Open Book Club
Imagine this. In small-town Seeley Lake and Condon, book lovers can meet prominent Western authors 6-10 evenings each year, listen to them read from their work, and engage in discussion. AAI's Open Book Club has made these author readings an enjoyable reality. We're not a “real book club.” We’re OPEN in the sense that everyone is welcome, all the time.
Russel Rowland at Holland Lake Lodge
Starting each autumn and running through spring, the Open Book Club brings in authors to read and discuss their work. In the past, it was held most often at Seeley Lake's Grizzly Claw Trading Company, and recently in the West Wing of the Seeley Lake Community Foundation building. We occasionally relocate in the summer to Swan Valley locations such as the Historical Museum or Holland Lake Lodge. Our enthusiasm is a surprise to many authors, who often praise the level of audience participation. Past authors have included John Maclean, William Kittredge, Jamie Ford, Peter Stark, Pete Fromm, Annick Smith, and Gretel Ehrlich.
“Sometimes, you find grace and true kindness in the most unexpected of places. When I was originally invited to participate in the Open Book Club, I truly did not know what to expect. They couldn't get me off the stage! I answered questions for over an hour, and our conversation became such an indelible, important discussion that I wish it had been recorded. I have never experienced that feeling before. The Open Book Club allowed me to be the very best version of myself, and I felt truly free to be open and honest. It stopped being a performance, and became an experience, one that I knew would never be duplicated.”
— Author Richard Fifield, The Flood Girls
The Open Book Club collaborates with the Creative Writing Program at Seeley Swan High School, featuring a student author reading from their work to begin the evening's program.
“In my experience, reading for the AAI Open Book Club has been such an amazing opportunity because it give young writers stage time and experience. We also get to meet published authors who can give us advice and some praise. This gives so much opportunity to young up and coming artists. I'm thankful for what they have done for me and I look forward to what they will do with lot of other great young artists.”
— Kyle Peltier, AAI Senior Scholarship Recipient, 2019
Current Schedule
Come and join us on
Saturday, August 16 at 7 PM in the
Swan Valley Community Hall in Condon
When
Diane Boyd
shares her memoir…
Learn about this amazing biologist and wolf researcher who has many tales to tell from her forty years of studying wolves near Glacier National Park. No doubt, your own understanding of wolves and their management will be impacted as shares stories from her memoir.
This event is sponsored in conjunction with
Swan Valley Connection.
Learn more by visiting her website at: https://www.dianekboyd.com/home
In June,
Steve Lamar, delighted the group
with tales from his book,
Borrowed Time.
Steve is a Condon resident, who over the years has accumulated wonderful stories from backcountry adventures.
In May,
Fred Haefle, shared his book
The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks
Fred is a writer out of Missoula and read three excerpts from his book. Although pickup trucks are featured in the book, it is much more than that, bringing out delightful stories across Fred’s lifetime.
In April,
Marc Beaudin, shared his book,
These Creatures of a Day
Published April, 2024, this is a collection of 56 new poems from the author of Life List and Vagabond Song: Neo-Haibun from the Peregrine Journals
Marc Beaudin, an Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Foundation artist-in-residence, is a poet, theatre artist and bookseller in Livingston, Montana, dubbed “America’s finest open-air asylum” for multiple reasons.
In February 2025,
Sally Thompson, shared her latest book, Black Robes Enter Coyote's World: Chief Charlo & Father De Smet in the Rocky Mountains
Sally Thompson tells the story of how Jesuit values played out in the lives of the Bitterroot Salish people. The famous Black Robe (Jesuit) Father Pierre-Jean De Smet actually spent little time among his “beloved Flatheads.” Instead, he traveled extensively between the Pacific and the Rockies, mapping the pathways and noting the valuable resources. His popular writings helped spark the westward movement of white settlers.
In this up-close account of the Bitterroot Salish people during the lifetime of Chief Charlo, Thompson examines the fundamental differences in the ways Euro-Americans and Native Americans related to land and nature.
Book description from Amazon.com
In December, 2024
Co-authors Smoke Elser and Eva-Marie Maggie sharing Smoke’s new memoir, Hush of the Land: A Life Time in the Bob Marshall Wilderness
This inspirational memoir describes the six-decade quest of packer and outfitter Smoke Elser to protect wildlands, especially the Bob Marshall Wilderness. It chronicles his adventures, encounters with wildlife, and nights spent around campfires as he guided groups in some of West's last wild lands.
In November, 2024
Chris La Tray, Montana’s Poet Laureate for 2023–2025 shared his latest book
Chris La Tray didn't always fully understand his heritage as a Métis and a member of the Little Shell band of Chippewa Indians. Chris' Indigenous heritage revealed itself over time as he sought out family and others who filled in the missing pieces of his story.
At the same time, the Little Shell people were nearing the culmination of a 150-year quest to receive Federal recognition as a distinct Indigenous nation.
The story Chris tells in Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian's Journey Home is powerful and revealing, both for the historic denial of First Peoples' history and continued presence in this place now called Montana, and for the will and power of community to overturn these historic wrongs.
More details about Chris can be found on his website:
In August 2024,
Timothy Shilling shared his book,
The Writings of Norman Maclean: Seeking Truth amid Tragedy
This book offers a current and complete analysis of Maclean — one of the most iconic figures in Western American literature.
Back in 2022, Open Book Club made headlines.
Humanities Montana awarded Alpine Artisans' Open Book Club the Montana Center for the Book Prize.
Read the complete article from the Seeley Swan Pathfinder, October 22, 2020 here.
OBC Archives
Open Book Club was founded by Sara Wilcox in 2007, and to date has presented over 100 authors.
View the full archive of authors below.
