Roger Dunsmore's new collection, You're Just Dirt

Many of Roger Dunsmore's narrative poems have a new home in his latest collection, You're Just Dirt. (The cover art is by Jennifer Fallein, Dunsmore's wife. And, yes, that is Roger Dunsmore in his bathrobe.)

Dunsmore is this week's guest on The Write Question. During the program he talks about writing poems (he finds most of them by listening) and his adventures as a humanities scholar. He also reads several poems from the book, including "Does Poetry Matter," "The Grandmother With Her Own Bomb," and "The Bear Remembers." And you'll hear a poignant new poem, "Older Brother."

Here's an excerpt of "The Grandmother With Her Own Bomb"

One time
there was an old Russian woman,
Ukrainian actually,
with a bomb under her bed.
It came through the roof at night
while she was sewing by her window.
Whe heard a whistling sound, got up, and was struck by a blast of wind.
When she came to
the sewing machine was gone and there was a hole in the floor...
(You can hear the entire poem, and others, during the program.)

Tune in for The Write Question every Thursday evening at 6:30 (Yellowstone Public Radio) or 7:30 (Montana Public Radio). Or listen online.

"Fear of Horses"

Carol Buchanan's short story, “Fear of Horses,” which won the 2008 “LAURA” award has been published online by Women Writing the West (the organization that sponsored the contest). Read it here: http://www.womenwritingthewest.org/laura.html

Mark Spragg: Bone Fire

Mark Spragg's novel, AN UNFINISHED LIFE, became a feature film starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, and Morgan Freeman. Now he's brought characters from that book, as well as a few from his novel, THE FRUIT OF STONE, into a new book titled, BONE FIRE. (But reading Spragg's other novels is not a prerequisite to reading BONE FIRE, which stands quite well on its own.)

Ishawooa, Wyoming, is again the setting for the story. Einar Gilkyson, now in his eighties, is miffed at his granddaughter, Griff, for quitting college to come home to take care of him. In one scene, he spends most of a day climbing a hill and digging a hole where he then burns his marriage certificate and other papers and mementos, things that prove he was alive. Most people try to preserve a legacy, but Einar seems determined to rid the earth of evidence of his existence.

Find out why and hear Spragg talk about writing and his new novel on The Write Question Thursday evening, May 20, at 6:30 (Yellowstone Public Radio) or 7:30 (Montana Public Radio). Or listen online.

Faith Hickman Brynie, author of Brain Sense

Faith Hickman Brynie has written 25 science and health books for children, teens, and adults. Her latest book, Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us, is full of engaging interviews, fascinating stories, and a highly accessible presentation of hard science. Brynie also picks apart a few of our outdated ideas and mistaken assumptions.

When she was still a student, this quote from neuroscientist Richard Restak changed Brynie's life: "The human brain is the only organ in the known universe that seeks to understand itself." (Think about that for a while!)

Find out more about Faith Hickman Brynie.

Tune in to Montana Public Radio Thursday, May 6, at 7:30 P.M. to hear Faith Hickman Brynie on The Write Question, or listen online from MTPR.org.

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The Write Question is funded in part by Humanities Montana, and by the Montana Cultural Trust.