About:

Next stop, Williston!

Join us for a public reading, discussion, small group writing workshop and/or young writers bootcamp with authors Debra Marquart, Tayo Basquiat, Erika Bolstad, and David Bjerklie! Event is FREE with registration!

📚 - Main session includes a public reading and discussion with the four tour authors. Registration is required for this and all other sessions

🖋 - Small Group Writing Workshop session is open to adult participants ages 18+. To get the most of this workshop, participants are asked to submit a short writing sample to Crista at crista@humanitiesnd.org a week prior to the event. Writers may submit their final piece to HND for consideration as a feature in the Humanities ND Magazine’s "Sense of Place" issue.

✏ - Young Writers Bootcamp is open to students ages 10-15 looking to improve their writing skills. This session kicks off with a presentation, followed by on-the-spot implementation of generative exercises, with time allowed for freewriting and feedback.

WILLISTON TOUR STOP DETAILS:

Little Mo Writers Tour with Debra Marquart, Tayo Basquiat, Erika Bolstad, and David Bjerklie

August 2, 6:00-9:00pm CT

James Memorial Art Center (621 1st Ave W, Williston ND)

• 6:00pm-7:00pm - Public Reading
• 7:00pm-7:30pm - Community Discussion
• 7:30pm-7:45pm - Break
• 7:45pm-9:00pm - Small Group Workshop
• 7:45pm-9:00pm - Young Writers Bootcamp

ABOUT THE TOUR AUTHORS:

Debra Marquart (Iowa State University) is a memoirist, poet, and singer/songwriter. She is the author of seven books including The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere. Marquart’s work has received multiple awards including an NEA Fellowship, a PEN USA Award, a New York Times Editors’ Choice commendation, and Elle Magazine’s Elle Lettres Award. The Senior Editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment, Marquart teaches in ISU’s interdisciplinary MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment and in the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine.

Tayo Basquiat (Bismarck State College) is a writer, teacher, adventurer, and filmmaker. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Wyoming, and his work has appeared in Orion Magazine, Intangible, Superstition Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Nasiona, Proximity Magazine, On Second Thought, as producer of Wyoming Public Media’s “Spoken Words” podcast, and elsewhere.

Erika Bolstad is a journalist and documentary filmmaker in Portland, Oregon. She's also the author of Windfall, a nonfiction book that examines the consequences of the mineral rights her family inherited in North Dakota. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Scientific American, and many other publications.

David Bjerklie grew up in Minot and studied biology and anthropology at the University of North Dakota. He has written on science, medicine, environment and technology subjects for various publications since 1984, including TIME Magazine, TIME For Kids, and TIME Special Editions. Most recently, he has written on animal cognition, mental health and language, the nature of hope, the character of facts, and the psychology of being wrong. He has been a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at M.I.T., a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow, and a National Science Foundation Media Fellow at McMurdo and South Pole Stations in Antarctica.

TOUR SCHEDULE:

July 29 - Morton Mandan Public Library (609 W Main St, Mandan ND)

July 31 - The Carnegie Center of Minot (105 2nd Ave SE, Minot ND)

August 2 - The James Memorial Art Center (621 1st Ave W, Williston ND)

August 3 - Long X Arts Foundation (100 2nd Ave SW, Watford City ND)

August 5 - Dickinson Area Public Library (139 3rd St W, Dickinson ND)

August 6 - The Metropolitan (514 Main Ave. New Salem ND)