Category Archives: Press Releases

Whitefish Review CHANGE Issue Released on June 4

Whitefish Review CHANGE Issue Released on June 4

Features an Interview and Tribute to Author Jim Harrison

WHITEFISH, MONT. (May 25, 2016) — Whitefish Review will release the “Change” issue (#19) on June 4 with a celebration at Casey’s in downtown Whitefish. The evening will open at 7 pm with live music and a slideshow of the changing glaciers of Glacier National Park.

Readings start at 8 pm, beginning with a discussion by research ecologist Dr. Daniel Fagre on the Repeat Photography Project that displays before-and-after images of the receding glaciers. Fagre works for the USGS as director of the “Climate Change in Mountain Ecosystems Project.”

After short readings by local writers featured in the new issue, author and scientist Cristina Eisenberg will read from a new book in progress on climate change. Eisenberg served as the lead editor of the special “Change” issue. She is the Chief Scientist at Earthwatch Institute and a Smithsonian Research Associate. Her most recent book, The Carnivore Way: Coexisting with and Conserving North America’s Predators, was published in 2014 by Island Press.

The evening features live music by three-piece jazz group Barrel Stove Combo and is sponsored by the Whitefish Community Foundation and Glacier Bank. A $10 entry donation is requested to help with the publishing costs of the non-profit journal.

“Change happens,” says Eisenberg. “It’s intrinsic to life. How we navigate through it is a work in progress. The authors and artists whose work appears in this issue of Whitefish Review share their real and imagined journeys through change. Some tell stories of searching for grace amid chaos and trauma; others tell of seeking transformation, diving into it with abandon, and finding redemption.”

In addition to fiction, essays, poetry, art, and photography by more than 45 contributors, the Change issue features an interview with author Jim Harrison, one of the last interviews he gave before his death to Whitefish Review editor Ben Polley. Harrison was one of contemporary literature’s most versatile and prolific writers, publishing 39 books across many genres and drawing comparisons to Hemingway and Faulkner.

The issue also contains a special tribute to Harrison with short essays by Rick Bass, Tom Brokaw, Tom Crawford, Chris Dombrowski, David James Duncan, William Kittredge, Teddy Macker, Thomas McGuane, Doug Peacock, and Annick Smith.

Whitefish Review is a non-profit journal publishing the literature, art, and photography of mountain culture. As a recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation created for the public good, it is supported by generous donations, grants, and subscriptions. Copies of Whitefish Review are also available in bookstores and for order online at www.whitefishreview.org. Cost is $12, with back issues and subscriptions also available.

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The front and back cover of the new issue features “The Reef” and “High Water” — woodblock prints by artist John Buck.

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Whitefish Review Hosts Author Pam Houston for Release of Lucky #13 Issue

Whitefish Review Hosts Author Pam Houston for Release of Lucky #13 Issue

Literary Journal Takes a Look at Luck, Fate, and the Gamble of Art

Whitefish, MONT. (May 24, 2013) &emdash; Author Pam Houston will read from her new novel Contents May Have Shifted to launch Whitefish Review’s Lucky #13 issue at the Lakeshore Tent Pavilion at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake from 7-10 p.m. on Friday, June 7.

[pullquote]Issue #13 Launch
 Lakeshore Tent Pavilion at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake from 7-10 p.m. on Friday, June 7[/pullquote]

Houston served as the guest editor for the Review’s 13th issue that features 41 writers, photographers and artists selected from more than 600 submissions. Review editors chose work that mined the borderlines where luck and its close cousins: fate, faith, chance and magic, intersect.

“Whitefish Review is one of the few publications I read cover to cover,” says author Tim Cahill. “It’s that good. Luck has nothing to do with it.”

“The writers in this volume took the subject of luck and ran with it to its very outer limits,” says Houston. “To a place where faith and fate and forgiveness triangulate. To an age where there is no good luck or bad luck, but only what happens to you and how you make it through.”

Houston is the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat; the novels, Sight Hound and Contents May Have Shifted; and a collection of essays called A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century.

The cover of #13 features a photograph by 14-year old Ashley T. who started photography classes with the Youth Image Project in April 2012, a Whitefish non-profit. The after-school arts program empowers at-risk teenagers by providing photographic training where they can share their personal vision, expand their skill sets, and advance their life opportunities.

Among work by authors and artists both new and established, #13 also features a conversation with Pam Houston and author Tom McGuane, as they discuss literature, luck, and the life of the writer.

“We won the jackpot when Pam accepted our invitation to guide the Whitefish Review team on our 13th journey,” said founding editor Brian Schott. “I feel humbled by the interest in our project and I’m in awe of the subtle, brave takes on luck that our writers and artists have shared with us.”

Cocktail hour begins at 7 p.m. At 8 p.m., readings begin with Chrysti the Wordsmith, young poet Annika Gordon, author Shann Ray, and Pam Houston. Annika Gordon is a freshman at Whitefish High School and will share her first published poem. A short discussion with the authors moderated by Montana Public Radio’s Chérie Newman will conclude the evening, with book signings to follow.

Shann Ray’s story collection American Masculine (Graywolf Press) is an ensemble of stories set primarily in the small towns and reservations of Montana. It was the winner of the American Book Award, named by Esquire as one of “Three Books Every Man Should Read,” and selected by Kirkus Reviews as a Best Book, Best Short Story Collection, and Editor’s Choice selection.

Chrysti M. Smith is a featured speaker for the Montana Committee for the Humanities’ Speakers Bureau and host of Chrysti the Wordsmith, a daily, two-minute audio interlude produced in the studios of KGLT-FM at Montana State University, Bozeman. Since 1990, Chrysti “the Wordsmith” Smith has been plumbing the depths of dictionaries obscure, arcane and pedestrian to craft word and phrase histories for her radio audience.

Chérie Newman is a writer and radio producer in Missoula. Her articles and book reviews have been published in magazines across the West. Her weekly literary program for public radio stations–The Write Question–is broadcast in Montana, Washington, and Colorado, through the Public Radio Exchange (PRX.org), and available as a podcast through the Montana Public Radio Web site (MTPR.org).

Founded in 2007, Whitefish Review is a nationally-acclaimed, non-profit journal publishing the distinctive literature, art, and photography of mountain culture. Featuring established and emerging authors and artists, it weaves a diverse mix of stories, interviews and conversations along with a 16-page color art section. It is published twice a year, in December and June. As a recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation created for the public good, it is supported by generous donations, grants, and subscriptions.

The evening is sponsored by The Montana Arts Council,Whitefish Community Foundation, Jest Gallery, Whitefish Mountain Resort, Good Medicine Lodge, The Lodge at Whitefish Lake and the wonderful donors of Whitefish Review.

For more information email editor@whitefishreview.org or call (406) 261-6190.

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