Whitefish library series continues with program on local literary culture

Whitefish Community Library’s Winter Writers Series continues Monday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. featuring Montana writer Tami Haaland.

Haaland’s Humanities Montana program “Local Literary Culture” will combine a reading with “practical conversations about the challenges of building and sustaining writing groups and literary programs,” and if time permits, a bit of workshop. Attendees may bring a sample of their work and questions about writing, revision, and inspiration.

“We had a wonderful night with our first writer in the series, Mark Gibbons, and we’re eagerly awaiting another first-rate program with Tami Haaland, a teacher of writing and also a poet,” said Library Director Mary Drew Powers. 

Haaland served as Montana’s Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015 and is a professor of English at Montana State University Billings. She received a Governor’s Humanities Award in 2019. 

She is the author of three poetry collections and winner of the Nicholas Roerich First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies. 

She is a graduate of the University of Montana master’s in literature program and Bennington College master’s in creative writing and literature program. She has offered readings and workshops in England and Germany, as well as many locations around the U.S. 

All programs in the Winter Writers Series are free and open to the public. Program sponsors are Humanities Montana and the Whitefish Library Association. 

Future programs include:

• Caroline Patterson, “Montana Women Writers Workshop,” Thursday, March 28, 6 p.m.

• Jess Owen, “Who, What, Why? A fiction writing workshop for Teens,” Friday, April 5, 4:30 p.m.

• Chris La Tray, current Montana Poet Laureate, reading and discussion, Friday, April 12, 6 p.m.

 For more information, call the Library at 406-862-9914 or visit whitefishlibrary.org.