The Profane Reverence of Chris La Tray

Review/Profile :: Mountain Outlaw Summer 2024

Becoming Little Shell is part personal history, part tribal history, and encompasses his decade-plus investigation into his identity, a confrontation with his father’s complicated relationship with his own Indigenous heritage alongside discovering the rich history of the Métis and the landless Indians belonging to the Little Shell tribe. The memoir solidifies La Tray as a storyteller—it is written as if he were speaking, infused with his brash humor when he curses the roaming wildlife crossing the highway at twilight.

Kids that Groove: Wins from a Rafting Mom

Guest Post :: NRS The Duct Tape Diaries May 3, 2024

In the cosmic dance that is parenting, where one child finds the surge and spiral of water “boring” and another squeals in delight wearing a white and pink princess dress, I’ll take the small victory that, at least for now, our groover beats out the outhouse. It’s not even a competition. 

Becoming a mother was impossibly hard during Covid. Has anything changed since?

Feature :: The Guardian April 26, 2024

Rates are improving in the US as healthcare organizations take steps to confront the continuing crisis. Still, new mothers often feel alone: ‘People don’t know what to do’? 

These Skiers Are Navigating Sobriety in Mountain Towns

Feature :: SKI Magazine January 3, 2024

As the nation tends towards more sobriety, will skiing leave an excessive drinking culture behind? 

The Home of Fly-Fishing Literature

Profile :: Field and Stream November 14, 2023

I expected the cabin belonging to one of the country’s most famous fly-fishing families to be more difficult to find, as if it should be cloaked in mystique instead of nestled among giant Western larch trees along the western shore of Seeley Lake in northwest Montana. Thanks to Norman Maclean, who wrote A River Runs Through It in 1976, fly fishing is synonymous with Montana.

The Duttons are fake, but the ‘Yellowstone’ tourism boom is very real

Travel Feature :: Washington Post October 5, 2023

Fans are coming to Montana to live their best cowboy life. That comes with positive economic effects, but misconceptions, too.

Authors of the Flathead

Features :: Flathead Living September 7, 2023

For more than three decades, ‘writers helping writers’ has been the guiding principle at weekly workshops organized by a group of local authors, who this year are preparing to host the 30th annual Flathead River Writers Conference.

A bestselling Montana author’s magnum opus nearly broke him. Then it saved his soul

Literary Profile :: LA Times August 8, 2023

““Sun House” offered Duncan a place to heal and recover from his heartbreak — or as the Holy Goat would call it, a “heart-wound.” All the novel’s wounded undergo difficult acts of healing through sacrifice — hiking in the mountains to a sacred lake, preaching “Dumpster Catholicism” to Portland’s unhoused. Or as Jamey summarizes it, ‘Light the lamp and do the damned heartwork.’”

The many ways to see a story

Literary Profile :: High Country News May 2023

“‘Do not trust anyone who tells you you cannot tell your story. Do not trust anyone who tells you there is only one story. If there were only one story / Or one way of seeing things all stories would die,’ Debra Magpie Earling writes in her new novel, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea. Old Woman’s advice to the Lemhi Shoshone woman known as Sacajewea could also apply to Earling, a Bitterroot Salish author whose lyrical and inventive works strive to give voice to Indigenous women like Sacajewea.”

Why Patagonia — yes, that Patagonia is rebooting a forgotten climate history classic

Literary Profile :: LA Times February 9, 2023

“‘I tried to use 1,000 voices of the past,’ Perlin said of his storytelling method. Of those many voices he collected in writing “A Forest Journey,” the author wonders whether we will continue to mimic Gilgamesh’s battle cry, which ultimately cursed him, or if we might exercise our voices to ensure our own survival.”

So you decided to quit drinking? I did — these are my year’s lessons

Essay :: The Guardian January 2, 2023

“I don’t consider myself even remotely trendy, but my recovery journey alongside the sober-curious trend is simultaneously exciting (Margo Price and I are both rebels? Hell yes!) and worrisome. I do find it comforting to see there’s finally a deliberate, focused conversation on alcohol, a recalibration of its influence on our lives and health.”

Writing Wild

Feature :: Montana Quarterly Spring, 2023

Called to Waters: Casting Stories with John N. Maclean

Profile :: Flathead Living Fall 2022

“It may have taken Maclean 25 years before he was able to describe that day on the creek, but he was able to finally land the story upon the page, offering another tale that shows a generational pull to a river that has called to him ever since.”

Was I really an addict? How the pandemic made me realize I had an alcohol problem

Life and Style :: The Guardian April 2022

“Alcohol’s enticing charm distorts reality, making you think you’re in control. I wasn’t.”

Why There’s an Old Woman on my Brewery

“Like my belief that every town needs a craft brewery, I also believe that communities thrive where public art abounds.”

Feature Article :: Go Local Flathead