The Write Question

Monday Poems: "Rider" - by Mark Irwin

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

As I carried my mother from the hospital bed
across the room toward the chair by the window,
she played with my gold watch as if it were a toy,
flipping the strap up and down, then singing Giddyup,
Giddyup, but as I looked at her she did not smile
so I nodded my head, snorted, then put a pencil
in my mouth, as bit, and cantered about the room
till I was out of breath, puffing, and she patted me, saying,
Good boy, Good boy, so I pawed the carpet, slobbering a little
like her, as she waved and I nodded my mane
until this was how we said goodbye one spring
while the sun shrank to a white-hot BB among a thousand
others receding in the jeweled, black sky as the rivers
galloped away with her breath through the dark green land.

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Mark Irwin was born in Faribault, Minnesota, and has lived throughout the United States and abroad in France and Italy. His poetry and essays have appeared widely in many literary magazines including The American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Paris Review, Poetry, The Nation, New England Review, and The New Republic. A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop (M.F.A.), he also holds a Ph.D. in English/Comparative Literature from Case Western Reserve University and has taught at a number of universities and colleges including The University of Iowa, Ohio University, University of Denver, University of Colorado/Boulder, University of Nevada, and Colorado College. The author of seven collections of poetry, including Against the Meanwhile, Wesleyan University Press (1989), Quick, Now, Always, BOA (1996), White City, BOA (2000), Bright Hunger, BOA (2004), Tall If, New Issues (2008), and Large White House Speaking, New Issues (2013), he has also translated two volumes of poetry, one from the French and one from the Romanian. His American Urn: New & Selected Poems (1987-2013) will appear in 2014. Recognition for his work includes The Nation/Discovery Award, four Pushcart Prizes, a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, Colorado and Ohio Art Council Fellowships, two Colorado Book Awards, the James Wright Poetry Award, and fellowships from the Fulbright, Lilly, and Wurlitzer Foundations. He lives in Colorado, and Los Angeles, where he teaches in the Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature Program at the University of Southern California.

An Interview with Gregory Spatz

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:00:00 +0000

A grieving couple rents a desperate landlord’s house in an effort to recover lost intimacy. Twins are irrevocably separated by events both beyond and within their control. A nighttime prank and its gruesome aftermath forge human connections no one could have anticipated.

The eight stories in Half as Happy reveal with startling clarity their characters’ secrets, losses, and desires. Each with the depth of a novel, these insightful portraits of the darkness and light within us reverberate long after they’ve ended, like beautiful and disturbing dreams.

Find out more about Gregory Spatz, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

Thursday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
Thursday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
Sunday, May 19 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, May 19 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
Via the MTPR podcast

Children's Book Review: 'Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg' by Lori Mortensen

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:01:00 +0000

Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg
by Lori Mortensen
illustrated by Michael Allen Austin
Clarion Books, 2013

Cowpoke Clyde is ready to relax after a long day on the ranch, when he notices that "ol' Dawg, his faithful, snorin' friend, [is] caked with mud from end to end." He fills his buckets to give Dawg a bath, but Dawg sets off on the run, creating mayhem as Clyde chases him across the ranch, splashing other animals along the way.

Michael Allen Austin's large, colorful illustrations perfectly capture the spirit of this story, portraying Clyde as a lanky, sharp-boned cowboy, and the animals as larger-than-life to emphasize the chaos that is created in the course of the chase.

Mortensen uses the time-honored folktale tradition of repetition and accumulation to convey the parade of animals that are "gettin' soaked instead of Dawg." The language is pleasingly rhythmic and peppered with the appropriate Western terms and details. And rhymes drop off with the final word in large print on the following page to encourage children to join in the telling of the story.

The first-grade students that I read this story to leaned forward in their seats as I read, and laughed aloud when the Dawg jumped into the tub with Clyde after he'd given up the chase. They loved the details in the illustrations (such as the cat, who on one page is chewing on a bone) and found the whole book to be funny and fun. This book is nearly perfect in style and execution: a rip-roaring read for children and adults alike.
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Lori Mortensen is the award-winning author of more than two dozen books for children, including fiction and nonfiction picture books, easy readers, first graphic novels, and middle grade nonfiction. She lives with her husband and three children in California and reckons that - unlike Clyde - she'll never complete her chores. You can visit Lori online at www.lorimortensen.com.

