Friday, October 17th: Poetry. Mark Gibbons reads from his latest collection of poetry Shadowboxing from FootHills Publishing. 7 pm.

Mark Gibbons grew up in a small Milwaukee Railroad town in western Montana where he learned that work involves breaking a sweat and true wealth is an open mind. He earned a teaching degree and an MFA at the University of Montana. Most "western stickers" know his work resume all too well: dishwasher, janitor, carpenter, wood cutter, gandy dancer, surveyor, fire fighter, furniture mover, laborer, and truck driver; before and after teaching a decade of high school English.

In 1970, Mark was in a poetry workshop at his high school taught by then unknown Indian poet James Welch, who gave the students permission to write poetry out of their life experiences. Mark has been writing ever since. His poems have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies. His first book of poems, Something Inside Us, was self published in 1995, and a second, Circling Home, won the Scattered Cairns Press chapbook competition in 1999. Connemara Moonshine, the first full length collection of his poetry, was published in 2002 by Camphorweed Press, followed by blue horizon in 2007 from Two Dogs Press. He edited War, Madness, & Love, a collaborative collection of his and Appalachian poet Michael Revere's in 2008. Mauvaises Herbes, a bilingual collection translated by his son, Sean Gibbons, appeared in 2009 from PROPOS2editions in France. His last two books of poems, Forgotten Dreams, 2012, and Shadowboxing, 2014, are available from FootHills Publishing.

Mark lives in Missoula with his wife, Pam, where he teaches poetry and works as a delivery driver.