Montana Book Festival

Moss Turpan grew up in New York and studied literature and intellectual history at Middlebury College in Vermont. He moved to Missoula on the basis of having heard a few good things, and with some vague, romantic visions of what Montana life might be like. He hasn't been disappointed in what he's found, and has recently been working as the Creative Director for the Montana Book Festival.

John Ashley is a Montana photographer, writer, biologist, and educator. As an award-winning journalist in Montana and Florida, John has photographed presidents and homeless people, Space Shuttle launches and airplane crashes, beauty queens and murder suspects. John also worked seasonally as a field biologist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Park Service. He has helped to conserve California condors, bald eagles, and common... Read More →

Jennifer Bottomly-O’looney is senior curator of the Montana Historical Society.  A third-generation Montanan, she spent much of her youth at the family’s cabin on Lake McDonald, where her grandmother told reminiscences of Charlie Russell’s visits from his nearby Bull Head Lodge.  Bottomly-O’looney received her BA from Montana State University and her MA from the Royal College of Art in London. She came to... Read More →

Kirby Lambert is a native of Texas and a graduate of Texas Tech University, where he received degrees in history, English, and museum studies. He has been affiliated with the Montana Historical Society, in various capacities, for nearly three decades. Before assuming his present position as the director of the Outreach and Interpretation Program in 2007, he spent nineteen years curating the Society’s Russell collection. His publications... Read More →

Jerry McGahan, 72, is a retired beekeeper and lives with his wife in Arlee, Montana, where he writes short fiction, essays, and novels; gardens; and paints. North American Review, Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, The Antioch Review, and The Gettysburg Review, among other literary journals, have published his stories and essays. He had a novel with Sierra Club Books, and a collection of short fiction, The Deer Walking Upside... Read More →

David Peterson is author of Happiness is a Warm Carcass: Assorted Sordid Stories from the Photographer in the Midst. | | Mike England of Outside Bozeman magazine said, "Dave is one weird dude."