Michael Allen Austin is the creative director of a medical media company and the award-winning illustrator of ten books for children. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Kim, and their sheepdog, Riley, who - unlike Dawg - likes to roll in clean laundry. Michael's website is www.michaelallenaustin.com.
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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Monday Poems: "The Hoot of The Owl" -- by Minerva Allen

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:20:00 +0000

The morning sun is bright and warm.
Children are playing; no worry of alarm. Listen!

The hoot of the owl three times.

The scout returns. The enemy is close by.
With speed of an eagle, the tribe is leaving.
Only the rings of the lodges are left on the ground.
Noise of lodge poles formed into travois; the whispering
of children. Each has his own chore.

Birds have stopped sining; dogs are all quiet.
Horses' ears are wiggling and they nicker to each other.

The tribe steals away in silence.

The evening sun is setting. Food is cooking
in the lodges. All is quiet
until the hoot
of the owl
three times.

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Minerva Allen lives in northern Montana on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Lodge Pole with her family in the foothills of the Little Rockies, know as the Island Mountains to the Nakoda. She owns a ranch with cattle and many horses that roam the ridges in Big Warm. She coordinates the Lodge Pole Senior Programs and teaches the Nakoda Language.

"Hoot of The Owl" was published in her collection titled Nakoda Sky People (2012 Many Voice Press).

An Interview with Joe Wilkins

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

During this week's program, Chérie Newman talks with author and poet Joe Wilkins about his memoir The Mountain and the Fathers : Growing Up in the Big Dry. He also reads from the book and reads two poems from his new collection, Notes From The Journey Westward.

Publisher's Description:

The Mountain and the Fathers explores the life of boys and men in the unforgiving, harsh world north of the Bull Mountains of eastern Montana in a drought afflicted area called the Big Dry, a land that chews up old and young alike. Joe Wilkins was born into this world, raised by a young mother and elderly grandfather following the untimely death of his father. That early loss stretches out across the Big Dry, and Wilkins uses his own story and those of the young boys and men growing up around him to examine the violence, confusion, and rural poverty found in this distinctly American landscape. Ultimately, these lives put forth a new examination of myth and manhood in the American west and cast a journalistic eye on how young men seek to transcend their surroundings in the search for a better life. Rather than dwell on grief or ruin, Wilkins’ memoir posits that it is our stories that sustain us, and The Mountain and The Fathers, much like the work of Norman MacClean or Jim Harrison, heralds the arrival of an instant literary classic.

The Mountain and the Fathers was a Montana Book Award Honor Book and was a finalist for the 2013 Orion Book Award.

Joe Wilkins' essay "Out West: Growing Up Hard," published by Orion magazine.

Find out more about Joe Wilkins, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

Thursday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
Thursday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
Sunday, May 12 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, May 12 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
Via the MTPR podcast

Children's Book Review: 'My Mom is the Best Circus' by Luciana Navarro Powell

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:52:00 +0000

My Mom is the Best Circus
by Luciana Navarro Powell
Robin Corey Books, 2013

Just in time for Mother's Day, Random House Children's Books has released a new board book which celebrates mothers by author/illustrator Luciana Navarro Powell.

In bright, colorful images, the mother in this story is portrayed as the ultimate super-mom, gliding through domestic tasks and keeping her children entertained before heading off to work in her business suit.

The focus of the story is squarely on the home, however, with mom's time at work passing in the flip of a page. The evening is spent cooking and clowning around with the kids before bath and bedtime.

The circus theme is clever, portraying mom as a ringmaster, juggler, acrobat and magician. But the finale is slightly disappointing, with mom's best stunt being "the sandman show."

Since no other adult is portrayed in the book, My Mom is the Best Circus might be an appealing choice for single mothers with young children. The board book format will hold up well to baby and toddler play. And every mother deserves a little applause on Mother's Day.
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Luciana Navarro Powell is originally from Brazil and moved to the US in 2002. She has been a professional illustrator for about 14 years. She has worked with all kinds of media but eventually settled on the digital brush, since she loves the freedom it allows her and all the possibilities of experimentation.
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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Monday Poems: "As If darkness Can Mend It All" -- by Maya Jewell Zeller

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I thought here I could summon you,
here where the first balsamroot
presents each sage-colored leaf
like an upside-down heart, apex
aimed at the sky.
I thought here I could call you forth,
here where the hills erupt
into a thousand white
and yellow eyes.
I thought here you'd listen
for the trickle of a new spring
spitting from the rocks.
I thought you'd want
to be mist.
But you've gone and found
a new cave.
The truth is you're tired
of all this damn
sunshine, this river
showing off its cheap jewelry,
robinsong, wingflick, white-
tailed deer with their quick tendons,
the new budding spruce,
even fresh bear scat
reminding you
how young you were.

