The wall behind Rick Bass glows in the early winter hours like sunlit jars of honey. He is set up to lead a writer’s workshop from a young musician’s Western red cedar-paneled studio. Bass is alone, save for a jumble of dogs and a couple...
Summer in the Northern Rockies is a glorious time of year, and because it doesn’t last for long, it’s treasured. While communities are adapting to changing pandemic regulations, large gatherings remain rare, and social distancing feels like the new normal, this is the perfect summer...
While music lovers around the world are chomping at the bit — ready to once again experience live performances — the Under The Big Sky Festival is set to deliver an all-star lineup for 2021. Held at Big Mountain Ranch, a 350-acre working farm just...
The 2020 Montana Book Award has been announced, with Gretchen E. Minton’s Shakespeare in Montana: Big Sky Country’s Love Affair with the World’s Most Famous Writer (University of New Mexico Press, $19.95) taking top honors. This annual award recognizes literary and artistic excellence in a...
Imagine this scene: You’re picnicking at a table next to the Yellowstone River on a sunny summer day. Suddenly aware of a disturbance, you turn, only to see a mass of heaving, snorting, splashing creatures swimming forcefully, inexorably, and directly at you. Retreating to cover...
When my teenage son, Braden, and I climbed out of our minivan, temperatures hovered in the mid-20s and an ethereal layer of mist covered Freezeout Lake. We weren’t the first to arrive; a handful of pickups, Subarus, and other mud-splattered vehicles huddled in the tiny...
Looking at it from a certain perspective, John N. Maclean was a successful writer long before his famous father, Norman Maclean, made his mark on American literature. But when the time came for John to write his first book, his father’s reputation — although he...
When COVID-19 hit and shelter-in-place orders were established in early 2020, the very idea of losing my freedom to roam was nearly as unpalatable to me as catching the virus. For a few weeks, I found myself stumbling around, unsure of how to make use...
When Angie Lipski was a child, she spent every summer weekend, along with her parents and brother, at her grandmother’s house on the shores of Flathead Lake in northwest Montana. As a result, she says, life at the lake “embodies a lot of my happiest...
Among the sudden life changes that were brought on by COVID-19 in early 2020, a significant one was the loss of cultural events: Live music, art festivals, and films on the big screen, among many other things, came to a screeching halt. Faced with empty...