February 22, 2019
Tami Haaland read from her poetry collections as a guest author in the “Dances with Words” series at Montana Western on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019.
“Dances with Words” is produced by English Professor Alan Weltzien. The series, free and open to the public, provides the community with a unique opportunity to listen to writers reading their own works, including Montana Western student writers.
Tami Haaland is the author of three poetry collections, “What Does Not Return,” “When We Wake in the Night,” and “Breath in Every Room,” which won the Nicholas Roerich First Book Award.
At the performance, Haaland mainly read from her most recent collection, “What Does Not Return,” which is split into four sections.
When asked by a community member about what she is working on next, Haaland replied, “I am really interested in what our identities are. As a writer, when you start getting a little bit obsessed with something, it is a good path to follow.”
Haaland’s poems have recently appeared in such publications as Consequence, Ascent, Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry and “The Ecopoetry Anthology,” among others.
Haaland has served as Montana’s Poet Laureate and currently teaches at Montana State University-Billings in Billings, Mont. She received an Artist Innovation Award from the Montana Arts Council and is a 2019 recipient of a Governor’s Humanities Award.
“One of the things Tami has done that I am so moved by is the number of writing workshops she has executed in women’s prisons,” said Weltzien following Haaland’s performance.
Each performance in the “Dances with Words” series takes place at The Cup, Montana Western’s coffeehouse located below the library on campus.
Featured authors’ books at “Dances with Words” are made available for purchase by The Bookstore and Deb Sporich.
For more information about the series, please contact Alan Weltzien by email at [email protected] or call 406-683-7431.