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Maya Jewell Zeller grew up in the northwest, mostly near coastal environments. She now lives in Spokane, where she teaches English at Gonzaga University and co-directs a literary reading series. Her poems appear in a number of literary journals, and her reviews and interviews can be found online. "As If darkness can Mend It All" was published in her collection, Rust Fish (2011, Lost Horse Press).

Bruce Holbert: "I Killed My Friend"

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Mike Kemp/In Pictures — Corbis

In North Dakota, a gun owner displays

hunting paraphernalia in a bedroom.

THE summer before my sophomore year in high school, I moved into my father’s house. My father had remarried and the only unoccupied bedroom in his house was the gun room. Against one wall was a gun case he had built in high school, and beside it were two empty refrigerators stocked with rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. My bed’s headboard resided against the other wall and, above it, a resigned-looking, marble-eyed, five-point mule deer’s head with a fedora on its antler rack.

The room had no windows, so the smell of gun oil filled my senses at least eight hours each day. It clung to my clothes like smoke, and like a smoker’s cigarettes, it became my smell. No one in my high school noticed. We all smelled like something: motorheads of motor oil, farm kids of wheat chaff and cow dung, athletes like footballs and grass, dopers like the other kind of grass.

It did not appear to anyone — including me — that residing within my family’s weapons cache might affect my life. Together, my three brothers own at least a dozen weapons and have yet to harm anyone with them. Despite their guns (or, arguably, because of them), they are quite peaceable. As for me, I have three guns, one inherited and two gifts, and I’m hardly a zealot. In fact I never had much interest in guns. Yet it is I who killed a man.

It was the second week in August, a Friday the 13th, in fact, in 1982. I was with a group of college roommates who were getting ready to go to the Omak Stampede and Suicide Race. Three of us piled into a red Vega parked outside a friend’s house in Okanogan, Wash., me in the back seat. The driver, who worked with the county sheriff’s department, offered me his service revolver to examine. I turned the weapon onto its side, pointed it toward the door. The barrel, however, slipped when I shifted my grip to pull the hammer back, to make certain the chamber was empty, and turned the gun toward the driver’s seat. When I let the hammer fall, the cylinder must have rotated without my knowing. When I pulled the hammer back a second time it fired a live round.

My friend, Doug, slumped in the driver’s seat, dying, and another friend, who was sitting in the passenger seat, raced into the house for the phone.

The house sat beside one edge of a river valley and I knew that between the orchard at the opposite side and the next town was 20 miles of rock and pine. I was a cross-country champion in high school. I could run through the woods and find my way to my cousins, who lived far into the mountains. I could easily disappear. But I remained where I was, mindful that even if I ran, I would escape nothing. So, when the sirens finally whirred and the colored lights tumbled over the yard and the doors of the cruisers opened and a police sergeant asked who was responsible, I raised my hand and patted my chest and was arrested.

Though the charges against me were eventually dropped, I have since been given diagnoses of a range of maladies, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and adult attention deficit disorders. The pharmacists fill the appropriate prescriptions, which temporarily salve my conscience, but serve neither my story nor the truth.

Where I grew up, masculinity involved schooling a mean dog to guard your truck or skipping the ignition spark to fire the points, and, of course, handling guns of all kinds. I was barely proficient in any of these areas. I understood what was expected of me and responded as best I could, but did so with distance that would, I hoped, keep me from being a total fraud in my own eyes.

Like many other young men, I mythologized guns and the ideas of manhood associated with them.

The gun lobby likes to say guns don’t kill people, people do. And they’re right, of course. I killed my friend; no one else did; no mechanism did. But this oversimplifies matters (as does the gun control advocates’ position that eliminating weapons will end violent crime).

My friend was killed by a man who misunderstood guns, who imagined that comfort with — and affection for — guns was a vital component of manhood. I did not recognize a gun for what it was: a machine constructed for a purpose, one in which I had no real interest. I treated a tool as an essential part of my identity, and the result is a dead man and a grieving family and a survivor numbed by guilt whose story lacks anything resembling a proper ending.

