The Seventh Annual Montana Festival of the Book in Missoula, Montana

If you happen to be in the Missoula, Montana area at the end of September you will want to make sure that you plan to attend some of the events scheduled during the Montana Festival of the Book. This free annual event is held in the Historic Downtown Missoula area with several local businesses opening their doors to readings, symposiums, readings, autograph sessions, and special presentations. This event will take place on September 28 and 29, 2006, and events will be located at the Wilma Theatre, the Holiday Inn Parkside, the Missoula Public Library, as well as several other locations to be announced.

Scheduled Events

There will be dozens of great events to participate in during the annual Montana Festival of the Book. It will include a Friday Gala Reading given by renowned author Ivan Doig and William Kittredge. Both authors will be reading from their latest novels. This opening event will be held at the Historic William Theatre.

A luncheon will also be held during this event to honor its participating authors, and to celebrate western writing. At this luncheon the Montana Book award honorees will be given their awards and recognition. For time and location of this event you will need to contact the Kim Anderson who is the Festival Coordinator. She can be reached by email at kim.anderson@umontana.edu.

Another special event that you will not want to miss is the live performance of the Prairie Home Companion, which will be broadcasted live via the Montana Public Radio. This will take place Saturday, September 30 in the afternoon. Garrison Keilor and company will be performing this piece at the Adams Field House, and tickets are now available.

In addition to all of these great events the Montana Festival of the Book will also host several other community friendly events. Workshops covering the writing and publishing process will be held throughout the festival. These workshops will be geared for specific topics and audiences. For example there will be workshops for adults, children, publishing, book appraisal, etc. Other events include a special session with author Ivan Doig, a symposium on the tradition of Montana poetry, and readings given by the Environmental Writing Institute.

Featured Authors

The Seventh Annual Montana Festival of the Book will again be graced with the presence of dozens of top writers from this area and from the surrounding states. Some of the invited authors include: Ivan Doig, Wiliam Kittredge, Mary Clearman Blew, James Lee Burke, Annick Smith, David James Duncan, Barry Lopez, Jess Walter, Seth Kantner, David Quammen, David Long, Gary Ferguson, Greg Keeler, and Richard Wheeler. If you have read anything by any of these authors then you now that this list represents a high quality junket of literary talent.

For More Information

If you are interested in attending the Seventh Annual Montana Festival of the Book and need more information please contact the following people.

The Montana Festival of the Book
September 28 through 30, 2006
Kim Anderson, Festival Coordinator
kim.anderson@umontana.edu
or
Mark Sherouse, Executive Director
Montana Committee for the Humanities/Montana Center for the Book
(406) 243-6022
mark.sherouse@umontana.edu
http://www.bookfest-mt.org