ivan Doig, Norman Maclean, Tom McGuane--all your favorites meticulously engraved by a Montana artist!
A volunteer will then guide you to the Missoula Art Museum for an investigation of new exhibitions that engage storytelling in different ways: Stephen Glueckert’s humorous wit points to current affairs; Leslie Van Stavern Millar II’s whimsical constructions imagine Queen Elizabeth the First time traveling to Montana; Willem Volkersz explores the language of drawing and his adopted homeland; “Not Vanishing” is a survey of contemporary American Indian art; Courtney Blazon’s stream-of-consciousness narrative drawings center on the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora and “The Year Without A Summer;” and Karen McAlister Shimoda takes viewers on a walk through northwestern forests.
The Bookfest Art Walk begins at Radius Gallery, a contemporary fine art gallery in the historic Higgins building. Gallery owner and literary scholar Lisa Simon will take you on a spin of the current exhibition which features three Montana artists--James Todd, Megan Moore and Josh DeWeese. Especially for the bookfest, Radius will exhibit the original wood-engraved portraits of writers first seen in The Last Best Place Anthology 28 years ago! Richard Hugo, James Welch, Ivan Doig, Norman Maclean, Tom McGuane--all your favorites meticulously engraved by a Montana artist!
A volunteer will then guide you to the Missoula Art Museum for an investigation of new exhibitions that engage storytelling in different ways: Stephen Glueckert’s humorous wit points to current affairs; Leslie Van Stavern Millar II’s whimsical constructions imagine Queen Elizabeth the First time traveling to Montana; Willem Volkersz explores the language of drawing and his adopted homeland; “Not Vanishing” is a survey of contemporary American Indian art; Courtney Blazon’s stream-of-consciousness narrative drawings center on the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora and “The Year Without A Summer;” and Karen McAlister Shimoda takes viewers on a walk through northwestern forests.
*Please note: this exhibit can also be visited before and after the reading: Fri 11-6, Sat and Sun 12-6
Radius Gallery Sidecar
“Hatch” is an experiment in poetry, memoir, and installation. It began as a chapbook of poems exploring a child's near-death experience, recovery, and exuberant embrace of life and language. Images from the poems are extended into the gallery space, made from materials which reach back to touch prehistoric rituals surrounding the afterlife, objects from the nursery, and medical flotsam. Visual humor frees us to lighten up about death and disability, even as we confront their mysteries.
Many pieces invite the viewer into the symbol-rich world of childhood, where archetypal forces are encountered in the primal theater of play. As children work to find their place in a mysterious world, themes of struggle, mortality, safety, rescue, absurdity, magic, and the limits of our agency appear again and again. Like play, art is a form of ritual—a highly charged field of action in which our relationship to forces beyond our control can shift and re-form.
"Electrifying. This is transformation art!" —David James Duncan
"By embracing the beauties and brutalities of parenthood, these finely crafted poems transcend their milieu and become poems about co-existing here on earth. At their core is a heart so large its beats knock you off-kilter, until 'your head finds the balancing point and your arms orchestrate themselves in the air to the unheard tune of angels, cavorting by millions on the tip of a pen.'" -- Chris Dombrowski