Bruce Holbert is the author of the novel “Lonesome Animals.”

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on April 28, 2013, on page SR8 of the New York Times, New York edition, with the headline: Sleeping With Guns.

An interview with Bruce Holbert .
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An Interview with Sherril Jaffe

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

A homeless woman takes up residence in a man's closet; a detective solves cases by feeling the emotions of the perpetrators; a woman happens upon a swingers' club in the back of a tire shop; a couple struggling with their pets' protracted endgame puts out a hit on them; and a man's mother, newly dead and buried, calls him to ask if she can visit.

The fifteen tales in You Are Not Alone & Other Stories are set in San Francisco. Each uses its own dream logic to illuminate the great human themes of death, love, jealousy, anger, desire, and the nature of the soul.

"These are stories where anything can happen, where we root for characters entangled by both everyday life and fantastical predicaments. Humor and loss weave tightly together through these pages, and Sherril Jaffe's formidable imagination and playful prose shine unexpected light on deep emotional truths." — Caitlin Horrocks

You Are Not Alone & Other Stories is winner of a Spokane Prize for Short Fiction.

Find out more about Sherril Jaffe, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

Thursday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
Thursday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
Sunday, May 5 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, May 5 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
Via the MTPR podcast

Monday Poems: "Curriculum Vitae" -- by Michael Earl Craig

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:42:00 +0000

There's a very distinguished-looking older man sitting near me
at the diner. His hair is silver, neatly combed.
His grey suit looks immaculate, a crisp handkerchief
in his chest pocket. A grandfatherly kindness emanates
from him as he eats his eggs. He is from a bygone era,
I'm thinking, as he gets up and turns toward me,
and now I see a large grease stain on his shirt,
which is partially un-tucked, and his belt appears
to be unbuckled. He staggers a bit as he stands,
bumping his chair back with his legs,
[some Billie Holiday, coming from the kitchen]
and glances at me for a second—a few seconds.
A restrained burp slips from his mouth.
He picks up the most gorgeous briefcase I have ever seen
and wields it respectfully, like a sword he has know all his life.

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Michael Earl Craig grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Montana, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Craig’s poetry collections include Can You Relax in My House (2002), Yes, Master (2006), and Thin Kimono (2010). His work has been included in the anthology Isn’t It Romantic (2004). "Curriculum Vitae" is from a book to be published in 2014. It recently appeared in an article in Montana Quarterly magazine. Michael Earl Craig lives near Livingston, Montana, and works as a farrier.

Celebrate Screen-Free Week 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:01:00 +0000

This will be the third year that I will be celebrating Screen-Free Week with my family. Sponsored by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Screen-Free Week encourages children, families, schools, and communities to "turn off screens and turn on life."

We've done this to various degrees in previous years, depending on how many school and work responsibilities that we've had that relied on technology. This year, I hope to make a clean break, steering clear of TV (which we don't own anyway), computers, tablets and electronic readers throughout the week, and only using my cell phone to make voice calls (no text). I will be encouraging my children to stay away from all of the same technology outside of school hours (and may share information about Screen-Free Week with their teachers and encourage them to limit screen time in the classroom to the extent possible as well).

Now that my children are six and nine years old, I admit that I'm looking forward to Screen-Free Week more than they (or my husband) are. But in spite of the challenges, we do find that each year we wind up spending more quality time with each other (and more time reading) when we're unplugged. This year, I hope to involve my children more in household responsibilities and to use more of my own time to play with them as well.

I'll be taking the next seven days off from blogging in honor of Screen-Free Week but will be back at The Write Question with another children's or young adult book review on Tuesday, May 7. I hope you'll join me in celebrating Screen-Free Week 2013 by reading a book with your family. More information about the event can be found at http://www.screenfree.org/.

Random House is also encouraging people to participate in Screen-Free Week this year, and has recruited some children's book authors and illustrators to explain why:

Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

An Interview with Pam Houston

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Stuck in a dead-end relationship, this fearless narrator leaves her metaphorical baggage behind and finds a comfort zone in the air, “feeling safest with one plane ticket in her hand and another in her underwear drawer.” She flies around the world, finding reasons to love life in dozens of far-flung places from Alaska to Bhutan. Along the way she weathers unplanned losses of altitude, air pressure, and landing gear. With the help of a squad of loyal, funny, wise friends and massage therapists, she learns to sort truth from self-deception, self-involvement from self-possession.

