Bøger udgivet af Bangtail Press

It's no secret that Yellowstone National Park is one of the most amazing places in the world. With 24 delightful illustrations created by the Wester Writers of America Spur Award-winning author of Montana for Kids, Yellowstone for Kids tells the story of how this amazing place came to be. No matter how old you are, Yellowstone for Kids is the perfect introduction to our country's very first National Park.

From Paul Zarzyski, one of Montana's most distinguished, respected, and consistently entertaining poets, comes "Going It Alone," his first collection in eight years. Best known-from Elko to Reno, from Monterey to Melbourne, from London to Swansea, Missoula to BUTTE!-for his wild-ride "rodeo poetry" deliveries across both the page and the stage, Zarzyski now harkens back to his Richard Hugo literary wellspring to fuel his ventures into fresh poetic wildernesses. Lyrical and outrageous, controversial and heartbreaking, humorous and poignant, "Going It Alone" is destined to become one of the most original and expansive collections of poetry published in the West this, or any other, year.

"It's not an easy thing to tell a true story." Thus begins the gripping debut novel of noted author and editor Allen Morris Jones. Hailed by Thomas McGuane ("Deserves a wide and admiring readership") and Rick Bass ("As clean as wind and water and stone.") LAST YEAR'S RIVER tells the compelling, unfolding story of a romance between Virginia Price, a young New York debutante sent off to Cody, Wyoming to bear a child, and Henry Mohr, a cowhand recently returned to the family ranch from the trenches of World War I. In graceful, spare prose, Allen Morris Jones reveals the thoughts of these two damaged and sympathetic characters, drawing them toward each other against all odds, ultimately unfolding a love story as grand as the American West. With an unusual eye for detail and an exceptional ear for the tight-lipped, terse mumblings of western dialogue, Jones delivers a love story infused with an extraordinary sense of history, drama, and the West. "Allen Jones knows the West by heart." --William Kittredge "A beautifully written, heart-tugging novel," --Newsday "The unconventional love story at the heart of this first novel is touching and unpredictable, the wild landscapes are indelibly described, and the characters are vividly drawn. Highly recommended." --Library Journal

An essential companion to Riding the Rough String, his previous collection of reportage, personal essays, and profiles, Metroliner explores the two poles of Toby Thompson's life on the East Coast. For more than forty years, he has ridden the rails between Washington, DC and New York, capturing not only the sensibilities of these two cities but the tenor of his time as well. From the Smithsonian to the secret fishing spots of Manhattan, from profiles of Norman Mailer and Jackie Gleason to the White House press corps, Metroliner represents a career's worth of reportage from one of America's most accomplished writers. "An intrepid tripper in the Merry Prankster sense, and an urban Thoreau," - Tom Wolfe "A first-rate collection, impressively diverse and vastly enjoyable." - Carl Hiaasen "...graceful and entertaining, to say nothing of [the] energetic reporting..." - Tom Brokaw

Pete Hurley is not the first person to have the idea that building his dream house in the country will bring him some kind of peace and happiness. But he may be the first to arrive in Montana with a World Series ring, a three-legged dog, and a thirst for self-destruction. High and Inside documents, with stark clarity, one man's struggle with the dark side of fame, as well as his internal battles with alcoholism and a crumbling sense of self-worth. A community of people who love him and a generous inheritance aren't enough to counterbalance Pete's apparent determination to sabotage every healthy aspect of his life. It's a downward spiral that won't end until he's forced to confront not only his own ugly past but his unfulfilled future as well. With wit and compassion, sharp humor and startling insight, author Russell Rowland gives us not only a portrait of fame and addiction, but also an indispensable glimpse into the character of the modern West. "Rowland's people are on a search, and he writes them with wit, humility, and a satisfying sense of trajectory." Leif Enger Author of Peace Like a River "You don't have to love baseball to love this story about one (aging) boy of summer who is brought to a bittersweet reckoning with his past. I found myself laughing, cringing, and knuckling down..." Kim Barnes Author of In the Kingdom of Men "...an elegant and potent investigation of community and home, of healing and forgiveness...this wonderful novel is a grand slam of indelible characters and infectious drama, and a flat-out great read." Alan Heathcock Author of Volt

