HELENA – Carroll College is hosting its annual Literary Festival, November 9–12. Sponsored by the Carroll Department of Languages and Literature and organized and executed by the Carroll senior English capstone seminar students, this year’s literary festival theme is “Willingness.”
Tom Harpole
The 2021 Carroll College Undergraduate Literary Festival: Willingness will take place on November 09-12. The Senior English Capstone Seminar students (Tracy Ackeret, Regan Clancy, Hope Emmanuel Grey, Bobby Cade Mornhinweg, Morris Richardson, Lucas Shefelbine & Rylie Weeks) are happy to announce that this year’s Keynote Speaker will be local legend and Carroll alumnus Tom Harpole, whose recent collection of essays Regarding Willingness: Chronicles of a Fraught Life has been awarded the 2020 Montana Book Honor Award. He will present on campus in Trinity Hall Lounge on November 11, 2021, at 6:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A.
The Capstone students will run a series of student and faculty presentations of long-form poetry and creative and academic prose. These presentations will occur on Thursday afternoon from 12:30-4:30 p.m. in the Lower Cube and Friday afternoon from 1:00-3:30 p.m. in the Corette Library & Simperman Learning Commons’ Sage Room. Participants and precise schedule TBA.
Other events include Poems on Many Tongues: An opportunity to bask in poetry and the beauty of other languages as Carroll students, faculty and staff read poems in languages other than English. The event begins at 7:00 p.m. in Carroll College’s Trinity Hall Lounge, Tuesday, November 09, 2021. In addition, the Poets and Songwriters In The Round happens on Wednesday, November 10, 2021 in the Myrna Loy’s Gallery Room, 7:00 p.m.
This is an annual literary event which showcases the creative and literary talent of Carroll and other Montana students and community members. All events are free and the Helena community is encouraged to attend.
Schedule of Events:
Tuesday, 11/9
- Poems on Many Tongues
- Trinity Hall Lounge, Carroll College, 7:00 p.m.
- An opportunity to bask in poetry and the beauty of other languages as Carroll students, faculty and staff read poems in languages other than English.
Wednesday, 11/10
- Poets and Songwriters in the Round
- Myrna Loy’s Gallery Room, 15 N Ewing St, Helena, 7:00 p.m.
- Poets Kevin Hadduck and Dan Tessitore, and songwriters Alyssa Rogge and Regan Clancy will present.
Thursday, 11/11 - Lower Cube, Carroll College
- Student Panel #1 - 12:30
- Student presentations of longer creative and academic works, followed by a Q&A.
- Rylie Weeks, Bobby Cade & Frances Tupper
- Student Panel #2 - 1:45
- Student presentations of longer creative and academic works, followed by a Q&A.
- Hope Emmanuel Grey, Regan Clancy & Nicole Williams
- Student Panel #3 - 3:00
- Student presentations of longer creative and academic works, followed by a Q&A.
- Lucas Shefelbine & Tracy Ackert
- The 2019 Carroll College Literary Festival Keynote Address
- Tom Harpole Reads from Regarding Willingness: Chronicles of a Fraught Life, followed by a Q&A. 6:30-800 p.m., Trinity Hall Lounge, Carroll College.
Friday, 11/12 - The Corette Library & Simperman Learning Commons’ Sage Room
- Student Panel #4 - 1:00
- Student presentations of longer creative and academic works, followed by a Q&A.
- Morris Richardson, Megan Micheletti & Caleb Wallis
- Faculty Reading - 2:15
- Loren Graham, reading new prose.
- Kevin Stewart, reading his story “The Brothers,” which appeared earlier this year in Cowboy Jamboree Magazine.
About the Keynote Presenter:
“Tom ‘Harp’ Harpole was a horse logger working from remote mountain camps and living in wall tents until an accident suggested a change of lifestyle. He took to his other avocation – writing, and studied abroad in Ireland. He began publishing stories in periodicals such as Smithsonian Air & Space, Sports Illustrated, Crocodil, Montana Quarterly, Whitefish Review, and more. In 1986 his story ‘The Last of Butch’ (Faber & Faber, London) was selected as The Best Short Story in the British Isles. His work has been short-listed for the National Magazine Award twice, and translated into six languages. He has been a guest reader on NPR more than a dozen times. Harpole writes in a voice that uses his natural wit and humor to shed light on a life of stories that bring readers to the edge of danger. ‘Tom Harpole is what you might call a thinking man’s Evel Knievel’ –Aaron Parrett, MT Senior News.
“Certain magazines that assigned Harp feature articles knew early on that he would try anything that involved physical/emotional risks. He regarded himself as a Survivor’s Euphoria aficionado. His willingness and perspective on dalliances with danger range from an N.F.L. record, to horse logging, to skydiving with Russian cosmonauts, to getting a black bear stoned, to his compassion as a volunteer EMT in rural Montana, to protesting Gorbachev in 1990, to driving ice roads above the Arctic circle, and more. This book is a collection of sixteen of his most popular stories.”