Elk River Books is excited to present “Film and Poetry on Solstice Eve,” an evening of poetry performances and short film screenings on Thursday, Dec. 19, featuring former Montana State poet laureates Melissa Kwasny and Tami Haaland, as well as filmmaker and actor Jenna Ciralli. Guest emcee for the event is Livingston poet and educator Yetta Stein.
Kwasny and Haaland will read from recent publications and Ciralli will screen her short film, Willow Creek Road. The evening will also include short films from the Elemental Dialogue series that Haaland collaborated on with U.K. filmmaker Anna Cady.
Kwasny is the author of seven books of poetry, including her newest collection, The Cloud Path. Widely published in journals including Willow Springs, Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Orion, Bellingham Review, Kenyon Review and Boston Review, Kwasny’s poems and essays are also included in numerous anthologies. She has received many awards including the Montana Art Council’s Artist Innovation Award and an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellowship. She served as Montana Poet Laureate from 2019-2021, a position she shared with M.L. Smoker.
Haaland is the author of three poetry collections, What Does Not Return, When We Wake in the Night and Breath in Every Room, winner of the Nicholas Roerich First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies, and have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry and The Slowdown. She served as Montana’s Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015 and has received a Governor’s Humanities Award and an Artist Innovation Award from Montana Arts Council.
Ciralli is an actor and filmmaker who has trained at the William Esper Studio, NYC, and received a BFA from Willamette University. Her award-winning film work includes Homestead, Casting Call | The Project, Tokyo Cowboy, Rust and the Big Sky Grant recipient, Clara Boone. Local acting credits include Wait Until Dark, Angels in America and Mary Page Marlowe.
Elk River Books is located at 122 S. 2nd St. in downtown Livingston. The free event begins at 7 pm, and a book signing and reception will follow. For those who can’t attend in person, the event will live-stream at YouTube.com/ElkRiverBooks.
