March 5, 2007
Author Appearance
Kathleen Norris
7:00 p.m. - Beck Auditorium

March 23, 2007
Follow-up Book Discussion
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography
led by Dr. Bruce McDuffie
noon - 1 p.m. - Roosevelt Room, Stoxen Library

Her first non-fiction book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, an award winning best seller, was a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year” and selected as one of the best books of the year by Library Journal. With Dakota, she creates, in the reader, an almost hypnotic awareness of being present in her day-to-day life.   Some of her other titles are Falling Off, The Middle of the World, Little Girls in Church, and Amazing Grace: a Vocabulary of Faith.  She is now living in Hawaii.

September 29, 2006
Author Appearance
Poet Robert Bly
7:30 p.m. - Beck Auditorium

Robert Bly was born in western Minnesota in 1926.  In 1966, Bly co-founded American Writer’s Against the Vietnam War and led much of the opposition among writers to that war. During the ‘70s, he published 11 books of poetry, essays, and translations, celebrating the power of myth, Indian ecstatic poetry, meditation and storytelling.  During the ‘80s, he published “Loving a Woman in Two Worlds,” “The Winged Life: Selected Poems and Prose of Thoreau,” “The Man in the Black Coat Turns,” and “A Little Book on the Human Shadow.” Recent books of poetry include “What I Have Ever Lost by Dying?” and “Collected Poems and Meditations on the Insatiable Soul,” both published by Harper Collins. His second large prose book, “The Sibling Society,” is the subject of nationwide discussion.

March 7, 2006
Author Appearance
Poet Ron Slate
8 p.m. - Beck Auditorium

March 30th, 2006
Follow-up Book Discussion
led by Dr. Deborah Ford
7 p.m. - Roosevelt Room, Stoxen Library

Ron Slate, a finalist for 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry and the winner of the 2004 Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize for Poetry, is a graduate of the Stanford University Writing Program. He was the editor of the Chowder Review from 1973 to 1988. Poems from the "Incentive of the Maggot" are scheduled to appear in "The New Yorker," "TriQuarterly,"
the"Threepenny Review," and Slate.com. His unique voice is informed by his world travels as a business executive. In more than twenty-five years in corporate business, he has been vice president of global communications for a major computer technology company and chief operating officer of a biotech startup. He lives in Milton, Massachusetts.

"With ingenious irony and without proclamation, Ron Slate explodes small, carefully placed grenades that show us how insubstantial are our assumptions about human consciousness and its relation to history...This is a radical vision."
__Chase Twichell

April 5, 2006
Author Appearance
Charles Johnson
8 p.m. - Beck Auditorium

April 20th, 2006
Follow-up Book Discussion
Soulcatcher and other stories
led by Dr. Jim McWilliams
7 p.m. - Roosevelt Room, Stoxen Library

Charles Johnson, whose balance of philosophy and folklore has been praised since the publication of his first novel in 1974, gained prominence when his novel Middle Passage (1990) won the National Book Award. Born in Evanston, IL, Johnson began his career as a cartoonist.

Under the tutelage of cartoonist Lawrence Lariar, he saw his work published by the time he was 17 years old. His two collections of cartoons were acclaimed for their subtle but pointed satire of race relations and their success led to "Charlie's Pad," a 1971 series on public TV that Johnson created, coproduced and hosted. As an undergraduate at Southern IL University, Johnson studied with novelist and literary theorist John Gardner. Johnson's first novel, "Faith and the Good Thing," was published in 1974 when the author was studying for his Ph.D. in phenomenology and literary aesthetics at the State University of New York at Stonybrook.

Johnson's presentation is cosponsored by the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program.
Dr. Jim McWilliams is the author of "Passing the Three Gates: Interviews with Charles Johnson."

April 4, 2005 Author Appearance:
Larry Watson
Born in Rugby, North Dakota, and raised in Bismarck, Larry Watson is the winner of the Milkweed Fiction Prize, and author of the highly acclaimed Montana: 1948, and numerous other novels, including Justice, White Crosses, Laura, and Orchard, and the chapbook of Poetry Leaving Dakota.  Several cities have chosen Watson’s novels for citywide reading programs.  “Larry Watson is one of those good writers few people know about, a writer whose work is worthy of prizes.” Los Angeles Times Book Review.  Watson and his wife, Susan, live in Plover, Wisconsin.

