From a tiny cabin in the remote Yaak Valley of Montana, “a wild place where nothing has gone extinct since the Ice Age,” Rick Bass, a dedicated wilderness preservationist and author, writes novels and short stories that win the most important prizes the literary world can bestow—the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award to name a few.

As part of the Writers in Performance series, Bass will read excerpts of his work at Lone Star College-Montgomery, on Thursday, March 22, at 7 p.m., in the Library Building (Building F). The event is free and open to the public.

Familiar to Texas, Bass was born in Fort Worth and grew up in Houston. He was a petroleum geologist and trained in wildlife sciences, but became an author after writing short stories on his lunch breaks in Jackson, Miss. His love of America’s wilderness eventually brought Bass to Montana, where he writes in longhand beside the wood stove in his cabin.

Far from being a recluse, however, Bass can be found leading field trips for the local forest service, volunteering at schools, speaking to community groups, teaching ecology, or lobbying members of Congress—all in his relentless effort to preserve “these last roadless, wild places.”

Bass received the PEN/Nelson Algren Award in 1988 for his first short story, The Watch, and won the James Jones Fellowship Award for his novel, Where the Sea Used To Be (Mariner Books, 1999). His novel The Hermit’s Story (Mariner Books, 2003) was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year in 2000. The Lives of Rocks (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006) was a finalist for the Story Prize and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year in 2006 by the Rocky Mountain News.

Bass serves on the board of the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies.

An hour’s drive from the nearest town, Bass lives with his wife, artist Elizabeth Hughes, and their two young daughters who attend school in a two-room schoolhouse.  

The goal of the Writers in Performance series is to bring thought-provoking literature and cultural diversity to the campus of LSC-Montgomery and the surrounding community. The series’ events are made possible by the partnership between the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council, LSC-Montgomery Library, the Conroe Commission on the Arts and Culture, Good Books in the Woods, LSC-Montgomery’s Academy for Lifelong Learning, and SWIRL, LSC-Montgomery’s magazine of student art and writing.

For more information about the Writers in Performance series, contact Dave Parsons, professor of English at LSC-Montgomery, at 936.524.6537 or David.M.Parsons@LoneStar.edu.

LSC-Montgomery is located at 3200 College Park Drive, one-half mile west of Interstate 45, between Conroe and The Woodlands. For more information about the college, call 936.273.7000, or visit www.LoneStar.edu/montgomery.

With 75,000 students in credit classes, and a total enrollment of more than 90,000, Lone Star College System is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area, and the fastest-growing community college system in Texas. Dr. Richard Carpenter is the chancellor of LSCS, which consists of six colleges including LSC-CyFair, LSC-Kingwood, LSC-Montgomery, LSC-North Harris, LSC-Tomball, and LSC-University Park, five centers, LSC-University Center at Montgomery, LSC-University Center at University Park, Lone Star Corporate College, and LSC-Online. To learn more visit LoneStar.edu.