On the afternoon of Sunday, November 12, 2023, near the Pavilion at Bozeman’s Lindley Park, about 100 people gathered for a Peace Prayer Vigil offered by the Gallatin Valley Interfaith Association (GVIA). The Gallatin Valley Interfaith Association’s vision is to bring together people of all faith traditions in the valley to nurture a stronger community through efforts of compassion, peace, respect, justice and love.

GVIA moderator, Rev. Valerie Webster, welcomed the crowd and GVIA Vice Moderator, Rev. Karen DeCotis of the Dharma Buddhist Center offered a Land Acknowledgement. She was followed by Rabbi Sonata Pilz of Congregation Beth Shalom, Dr Ruhul Amin of the Bozeman Islamic Center, Sally Noble of the Baha’i Community of MT, Kathleen Wetstein of Resurrection Parish, Rev. Margo Rineheart of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bozeman, and Bozeman Dharma Center’s, Rev. Karen DeCotis. Rev. Valerie Webster, Ecumenical & Interreligious Officer of the Episcopal Diocese of MT, concluded with a Christian Protestant Prayer.

Author, journalist and fly-fisherman, John Maclean has written a revelatory foreword to Ernest Hemingway’s book, A Big Two-Hearted River. Speaking at the Bozeman Public Library, he discussed how a short story changed the direction of his life. Maclean was joined by Valerie Hemingway, who added insights and historical notes from her own personal experience.

Recorded at the Bozeman Public Library on September 29, 2023.

As part of the 2020 One Book One Bozeman celebration, Carrie LaSeur spoke about The Creative Writing Process to an enthusiastic crowd at the Country Bookshelf on the afternoon of February 20, 2020.

Her second novel, THE WEIGHT OF AN INFINITE SKY, was this year’s choice for One Book One Bozeman. It is published by William Morrow.

Author photo courtesy of Henry Wildenberg

On the evening of February 12, 2020, the Country Bookshelf was filled to bursting with an enthusiastic crowd of fans and well-wishers gathered to celebrate the publication of Bozeman octogenarian  luminary, Jo Anne Troxel’s,  book, WAITING FOR THE REVOLUTION: A MONTANA MEMOIR, published by Sweetgrass Books.  She was introduced by the Country Bookshelf’s Kasey Kane Charbonneau.

Bozeman historian and past director of the Gallatin Historical Society, John C. Russell, read from his book, TREASURE STATE TYCOON: NELSON STORY AND THE MAKING OF MONTANA, published by the Montana Historical Society Press, at the Country Bookshelf on Dec. 10, 2019.

Treasure State Tycoon recounts the remarkable life of Nelson G. Story, a colorful and contradictory figure whose influence on Montana’s development was profound and rivaled by few others in its history. Story’s reputation for ruthlessness in both personal and professional conduct was well earned, but he was also a generous philanthropist, supporting local churches, schools, and other civic improvements.

Ed Marohn served in the Vietnam War as a US Army captain in the 101st Airborne Division commanding a combat unit. That experience, and his volunteer work with vets who have PTSD, are the background for his new novel, which stems from an idea he had when he returned to modern day Vietnam in 2009. Legacy of War is set 30 years after the war ended, and is an action-adventure which begins when a new patient triggers psychologist John Moore’s traumatic memories of his last days of the Vietnam War. In the following talk, Marohn describes the novel and how it relates to the mental health symptoms of PTSD.

Former Bozeman resident and Oregon Democratic Member of the House of Representatives, Les AuCoin read from his memoir, Catch and Release: An Oregon Life in Politics, at the Country Bookshelf on November 7, 2019. He also answered questions from the large, enthusiastic crowd.

Catch and Release: An Oregon Life in Politics, had just been published by the University of Oregon Press.

On November 5, 2019 at Bozeman’s independent bookstore, The Country Bookshelf, local best-selling author, Gary Ferguson, read from his latest book, The Eight Master Lessons of Nature: What Nature Teaches Us About Living Well in the World, published by Dutton. He was joined at times by his partner, cultural psychologist, Mary Clare.

You can find out more about their work here: https://fullecology.com

To hear the Ecotones interview with Gary & Mary about Full Ecology from December 19, 2019 click on this link: https://forthright.media/2019/12/21/full-ecology-dr-mary-m-clare-gary-ferguson/

Professor Michael Johnson, in his book Can’t Stand Still: Taylor Gordon and the Harlem Renaissance, tells the story of Taylor Gordon, an African American who grew up in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. Gordon, who lived 1893–1971, was discovered by John Ringling, and went on to become an internationally famous singer at the height of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Together with Rosamond Johnson, he introduced white audiences to African American spirituals. Later in his life, following a bout of mental illness, he returned to live in White Sulphur Springs, which he portrayed with a tinge of idealism in the book he wrote, Born to Be. He always thought of self as Westerner. At the end of his presentation, Johnson played a clip from a privately held recording of Taylor Gordon singing, which we do not have rights to share here.

Recorded at Montana State University on October 22, 2019.

Bozeman Actors Theatre will present the play An Enemy of the People in Bozeman at the Hager Auditorium at Museum of the Rockies. Performances will run from October 10 through October 20. This 1882 creation by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen tells the story of Thomas Stockman, a man who dares to speak the unfortunate truth about water contamination in his town, and is punished for it. In the following conversation, we discuss the play with Director Gordon Carpenter and dramaturg Gretchen Minton.

Recorded on October 1, 2019.

There are numerous connections between Ernest Hemingway and Montana. Author Chris Warren, himself a resident of Cooke City, an area Hemingway visited, recently gave a reading from his book Ernest Hemingway in the Yellowstone High Country. Besides a number of Hemingway anecdotes that found their way into the novels, such as the story of a serious automobile accident and its aftermath, Warren mentions the 2020 International Hemingway Conference which is coming to Montana and Wyoming.

Recorded September 26, 2019 at the Country Bookshelf in Bozeman.

Professor Gretchen Minton of Montana State University has written and is presenting an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens–renamed Timon of Anaconda–set in 1960s-70s Butte, Montana. The play tells the story of a mining mogul who loses everything and is abandoned by his friends. He then attempts to retreat to the wilderness, only to find that there is no place that does not have the mark of human activity. Minton uses Shakespeare as a means of exploring human impact on the earth, encouraging us to consider our role in ecological disaster, and also imagine a way forward that can include better stewardship of our natural world.

In this interview, Minton discusses the meaning and significance of her project, including the larger context of theater for education and change. For further information, visit her webpage at www.gretchenminton.com.

To hear this Country Bookshelf reading from Down From the Mountain by award winning Montana author, rancher, conservationist, Bryce Andrews, stream or download below.

Bryce Andrews is Field Director for People and Carnivores, an organization based in Bozeman, MT, that works to reconnect and restore carnivore populations in the Northern Rockies, by working with the region’s people to prevent human-carnivore conflicts.  They work with landowners and managers, Tribes, community groups, and other NGOs to keep people safe, – and bears, wolves, and cougars wild. You can find out more about their work here:  https://peopleandcarnivores.org/

To hear this talk given by John Pavlovitz at the Country Bookshelf as part of the MSU Compassion Project on April 14, 2019, stream or download below

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