Norman Maclean’s books remain relevant classics of Western literature — both his novella, “A River Runs Through It,” which set a high bar for the spiritual connection to the outdoors, and his nonfiction work, “Young Men and Fire,” that detailed the deaths in the Mann Gulch fire of 1949.
The Maclean Festival, though, for the past two entries has been rolling with the man’s ethos more than his specific works. Maclean’s writing “focuses on our relationship to the natural world,” said Jenny Rohrer, the executive director of the event and the organizing nonprofit Alpine Artisans.
And this event, which returns Sept. 27-29, is more of a literary festival with an eye toward issues and dialogue.
“We’ve always been a different type of book festival, or literary festival, unlike some of the statewide book festivals that feature new releases or festivals that feature one author,” she said.
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Alpine Artisans, which promotes the arts in the Seeley, Swan and Blackfoot valleys, started the event back in 2015. It’s always been called “In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean Festival,” with an eye toward continuing his legacy. Now held every other year, the festival has events in Missoula (where Maclean’s father was a minister) and some “field trips” outside.
In 2022, they “dove in deeply to an emphasis on the history of Western settlement and exploitation of our lands and the impact that it had on Indigenous people.”
The Wilma drew a full house and they immediately decided to follow through on that impulse again this year.
The theme this year is “Finding Our Place In Nature: The Power of Story,” with a lineup of authors who are also active in environmental causes, agriculture, art, music and Indigenous scholarship.
Rohrer said it’s arranged by a small organization that lacks a budget and it’s not an easy fundraising environment.
“We just love all the thinking and planning that goes behind it. It’s an intellectual celebration,” she said.
These are some highlights for the events. All take place at the Wilma unless otherwise specified. For a full schedule, go to macleanfootsteps.com. Saturday’s talks are free but registration is required.
‘When You’re in a Hole, Stop Digging’
Festival headlining author Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, will talk about “the growth paradigm as a challenge to nature,” according to the schedule.
‘Going to See: Remembering Barry Lopez’
One panel will discuss the work of the late influential author Barry Lopez, who died in 2020. Lopez won the National Book Award for his 1986 nonfiction classic, “Arctic Dreams,” based on years spent living with Inuit people in Alaska. In his obituary, the New York Times said the deeply prolific essayist “embraced landscapes and literature with humanitarian, environmental and spiritual sensibilities that some critics likened to those of Thoreau and John Muir.”
Time: 11 a.m., with Rick Bass, Debra Gwartney (Lopez’s wife), Gretel Ehrlich and Kurt Caswell.
John Potter, landscape painter, will give a talk about his work. He painted the signature artwork for this year’s festival, “Home’s Embrace,” based on a photograph taken during the 2023 release of the bison on the Blackfeet Reservation with Chief Mountain in the background. (Lauren Monroe Jr., vice chairman of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, took the picture.)
Potter is showing work at the Dana Gallery in conjunction with the festival. The two will talk about how “nature influences their creativity.” Potter grew up on the Ojibwe Indian Reservation in Wisconsin and later moved to Montana, where he worked as an illustrator for the Billings Gazette and now pursues his art from his home in Red Lodge. Dana Gallery reception: 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27.
Rosalyn LaPier, a Blackfeet scholar who taught at the University of Montana before taking a post at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will give a talk.
In an email, LaPier said that in her writing, she often will “blend my own family stories into a larger narrative of Indigenous history, which includes the history of erasure and genocide. I also plan to push back against the false construct and false narrative of America’s definition of ‘wilderness’ to share an Indigenous one.”
She’ll also present an essay from Missoula-based author Liz Carlisle’s new book about the importance of perennial plants and accompanied by wildlife and nature photography by Montoya Whiteman.
‘Held v. the State of Montana’
One of the youth plaintiffs in the climate change lawsuit, Lander Busse, and their lawyer, Roger Sullivan, will give a talk.
‘Who Speaks for the Trees’
Mari Margil of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights will give examples of the new movement of “Legal Rights of Nature,” a group that works around the world to establish legal protections for humans to a healthy environment, but also the legal rights of nature itself.
Black Ram Guitar Festival
Rick Bass, an author and activist in the northwestern Yaak Valley, has lobbied against a proposed logging project in the area for years now. In his latest efforts, he teamed with actor Jeff Bridges, a part-time Montana resident, and Breedlove Guitars to make an acoustic out of an old-growth spruce damaged in a road-building operation. The “Black Ram Guitar” is the centerpiece of an evening with music and authors including McKibben and Bass, plus songwriter Jeffrey Foucault and more.
Time: 7:30 p.m., $20. Sunday, Sept. 29
‘Finding Your Place in Nature’
The final day of the festival is dedicated to tours of the area including a Milltown State Park walk with information about the dam removal and clean-up, a “forest bathing” tour of Council Grove State Park, a Blackfoot River restoration tour, and a trip around the Bison Range on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Go to macleanfootsteps.com for more information.
