October 31, 2024, By Library Staff in Events.
Flathead County Library will host a Montana Poet Lecture Series featuring celebrated Montana poets as a part of the “Montana Conversations” program sponsored by Humanities Montana.
The presentations will be located in the Community Room at the Bigfork Library and are free and open to the public.
Chris LaTray – November 8, 2024, 4-6pm
The first speaker in the series, Montana Poet Laureate Chris LaTray, is a Métis storyteller and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He is the author of One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large. His latest book, Becoming Little Shell was published by Milkweed Editions in 2024.
Lowell Jaeger – January 10, 2025, 4-6pm
The second speaker in our series is Lowell Jaeger, a nationally recognized poet and former Montana Poet Laureate who has delighted audiences with readings, lectures, discussions, radio shows, and poetry workshops for over 30 years.
Melissa Kwasny – March 14, 2025, 4-6pm
The third speaker in our series, Melissa Kwasny, is the author of seven books of poetry and a collection of essays on the poetic image. She was Montana Poet Laureate from 2019-2021, a position she shared with M.L. Smoker, and has taught poetry writing in graduate and undergraduate programs and in the public schools for over thirty years.
This series is partially funded by the ImagineIF Library Foundation and Humanities Montana through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Montana’s Cultural Trust, and private donations. The program is funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund.