FROM THE 2023 MONTANA POET LAUREATE...
Winner of the 2018 Montana Book Award
and the 2019 High Plains Book Award
“La Tray is a perimeter man, seeing the reality in wildness yet dealing the best he can at
reconciling truth in nature.” - Barry Babcock author of Teachers in the Forest
This book is a collection of poems and essays from the writer’s experiences of travelling through landscapes both wild and civilized. They speak with delicate simplicities ranging from the death of a favorite pickup truck, to the joy of hitting the trail with a four-legged companion. There are also profound observations that range from realizing he has become an aging hippie in a Carhartt vest, to the exhilaration of following the tracks of a grizzly in fresh snow.
WINNER OF THE 2018 MONTANA BOOK AWARD and the 2019 HIGH PLAINS BOOK AWARD.
Includes illustrations by Mara Panich.
A collection of poems and essays that range from sauntering in the forest, Ted Kaczynski's wilderness cabin, winter landscapes, to the sacred art of dog walking.
"One-Sentence Journal proves you don't need to decamp to Walden Pond or hike the Pacific Crest Trail to immerse yourself in nature. Just step outside. Look. Listen."
- Gwen Florio, author of Reservations, Under the Shadows, and Silent Hearts
"There is humor in these pages, and wisdom, a seeker's curiosity, and a Zen master's quiet exuberance. From the beauty of the natural world to the people he meets in the street, La Tray records the fleeting thoughts and common glorious everyday moments that so easily slip by."
- Charles Finn, editor of High Desert Journal; author of Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters
"Chris traffics in irony and earnestness with the same unencumbered rawness, and the result is an honest and complex tour of the world as he experiences it. His work is populated with owls, ravens, coyotes, juncos, and dogs - for whom he holds the highest respect - as well as a handful of flawed, vexing, and occasionally lovable humans."
- Melissa Mylchreest, author of Reckon and Waking the Bones
“(This) book truly represents excellence in Montana literature and is an important contribution to the genre. The committee of readers was unanimous in our selection.”
— Elizabeth Jonkel, Chair of the Montana Book Award Committee
“This book is proof of the power of language, even at its most spare.”
— Russell Rowland, author of Fifty-Six Counties
“With a humble and grave generosity to all things and people who cross his path, La Tray reminds us all to slow down and take stock of our surroundings. Attention is the true work of a writer and poet, a tribe La Tray can proudly call himself to be.”
— Charles Finn, editor of High Desert Journal
“This is a sunrise book, a book of revelations, of creekwalks and roadfood and ordinary sadnesses, ordinary joys—which are, in the end, the only kind.”
— Joe Wilkins, author of Fall Back Down When I Die
