Havre Hometown Humanities hosts writers program

Press Release

Havre Hometown Humanities Faces of Montana will host the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau program "Montana Women Writers," with author and educator Caroline Patterson, Thursday, April 21, at 6 p.m. in the Historic Havre Post Office. This presentation is free and open to the public.

The hour-long program offers a survey of Montana women writers, from early Native American writers through homesteaders and settlers (Mary Ronan and Nannie Alderson) into the mining days (Mary MacLane of Butte) and the progressive era of Montana (Frieda Fliegelman and Grace Stone Coates). It will include an overview of contemporary poets, memoirists and fiction writers who

have helped reinterpret and re-envision the landscape of the American West (Judy Blunt, Sandra Alcosser, Melissa Kwansy,

Maile Meloy, Deirdre McNamer, and Tami Haaland).

If time permits, members of the audience may volunteer brief stories about remarkable women they have known: homesteaders, teachers, ranchers, rodeo riders, and homemakers, and their own writing efforts.

Patterson has published in fiction and nonfiction magazines including Seventeen, Southwest Review and Sunset. She is the author of "Montana Women Writers: A Geography of the Heart," and two children's books on natural history. She edited "Montana Women Homesteaders: A Field of One's Own," "Border to Border: Historic Quilts and Quiltmakers of Montana," and "Fra Dana: American Impressionist in the Rockies." She teaches creative writing through the University of Montana and the Missoula Writing Collaborative, and works with high school writers and poets across the State through the Aerie International publication.

Visit https://www.facebook.com/Aerie-Big-Sky-and-Aerie-International-145708906243/.

Patterson will also lead a special poetry workshop for third graders and their teachers at Lincoln-McKinley Primary School Friday morning, April 22, as part of her Hometown Humanities visit to Havre. This program is not open to the public.

Coffee and cookies will be offered at the conclusion of the program Thursday. Partial funding for the Havre Hometown Humanities Montana program is provided by a legislative grant from Montana's Cultural Trust. In addition to Humanities Montana, organizations supporting Havre Hometown Humanities include the National Endowment for the Humanities, Stockman Bank and the Havre Daily News.