At last, having found a new partner “who loves Don DeLillo and the NHL” and a daughter “who needs you to teach her to dive and to laugh at herself” — not to mention two dogs and two horses — “staying home becomes more of an option. Maybe.”

During this week's program, Chérie Newman talks with Pam Houston about her book Contents May Have Shifted, a novel which Houston admits is about 87% true. So why didn't she publish it as a memoir? Newman wants to know. The answer has to do with the public's perception of truth and, of course, publishing industry lawyers.

During this interview, Pam mentions a piece she wrote titled "Corn Maze." Here's a link to that essay: http://www.hungermtn.org/corn-maze/

Find out more about Pam Houston and her books, and listen to the program on the radio or online.

Thursday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
Sunday, April 28 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, April 28 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
Via the MTPR podcast

Children's Book Review: 'Barnaby the Bedbug Detective' by Catherine Stier

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:01:00 +0000

Barnaby the Bedbug Detective
by Catherine Stier
illustrated by Karen Sapp
Albert Whitman & Company, 2013

Barnaby is a small dog in an animal shelter who dreams of being a superhero. He is too energetic and enthusiastic for most families with children, but he's just right for Martha. She promises Barnaby a good home and perhaps, even a special job.

After they get to know each other for a while, Martha takes Barnaby to "bedbug sniffing school." He has a good nose, and is rewarded with a squeaky toy every time he learns to correctly identify "a certain tangy scent."

Barnaby is one of the best students in his class, and after he graduates from canine training, he begins to accompany Martha to hotels and movie theaters, dormitories and airplanes, searching for the bedbug smell. One day they are called on to help a family with young children identify what has been causing the itchy bumps that have been appearing on their skin, and Barnaby sees the opportunity to become the hero he's always wanted to be.

Catherine Stier manages to create an engaging children's story out of an unusual topic for children's books. She weaves factual information with a sense of adventure, and Karen Sapp's illustrations depict some interesting dog training methods that would be difficult to explain with words alone.

An afterword and the endpapers provide more factual information about bedbugs (which are, apparently, on the rise, due to the chemicals that were once used to control them being banned), additional resources, and tips for keeping bedbugs out of your home.
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Catherine Stier's award-winning books include If I Were President, If I Ran for President, and Bugs in My Hair?! She lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her family. Please visit her at catherinestier.com.

Karen Sapp received her degree in illustration from Kingston University in London and now works as a freelance illustrator in her hometown of Crawley, England. Her favorite characters are animals, which she paints with her distinctive application of acrylics.
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Monday Poems: "Tonto" -- by Lowell Jaeger

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:44:00 +0000

We'd seen Tonto on TV
dismount, kneel,
press an ear to the prairie
and advise The Lone Raner
how many buffalo, how far.

A good trick
every Cub Scout should know,
though the only stampedes in our neighborhood
were occasional locomotives
charging across town.

And we'd been warned about trains.
Kids caught on the trestles,
stepping tie-by-tie
when the big black beast
rounded the bend and trampled them.

We stooped to lay our ears on cold rails, listening
for the clack-clack-clack
of unseen iron horses
pulling rust-buckets loaded
with pulp logs and scrap.

And stood, squinting into the distance
like Tonto,
claiming for sure
angry herds of boxcars
were headed our way.

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Lowell Jaeger is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, winner of the Grolier Poetry Peace Prize, and recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council. He is founding editor of Many Voices Press and has taught creative writing at Flathead Valley Community College (Kalispell, Montana) for the past 30 years. Jaeger was awarded the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award for his work in promoting civil civic discourse.

An Interview with Emily Danforth

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:58:00 +0000

When Cameron Post's parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they'll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl

But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship--one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to "fix" her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self--even if she's not exactly sure who that is

The Miseducation of Cameron Post won the 2012 Montana Book Award.

Find out more about Emily Danforth, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

Thursday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
Sunday, April 21 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, April 21 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
Via the MTPR podcast

Children's Book Review: 'Pronghorn Babies!' by Dick Kettlewell

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:01:00 +0000

Pronghorn Babies! by Dick Kettlewell
Farcountry Press, 2013

One of the latest in the Babies! series of board books by Farcountry Press, Pronghorn Babies! will keep your infant or toddler engaged with crisp close-up photos of real pronghorn babies and their mothers. The large sparse text on every other page is juxtaposed against a colorful background with squiggly borders and pronghorn prints as decoration.

