Tami HaalandTami Haaland

When I applied for a sabbatical in Fall 2018, I proposed an active period of reading and writing that would lead to my fourth book. Though the book has not materialized yet, the work during this period was productive. Some individual poems have been published and many are nearing completion. The manuscript is well-underway. After my sabbatical was granted, approval to teach at our partner institution in Ludwigsburg, Germany came through, and I stayed there for nearly four weeks, teaching a Montana Literature class for education students. Simultaneously, I proposed to the editors of the Best American Poetry blog* that I write about my travels and experiences in Germany, and they accepted. Also during this time, I was invited to teach a creative writing workshop at Winchester College, a private boys school founded in 1384. Finally, in addition to writing and traveling, I had the opportunity to work with park rangers at two of our state parks, the “Milltown Recreation Site” and “Buffalo Jump State Park” to offer hiking/writing/reflection workshops with support from Humanities Montana.

Workshops

  • Writing Workshop at Winchester College, a private boys school founded in 1384,
    Winchester, UK, November 2018.
  • “On Location: A Hiking/Writing/Reflection Workshop at Milltown Recreation Site,”
    Milltown, MT, October 6, 2018. Coordinated with State Park employees to
    incorporate site-specific historic, environmental, and cultural details.
  • “On Location: A Hiking/Writing/Reflection Workshop at First Peoples’ Buffalo Jump State
    Park,” Ulm, MT, September 8, 2018. Coordinated with State Park employees to
    incorporate site-specific historic, environmental, and cultural details.

*All of the posts for this round of blogging and the last round, in 2013, appear on Typepad with paragraph breaks omitted.

I wrote and revised many poems during this period, most of which have yet to be published. Below is a sample of subsequent publications:

  • “Dog Self” and “Hygge” at the American Journal of Poetry, July 2019.
  • “Scene: Late Summer,” “Kelp Forest, Monterey Aquarium,” and “Sewing Room 1973” in Ascent, November 2019.
  • “Beauty Lake on the Beartooth Plateau,” finalist in the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, Cutthroat Magazine, Spring 2020, p. 40.