Kyleah's Tree is a finalist

Kyleah Ralston's mother has died. She doesn't know where her father and brother are or even if they are still alive. She joins her friend Benjamin to leave the foster home in Kansas where they both live. Though she seeks to find her lost brother, it is her true self she is looking for—and finds, through the many hair raising adventures they encounter from Kansas to Canada.  

Kyleah's Tree, by Janet Muirhead Hill has been selected as one of three finalists in the fiction category for the Parmly Billings High Plains Book Award. Read on for the entire press release:

2009 High Plains Book Award Committee Announces Finalists

Thirteen books have been selected as finalists for the 2009 Parmly Billings Library High Plains Book Awards. All finalist books were published for the first time in 2008 and written by a regional author or writing team, or are literary works which examine and reflect life on the High Plains region.  The High Plains region includes Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Nominations were received from 20 publishers and several individuals in the U.S. and Canada. 

 

The finalists have been selected in five categories : Best Novel; Best Nonfiction; Best First Book; Best Poetry and Zonta Best Woman Writer.  The Best Poetry award has been added this year.  A five hundred dollar cash prize is awarded in each category. The finalist books are: 

 

Fiction

Kyleah's Tree, Janet Muirhead Hill, Raven Publishing; So Brave, Young, and Handsome, Leif Enger, Grove/Atlantic; Another Man's Moccasins, Craig Johnson, Viking/Penguin

 

Nonfiction

In Contemporary Rhythm, Peter H. Hassrick and Elizabeth J. Cunningham, University of Oklahoma Press; The Wide Open, Ed. by Annick Smith/Susan O'Connor, University of Nebraska Press; Legacy of Stone, Margaret Hryniuk, Frank Korvemaker and Larry Easton, Coteau Books

 

Poetry

Made Flesh, Craig Arnold, Ausable Press; Prairie Kaddish, Isa Milman, Coteau Books; The Baseball Field at Night, Patricia Goedicke, Lost Horse Press

 

First Book

Horses That Buck, Margot Kahn, University of Oklahoma Press; Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles, John Fitzpatrick, Riverbend Publishing; Wind River Country, Bayard Fox and Claude Poulet, Fremont County Publishing

 

 

 

Zonta Best Woman Writer

 

The Wide Open, Edited by Annick Smith and Susan O'Connor, University of Oklahoma Press; Road Map to Holland, Jennifer Graf Groneberg, New American Library/Penguin; Horses That Buck, Margot Kahn, University of Oklahoma Press

 

More than 40 local volunteers read and evaluated the nominated entries.  The top three books in each category will be sent to regional judges for final selection as award winners.  Judges are published authors in the various genres with strong ties to the High Plains region. 

“We are hoping bookstores and libraries will publicize the nominees and finalists so the public will have an opportunity to read this interesting array of books,” said Parmly Billings Library Director Bill Cochran.

Winners in each category will be announced at the High Plains Book Awards Banquet on Friday, October 2, 2009 in Billings, MT.  The event is the kickoff for the 7^th annual High Plains BookFest. For more information go to: http://highplainsbookawards.org

 

END.

Chautautqua, an assembly for sharing

It has been a great pleasure to participate in the relaxed atmosphere at the Elling House in Virginia City, Montana each third Saturday evening of the month from January through April. Music, poetry, essays, humor and drama are presented by anyone who wishes to participate. And we never ceased to be amazed at the quality and quantity of talent in our area. Laughter, camaraderie, and mutual support and encouragement are all part of the evening that begins with a potluck dinner.

Toni James and the Elling House Arts and Humanities Center hosts four Chautauqua assemblies each year, offering the unique opportunity for authors, artists and musicians to perform for a receptive crowd of people who love good food, great music, and original literary and dramatic presentations. 

A Chautauqua, according to Wikipedia began as an adult education movement in the United States and was highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Chautauqua assemblies spread throughout rural America until the mid 1920's, bringing entertainment and culture to communities. Speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers, and specialists of the day participated. President Theodore Roosevelt is quoted as saying that the Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America." 

The final Chautauqua assembly for this year at the Elling House will be held this Saturday evening, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. beginning with the potluck, followed by entertainment at 7:30. 

Residents and visitors of Virginia City and many surrounding towns are very grateful for the efforts of Toni James and the Elling House Board for bringing this delightful tradition back to life in Montana.  

The photographs on this page are by Stan Hill, Back Acre Productions. The first picture is of the Elling House, then Toni James, our host, Janet Zimmerman, the MC of the evening of the March 21 Chautauqua, Janet Muirhead Hill, reading on February 21, and two of the many talented musicians, Caleb Harbor and Jeff MacDonald.