Singer, songwriter, painter, essayist...Tom Russell is known as one of the most compelling performers in the world, and is recognized as a master American lyricist. And now, with 120 Songs, Russell presents his first-ever collection of lyrics, handpicked and individually introduced, and complemented by a set of his original woodcut illustrations. From classics like "Blue Wing," "Gallo del Cielo," "Navajo Rug," and "Outbound Plane," to newer songs like "Guadalupe," and "Who"s Gonna Build Your Wall?" this volume is the only available anthology, in print, of all of Russell's finest songs and unpublished rarities. Each song includes an introduction and guitar chords, and the main introduction also includes details of Russell's brief encounters with Bob Dylan and the Beatles. "Tom Russell is Johnny Cash, Jim Harrison and Charles Bukowski rolled into one. I feel a great affinity with Tom Russell's songs, for he is writing out of the wounded heart of America." Lawrence Ferlinghetti "The best songwriter of my generation...raises and sets the bar for contemporary singer-songwriters. " Mike Regenstreif Montreal Gazette "Tom Russell is an original, a brilliant songwriter with a restless curiosity and an almost violent imagination." Annie Proulx "I so admire his work. It's fine craft, and posey, none of which dwarfs its embracing humanity and urgings." Van Dyke Parks "The most powerful voice on the contemporary folk circuit..." Boston Globe "The greatest living country songwriter...he's written songs that capture the essence of America. A trait that can only be matched by the country's greatest novelists...." John Swenson Rolling Stone "The lyrics are jewels." Robert Hunter Grateful Dead Lyricist

Profiles, meditations, essays, and explorations...For more than forty years, Toby Thompson has been considering what it means to live and work in the American West. And now, with Riding the Rough String, a lifetime's worth of accomplishment is roped together under one cover. His wide-ranging curiosity considers not only our most luminous literary figures (Gary Snyder to Gretel Ehrlich, Thomas McGuane to Hunter Thompson) but the region's history and culture as well. Saloons and art, pickups and A River Runs Through It, Thompson shows us the West through a new lens: unique, clear-eyed, essential. "The mountains and rivers, the high plains and the good Montana people (and the funny and the not so good or funny)--the dead-on info, the stories, that's the main thing, the stories)--Toby Thompson has it right. Riding the Rough String is a fine sport and an all-day pleasure." William Kittredge author of Hole in the Sky "Toby Thompson knows Montana's bars, books, bridges, and backcountry. I'll read anything he writes." Tim Cahill author of Hold the Enlightenment Like the rest of the gang, Toby Thompson played it smart and went west. His sharp eye and interviewer's ear caught every nuance. Riding the Rough String sets it all down with verve and assurance." William Hjortsberg author of Jubilee Hitchhiker "Toby Thompson is a writer and journalist of the old school, a standup guy who knows music and literature and walks the walk and understands the human heart. I'm honored to be included in his work." James Lee Burke author of Creole Belle

There are a few creatures left in the world who live still untamed, prowling through the rocks, blinking slowly at the encroaching civilization far below. On Bountiful Black Mountain, a snow leopard hunts alone, artifact of a vanishing age. But hungry, desperate, as the snow leopard is forced away from his mountain toward the tents and fires of the valley below, he comes to encounter an impossible, startling world. Through the eyes of the snow leopard, and as brought to life by the magisterial pen of Thomas McIntyre...here is a glimpse of humanity that's at once profound and disconcerting, poetic and brutal, tender and deeply moving. Like all the best fictions, The Snow Leopard's Tale does nothing less than offer us a new vision of our world. "Tom McIntyre has written a story so beyond the ken of our quotidian existence that it is un-human, inhuman, and super-human all at once. The Snow Leopard's Tale is strange, in the sense of the Latin root of the word, 'outside the place we're in.' McIntyre's meld of man and beast alerts the beast in me and alarms the man." P.J. O'Rourke "I stand before The Snow Leopard's Tale in awe and with a little envy. It is a gem, an uncanny evocation of the cold ancient dusty highlands of Central Asia, and could only have come from Tom McIntyre. It is his best." Stephen J. Bodio "The Snow Leopard's Tale is a haunting, beautifully written, and thought-provoking tale, as all great parables are." Ted Kerasote "Thomas McIntyre has crafted a surreal, taut parable of wildness and civilization, an utterly original work that I can't compare to anything I've read." Matt Miller The Nature Conservancy

From working as a timber faller and a tree doctor to profiling environmental protestors and parsing through his own preoccupations with Ken Kesey, Fred Haefele has followed his curiosity into the most extraordinary corners of the place he's chosen to call home. This anthology of seventeen pieces of nonfiction gives us access not only to one of our most talented writers, it shows us the unique emotional and social topography of a region. It's an essential addition to any western bookshelf.