Praise for his new novel Orchard includes: “A powerful tale . . . captivating and haunting, and very hard to put down.”
—The Washington Post Book World 

April 22, 2004 Author Appearance: 
Jay and Martha Meek, North Dakota poets and editors of Prairie Volcano: an Anthology of North Dakota Writing .  Jay is the author of seven collections of poems and a novel, The Memphis Letters , and has taught most recently at the University of North Dakota, where for two decades he was the poetry editor of North Dakota Quarterly.  Martha, fellow editor of Prairie Volcano , has also taught at UND, where she was book reviews editor of North Dakota Quarterly .  Follow-up book discussions will focus on Jay's poetry chapbook, Good Lives , and Martha's poetry chapbook, Rude Noises . 

[The books are NOT available at the bookstore this time but only at the book signing and reception to follow the appearance]

March 11, 2004 Author Appearance:  Tim O'Brien
The Things they Carried

Tim O'Brien, winner of The National Book Award in 1979 for Going after Cacciato and author of The Things They Carried (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize) ; In the Lake of the Woods ; and, most recently, July, July. His short stories have appeared in Esquire, Harper's, Atlantic, Playboy, Granta, The New Yorker, and in editions of The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories. His story, "The Things They Carried" was chosen for the Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike.

Vietnam was full of strange stories, some improbable, some well beyond that, but the stories that will last forever are those that swirl back and forth across the border between trivial and bedlam. First published in 1979, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic study of men at war that brilliantly -- and painfully --illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.

New York Times Books of the Century
" ...[B]elongs high on the list of best fiction about any war....crystallizes the Vietnam experience for everyone [and] exposes the nature of all war stories."

Going After Cacciato has been described by the New York Times Book Review as "a major achievement" and "the finest piece of American fiction to emerge from the Vietnam War" by the Baltimore Sun. "Stark...rhapsodic...brilliant...a canvas painted vividly, hauntingly, disturbingly by Tim O'Brien", --- Los Angeles Times.

December 4, 2003 Heart River Writers’ Circle series
Michael Kincaid, author of
To Walk in the Daylight (1973), Vagrant Deity (1999), Oak Song (2003), Orion's Return, and Solar Margins.
Beck Auditorium, Klinefelter Hall - 8 p.m. Michael Kincaid is a poet residing in Minneapolis, MN. He has published five books of poetry beginning with To Walk in the Daylight in 1973 and most recently Vagrant Deity (1999) and Oak Song (2003). He has also published two books of prose non-fiction: Orion’s Return and Solar Margins. A traveler, camper, and hunter, Kincaid has toured the British Isles and Europe, tramped across much of the upper Mid-west and western United States, and lived in a cabin in the Black Hills for several years. His writing reflects his interest in letters, mythology, and the natural world.

"What I like is the omnivorous way you have of biting off great lumps of real world...a real impact...the points of intensity are all the stronger and bigger for it..." Ted Hughes commenting on To Walk in the Daylight.

November 3, 2003 Heart River Writers’ Circle series
Tracy Potter, author of
Sheheke: Mandan Indian Diplomat: The Story of White Coyote, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark.

His Mandan name is She-he-ke-shote. In English this means White Coyote. Lewis and Clark called him Chief Big White. Mandan interpreter Rene Jessaume referred to him in French as Le Gros Blanc. To some, he was simply "the Mandan Chief." Today, we call him Sheheke, the Mandan Indian who traveled from North Dakota with Lewis and Clark to meet President Thomas Jefferson in Washington. The story of his life has been too long untold. It is the story of a dynamic native culture, a peaceful and welcoming people, and a nation struggling for survival. It is the story of a procession of curious explorers from the north and east. It is the story of one man with the mettle and foresight to embark upon an unprecedented trip that would take him thousands of miles into a foreign land with unfamiliar customs. Sheheke was an ambassador for the Mandan Nation, a consistent friend of the United States, and an important part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In sharing his story, his legacy of kindness, friendship and courage lives on.

Tracy Potter is a historian and the executive director of the non-profit Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation which operates North Dakota’s leading heritage tourism attraction: Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, the last post of General George Custer and site of On-a-Slant Mandan Indian Village. The Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation also operates Five Nations Arts, the leading Native American art store in North Dakota, specializing in authentic, traditional, hand-crafted art made by Lakota Sioux, Chippewa, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Indians. For the last five years, Potter has been the administrator of a $1.9 million federally-funded restoration of the On-a-Slant village, birthplace of Mandan Indian leader White Coyote. The Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation has also accepted leadership in planning and carrying out the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Signature Event for the Bismarck-Mandan area, October 22-31, 2004 .

