Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray has been named the 2025 Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana (UM).
La Tray, whose memoir Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home was published by Milkweed Editions earlier this year, is a Métis storyteller. He is a descendant of the Pembina Band of the Red River of the North and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
“I’m excited to join the tradition of great writers and storytellers who have been invited to this position,” La Tray said. “UM is a beautiful place, even in winter, and I look forward to sharing ideas with a group of passionate students.”
Mark Sundeen, an associate professor of Environmental Studies at UM, praised La Tray’s work. “Chris La Tray is not just a nature writer; his work is crucial,” Sundeen said. “His new book addresses how Indigenous people were displaced from their land and their efforts to reconnect with it today. This is essential to any conversation about land conservation.”
La Tray, who lives near Missoula in Frenchtown, will teach a graduate workshop in environmental writing at UM during the spring semester of 2025.
“I’m looking forward to being uplifted by this experience and to engaging with students both in and out of the classroom,” La Tray said. “Miigwech, thank you, to everyone involved in making this possible.”
La Tray’s first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large, won the 2018 Montana Book Award and the 2019 High Plains Book Award. His 2021 book of haiku and haibun poetry, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, was published by Foothills Publishing.
Appointed Montana Poet Laureate in 2023, La Tray also writes the weekly newsletter An Irritable Métis.
Past recipients of the Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer role include Terry Tempest Williams, Rebecca Solnit, Craig Childs, and Amy Irvine.
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