The rhyming story traces a baby pronghorn's typical day: waking up, running, playing, wrestling, drinking from a creek and then snuggling up for a good night's sleep. This book doesn't present a lot of information about pronghorn biology or habitat, but the rhythmic language and endearing photos are just right for the very young audience that this book is geared towards. And the board book format will hold up well to tossing and teething as well!
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Dick Kettlewell has worked in the high plains as a nature photographer for seventeen years. His work has appeared in well-known publications, including Smithsonian Magazine, and the New York Times. He has also published two books about the wildlife and landscapes of the high plains.
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Monday Poems: "Spirit Happy" -- by Michael Revere

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:04:00 +0000

I.

thank the beggar
dressed in daisies
offer roses
to a thorn
carry castles
for the queenless
bless the bishop
for his scorn

II.

plant sunflowers
in the morning
leave wild horses
by the sea
gather children
lost to darkness
scorn the lizard
long last free

for Sadie, Chuck, Andy, Sylivia

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Michael Revere is a writer, rock drummer, and laborer from Helena, Montana, who has conducted poetry readings and workshops at public venues throughout the U.S. "Spirit Happy" was published in War, Madness, & Love.

Craig Lancaster, author of Edward Adrift

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

It’s been a year of upheaval for Edward Stanton, a forty-two-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome. He’s lost his job. His trusted therapist has retired. His best friends have moved away. And even his nightly ritual of watching Dragnet reruns has been disrupted. All of this change has left Edward, who lives his life on a rigid schedule, completely flummoxed.

But when his friend Donna calls with news that her son Kyle is in trouble, Edward leaves his comfort zone in Billings, Montana, and drives to visit them in Boise, where he discovers Kyle has morphed from a sweet kid into a sullen adolescent. Inspired by dreams of the past, Edward goes against his routine and decides to drive to a small town in Colorado where he once spent a summer with his father—bringing Kyle along as his road trip companion. The two argue about football and music along the way, and amid their misadventures, they meet an eccentric motel owner who just might be the love of Edward’s sheltered life—if only he can let her.

Edward Adrift is Craig Lancaster’s sequel to 600 Hours of Edward.

Find out more about Criaig Lancaster, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

Thursday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
Thursday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
Sunday, April 14 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, April 14 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
MTPR podcast

Children's Book Review: 'A Smidgen of Sky' by Dianna Dorisi Winget

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:01:00 +0000

A Smidgen of Sky
by Dianna Dorisi Winget
Harcourt Children's Books, 2012

Ten-year old Piper DeLuna is not happy about her mother's upcoming wedding. Piper's dad was a pilot whose plane crashed in a storm about four years ago, but his body was never found, so Piper still holds out hope that he may be alive somewhere. Piper's mom is now engaged to Ben Hutchings, a prison guard, who has a daughter Piper's age.

Unfortunately, Ginger is nothing like Piper. Piper wants to be a pilot, like her dad. Ginger wants to be a professional cheerleader. The girls have an antagonistic relationship, until it occurs to Piper that she may be able to prevent her mother from marrying Ginger's father if she is able to get Ben back together with his estranged first wife, Ginger's mom.

While doing research to hunt down Tina Liman, Piper stumbles upon a “people finder” who offers to help Piper find her father. Piper's plan to foil her mother's wedding plans works better than she expected, but she never could have anticipated the dangerous consequences that result from it.

First-time novelist Dianna Dorisi Winget hits the ground running with A Smidgen of Sky. Piper is a likable believable character and the situation that she finds herself in escalates organically into a complex and thrilling climax. While the characters do face real danger, the descriptions are respectfully circumspect, making this book appropriate for older elementary school and pre-teen readers.
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Dianna Dorisi Winget writes fiction and nonfiction for young readers. She is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest and lives in the mountains of north Idaho with her husband, daughter, and two canine buddies. A Smidgen of Sky is her first novel. www.diannawinget.com
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Monday Poems: "Emergency Brake" -- by Dawn Losinger

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

The car will roll down the hill
Everything you own is disentangling.
Everything falls to the floor around the corner
into the wall. Through the window, a distortion of plains.

