Library to Host “An Evening with Montana’s Poet Laureate Tami Haaland” During National Poetry Month
April 2, 2014 (Helena, MT)—Poetry is a complex genre that often scares readers and writers away with its simplistic complexity. Tami Haaland, Montana’s poet laureate, challenges that misconception and explains, “Poetry is no mystical calling. It doesn't need to be analytical, critical or scientific. It only needs to be expressive.” On Thursday, April 10th at 7PM Haaland will share her experiences as a writer, author, and student of poetry during “An Evening with Montana’s Poet Laureate Tami Haaland” at Your Lewis & Clark Library.
So many people dislike poetry because they think that they can’t understand it, but Haaland argues that “it's really a matter of giving poetry a longer chance, sticking with it.” Tami Haaland is the author of two books of poetry: Breath in Every Room, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Prize from Story Line Press, and When We Wake in the Night. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, and her work has been featured on The Writer's Almanac, Verse Daily, and American Life in Poetry.
Haaland received an MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars as well as a BA and an MA in Literature from the University of Montana. Since 1994, Haaland has been a professor at Montana State University Billings where she teaches creative writing and literature. She has been active in the Billings community, teaching creative writing at Montana Women's Prison since 2008 and in 2012, she helped launch a writing project at McKinley Elementary School through the Arts Without Boundaries program. In 2011 she received an Artist Innovation Award from Montana Arts Council. During the summer of 2013, Gov. Steve Bullock appointed Tami Haaland Montana's5th poet laureate at the nomination for the honor by Montana's first poet laureate, Sandra Alcosser.
For more information on Haaland’s visit, contact Adult Services Librarian, Suzanne Schwichtenberg at 447-1690 ext 130.