There are so few writers who can make us smile even as they're breaking our hearts. With 51, his first book in more than six years, Paul Zarzyski gives us not only 30 of his finest poems but also the lyrics to 20 songs co-written with the likes of Ian Tyson, Tom Russell, and Wylie Gustafson. And with 1 brilliant self-interview, he shows us what shaped him as an author and artist, performer and poet. Personal and profound, 51 is destined to be seen as one of the new decade's most important contributions to the literature of the West.

Over the course of a long and distinguished career, the bronze art of Burl A. Jones has been seen on the grounds of state capitols and the lawns of college campuses, in the halls of dignitaries and the trophy rooms of entrepreneurs. But behind the art, inspiring it and informing it with a unique authenticity, stands a life of the kind that is rarely seen today. From stalking whitetails in West Virginia to chasing Cape buffalo in Mozambique, the artist's urge to create has been fueled largely by his love for hunting and the outdoors. Compelling, heartwarming, and compulsively readable, From Dawn until Dusk gives us an account, in the artist's own words, of the seminal events that shaped him as a sportsman, husband, father, friend, and artist.

In this landmark work, Allen Morris Jones spends a year exploring one of the wildest ecosystems in North America, hunting and examining the philosophical issues of blood sport. In the process, he creates both a compelling defense for the hunt as well as one of the tradition's first formal ethics. Jones argues that hunting must be right in that it returns us to the environment from which we evolved. When we hunt, we're no longer watching nature, we're participating in it as essential members: predator and prey. From this premise, it follows that those aspects of hunting that tend to return us to the world are more ethical, while those aspects that displace us-such as the use of modern technology-are less ethical. This simple, compelling thesis is supported by example, by the highly-personal narrative of a conscionable hunter coming to terms with the central passion of his life. And it's a thesis that finally has profound implications for the way we each approach the natural world. If you're a hunter, A Quiet Place of Violence will help put into words those aspects of the hunt that you have found most essential; and if you're a non-hunter, it will offer insight into the allure of this otherwise puzzling pursuit.

What do a rapper, a returned soldier, a reformed gangster, a grandmother, a petroleum geologist, a bestselling author, and a microchip engineer have in common? They are all wresting control of food from an industrial system responsible for a plague of poor personal and planetary health. In his landmark work, Grow: Stories from the Urban Food Movement, Stephen Grace embarks on a journey of discovery to understand what motivates these urbanites working to reinvent the way we feed ourselves. From the driver of a repurposed garbage truck healing the soil to a guerrilla gardener bombing the city with seeds, a cast of extraordinary characters emerges as Grace makes his way into the heart of a revolution. He discovers that food can be a means to tackle some of our most pressing problems, from youth crime to the healthcare crisis, from resource depletion to climate change. Instead of succumbing to despair over global challenges, the citizens of Denver profiled in Grow find the creativity and fortitude to begin rebuilding the food system in their own backyard. This shift in the Mile High City is a microcosm of a movement redefining our relationships with farming and food-and with each other. Grow is concerned with what we put on our plates, but its true subject is the stories we tell as we struggle to repair our severed connections to nature and our fellow citizens. In the tradition of great travel writing, Grow encounters worlds as diverse as permaculture and hip-hop with expansive curiosity and irresistible humor. Whether joining a crop mob or collecting compostable waste in an alley, whether foraging for cactus or seeking refuge in a café founded on compassion, Grace illuminates moments of growth as he explores the hardest parts of the city. "Grace gives us the stories of those on the ground and in the dirt and thereby gives us all hope and know-how. I absolutely loved this book. A must-read--for everyone." -Laura Pritchett, author of Stars Go Blue "Grow is gorgeously written and a true pleasure to read. Grace is a lovely writer and here he puts his mastery to the highest purpose-changing the way we live so that we can take care of our planet." -Helen Thorpe, author of Just Like Us and Soldier Girls "Stephen Grace has written with passion, wisdom, and-yes-grace about the backstory of the food on our plates, and about the people in Denver who are working to bring that story closer to home..." -Nick Arvin, author of The Reconstructionist "Stephen Grace serves up generous helpings of nutrient-dense stories of farmers and farming in the gritty urban tangle of a sprawling metropolis, revealing a hidden revolution with the power to quietly heal lives and communities...." -Michael Brownlee, Publisher, Local Food Shift magazine "A highly engaged and engaging conversation, a compassionate conversation, with the foragers, restaurateurs, vintners, waste farmers and community gardeners who are building the soil of a restorative economy." -Woody Tasch, Founder and Chairman of Slow Money "Years from now, people will read this book by Stephen Grace and think, 'That's how we did it! That's how people in cities figured out how to feed themselves instead of relying on food trucked in from thousands of miles away!'" -Kristin Ohlson, author of The Soil Will Save Us