The car will roll down the hill.
Everything you own will betray you, tend towrard victim.
It is best to unload yourself.
It is best to unload as much as possible.
The car is the first to go, a muffled negotiation.

Finally your skull, heavy thing.

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dawn lonsinger’s poems and lyric essays have appeared in American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Guernica: A Magazine of Arts & Politics, New Orleans Review, Subtropics, Best New Poets 2010, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, Smartish Pace’s Beullah Rose Poetry Prize, and four Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prizes, and holds an MFA from Cornell University and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah. "Emergency Brake" was published in her 2013 collection, Whelm.

H. Lee Barnes, author of Cold Deck

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:09:00 +0000

Jude Helms is a Las Vegas casino dealer who barely survived the deadly MGM fire in 1980. More than two decades later, he’s still dealing, a tired, middle-aged man, divorced, struggling with debt, and trying to be a good father to his children. Then he loses his job and his car is totaled in an accident. When an attractive woman friend offers to help him get another job, Jude is happy to go along. Gradually, he realizes that his new job is part of an elaborate scheme to cheat a casino and that his own fate and that of his children depend on his finding the courage and ingenuity to extricate himself.

Cold Deck is the exciting story of an ordinary man who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances. Moving from Las Vegas’s mean streets to the insider’s world of casino workers, this is a story of survival set against the greed, fears, and glitz of Sin City.

Find out more about H. Lee Barnes, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
Thursday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
Sunday, April 7 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, April 7 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
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Children's Book Review: 'Dodsworth in Tokyo' by Tim Egan

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:11:00 +0000

Dodsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013

Dodsworth and the duck continue their world travel adventures in Dodsworth in Tokyo. Dodsworth teaches the duck to bow to greet people and how to say “thank you” in Japanese. They visit the Tokyo Tower and the Imperial Palace and see a girl playing with a kendama (wooden toy) in Yoyogi Park.

Duck manages to be well-behaved in the park (where he recovers the toy that the girl has left behind) and at a sushi restaurant (which he likes because he doesn't have to wear shoes). But he bumps into a rickshaw in Shibuya, falls into a pond in the East Gardens (which is a problem, because he can't swim) and knocks over a tray of wagashi (dessert) in their hotel room.

He attracts the most attention when he bumps into some people carrying a shrine during the Sanja Festival. Everything goes silent as the crowd eyes him disapprovingly, but peace is restored when the duck reveals that he was hurrying through the crowd to return the kendama to the little girl who lost it.

As with Tim Egan's other books, all of the characters are animals, dressed as people. The illustrations are brightly painted cartoons which help to elucidate the Japanese customs and venues described in the text.

Written in four chapters, this book is a little long for a read-aloud in one sitting, but would work just fine in segments for bedtime reading. The first-graders that I shared it with laughed at duck's clumsiness and enjoyed watching him eat sushi and playing the park, but did ask to take a break to read another book between chapter three and chapter four.

Overall, the Dodsworth books provide a fun general introduction to travel in foreign countries for young children and their families.
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Tim Egan is the author and illustrator of several offbeat and humorous tales for children. Born in New Jersey, Tim moved to California to attend the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He still lives in southern California with his wife, Ann, and their two sons. To learn more about Tim Egan, visit his Web site at www.timegan.com.
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Monday Poems: "Manifesto" -- by Joe Wilkins

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

In April, I believe only in lilac, dogwood, and wisteria—such sudden-
    ness and color, indecency and mess, always opening and opening,
    and fading and falling away.

When I walk a city street, say, Louisville, or Tacoma, and there is the
    stink of creosote and iron and fried fish, I believe in creosote and
    iron and fried fish.

That day the sky was brass and rust, that day I drove twelve hours
    straight and still didn’t make it out of Texas, that day I finally
    pulled over at a roadside grocery ninety miles from nowhere, on
    that day I believed above all things in cold beer.

One night when I was seventeen, Melissa pulled me into the lit skirt of
    a streetlight as the first snow began to fall and kissed me on the mouth, and
    I believed in love.

Near Ash Flat, Arkansas, along the banks of the Strawberry River, our
    first cross country road trip and the farthest south either of us had
    ever been, my twenty year old brother chased fireflies for hours.

When the half-light fades from blue to further blue, and the lake goes
    stone dark, and I have caught nothing all day, I believe, always, in
    one last cast.

One night when I was nineteen, Melissa called to tell me that she wasn’t
    sure why but anyway it was over, and I believed in love.