The follow-up book discussion of Sheheke will be Nov. 24, led by Ms. Bonnie Johnson.

April 24, 2003 Author Appearance:  Linda Hasselstrom
Between Grass and Sky: Where I Live and Work

Acclaimed "Dakotan" rancher and writer Linda M. Hasselstrom will be visiting the Dickinson State University campus for a spring Heart River Writers’ Circle program. Hasselstrom’s writing reflects her experience of growing up on and now managing her ranch in western South Dakota. She combines forty-five years of experience raising cattle on the Northern Plains with thirty years as an environmental activist to create essays and poetry, and she has co-edited anthologies that include contributions from numerous west river Dakota region writers and poets. Her numerous books, poems, essays and articles include Leaning into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West; Woven on the Wind: Women Write About Friendship in the Sagebrush West; Feels Like Far: a Rancher’s Life on the Great Plains; and Dakota Bones: Collected Poems. Her reading on April 24th, 7:30 p.m., in Beck Auditorium will feature Hasselstrom reading from her newest book, Between Grass and Sky: Where I Live and Work. She has received a number of honors for her work including an NEA fellowship for poetry and the South Dakota Hall of Fame's Writer of the Year award. On April 23rd, 7:30 p.m., a “Leaning into the Wind Reunion Reading” will be held in Beck Auditorium, featuring area contributors to the Hasselstrom edited anthology in a joint reading and panel appearance with her. Hasselstrom sees herself as a rancher who writes -- a self-definition that shapes the tone and content of her writing. Now owner of the cattle ranch where she grew up in western South Dakota, she lives in daily intimate contact with the natural world. As she says, "Nature is to me both home and office. Nature is my boss, manager of the branch office—or ranch office—where I toil to convert native grass into meat. . . .If I want to keep my job as well as my home, I pay attention not only to Nature's orders, but to her moods and whims."“I consider myself a perpetual student of American West history, culture and ecology. I read constantly. I write to learn and for the sheer enjoyment of following words wherever they lead, whether in poetry or nonfiction. I consider my primary responsibility to be working to preserve the territory I love, including not only the land but its inhabitants, human and otherwise, and their stories.”The essays in Between Grass and Sky reflect Hasselstrom's close attention to her home place and the depth of her sympathy with the world around her. She writes knowingly of the rancher's toil and of the intelligence and dignity of the animals she tends, especially the much-maligned cow, as well as of the wild creatures—the owls and antelope and coyotes and others—that share the prairie grassland she calls home. Hasselstrom's voice rings with the ardent common sense of one who knows and loves the land, who appreciates the concerns of environmental activists but also knows the role that responsible ranchers can play in nurturing a healthy rural ecosystem."No one has chronicled more fully what it means to be a daughter of the Ranching West than Linda M. Hasselstrom. In this latest chapter of what is proving to be an historic life's work, she has made yet another invaluable contribution, exploring what it means to be both a rancher and an environmentalist — and why the rest of us should care."—Teresa Jordan, author of Riding the White Horse Home and Field Notes from the Grand Canyon

"Linda M. Hasselstrom writes with the long experience of a rancher, the eye and curiosity of a naturalist, the voice of a poet, and the heart of a woman who loves life and the prairie where grass and sky sustain other interesting lives as well as her own. While her knowledge of ranching and understanding of the natural world and environmental issues are important here, her honesty, sense of humor, liking for adventure, and storytelling—along with her skills as a writer—also make this a unique and welcome essay collection which is both delightful and wise." —Robert Roripaugh, Wyoming Poet Laureate

Michael Hettich's poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry East and The Literary Review. He is author of two full-length books of poetry, including A Small Boat: Poems, and four chapbooks, and he has edited two anthologies. Two new books of poetry are forthcoming. He has just finished a new book, One Language to Forget With, and is working on a book about poetry and hearing. In 1999 he was the recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Poetry.

Michael Hettich holds a Ph.D in English and American literature from the University of Miami. Since 1990 he has taught composition, creative writing, and literature at Miami-Dade Community College (Wolfson). In 1987 he was awarded the Mac Smith Endowed Teaching Chair. Beyond his work at Miami-Dade, he also lectures, conducts workshops and gives readings throughout the state of Florida, both under the auspices of the Florida Humanities Council and by invitation.