The cold evening in Birmingham, lost near the steel years, radio spit-
    ting static, I just kept driving.

I those first days after my father died, when my mother sat moon-
    faced at the kitchen table for hours, I’d wake my little brother and
    slick an iron skillet with bacon grease and fry eggs.

Leaving Spokane, everything I could possibly call mine crammed into
    a short-box Chevy pickup, I believed in open windows and
    wind and her dark hair in the wind.

One night when I was twenty-seven, I watched a man in a bar on the
    south side of Billings, Montana, dry his eyes with his shirt sleeve
    and kiss the back of his own hand, and I believed in love.

And here at my desk this morning, staring out the window down the
    gravel alley, I believe in sunlight and silver leaves, the carved bark of
    cottonwoods, all those hearts and arrows.
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Joe Wilkins was raised on the high plains of eastern Montana and now lives in northern Iowa. His poems, essays, and stories have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review, Ecotone, The Sun Orion, and Slate, among other magazines and literary journals."Manifesto" was published in his 2012 collection of poems, Notes from the Journey Westward.

Todd Wilkinson, author of LAST STAND

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Entrepreneur and media mogul Ted Turner has commanded global attention for his dramatic personality, his founding of CNN, his marriage to Jane Fonda, and his company’s merger with Time Warner. But his green resume has gone largely ignored, even while his role as a pioneering eco-capitalist means more to Turner than any other aspect of his legacy. He currently owns more than two million acres of private land, and his bison herd exceeds 55,000 head, the largest in history. In 1997, Turner donated $1 billion to help save the UN, and he has recorded dozens of other firsts with regard to wildlife conservation, fighting nukes, and assisting the poor. He calls global warming the most dire threat facing humanity, and says that the tycoons of the future will be minted in the development of green, alternative renewable energy.

Last Stand, written by veteran journalist Todd Wilkinson, goes behind the scenes into Turner’s private life, exploring the man’s accomplishments and his motivations, showing the world a fascinating and flawed, fully three-dimensional character. From barnstorming the country with T. Boone Pickens on behalf of green energy to a pivotal night when he considered suicide, Turner is not the man the public believes him to be. Through Turner’s eyes, the reader is asked to consider another way of thinking about the environment, our obligations to help others in need, and the grave challenges threatening the survival of civilization.

Find out more about Todd Wilkinson, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

Thursday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
Thursday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
Sunday, March 31 at 3 p.m. on KSJD
Sunday, March 31 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
On demand audio
MTPR podcast

Children's Book Review: 'Mary Wrightly, So Politely' by Shirin Yim Bridges

noreply@blogger.com (Cherie Newman for Montana Public Radio) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:11:00 +0000

Mary Wrightly, So Politely
by Shirin Yim Bridges
illustrated by Maria Monescillo
Harcourt Children's Books, 2013

Mary Wrightly speaks in a very soft voice. She always says please and thank you. She apologizes, even when other people are at fault. But when she's looking for the perfect gift for her baby brother, and others snatch her first few choices away, she finally learns to stand up for herself (for her brother's sake).

Maria Monescillo's smudgy pastel-like illustrations of characters with broad faces and delicate features capture Mary's self-effacing manner perfectly. Even the font size is small, throughout this book, except when Mary (and her brother) raise their voices. The images reflect Mary's view of the world, focused on stuffed animals while surrounded by people in a busy department store as her mother chats with a friend.

The first-grade students that I read this story to liked that Mary was polite, but were also glad when she spoke up to claim the toy that she was eyeing for her brother. They laughed at the baby's surprising squeal of joy at the end of the book when he receives his gift (and asked me to read it again and again).

This delightful story beautifully illustrates that it's possible to be both assertive and polite, especially if you're doing it for someone you love.
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Shirin Yim Bridges writes books for children and is the founder of the nonfiction press Goosebottom Books. Her first picture book, Ruby's Wish, illustrated by Sophie Blackall, received the Ezra Jack Keats New Author Award. Shirin lives in Northern California and speaks in a polite, quiet voice. www.goosebottombooks.com

Maria Monescillo has worked as an animator as well as a children's book illustrator. Among her picture books is Myra Wolfe's Charlotte Jane Battles Bedtime, which Kirkus Reviews called "downright refreshing." Maria lives in Norway with her family where she, so politely, makes wooden puppets. www.monescillo.es
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