Arts-Entertainment
Elk River Arts & Lectures will present a four-day festival running concurrently with the 2026 Elk River Writers Workshop, October 18-23. Each evening, community members are invited to join workshop participants at Chico Hot Springs Convention Center for a series of free salons and panels featuring faculty, regional ecologists and naturalists, and legendary advocates.
Panel topics are designed to encourage audience members to think about the greater Yellowstone landscape in the context of America’s 250th year. On Tuesday, authors Taylor Brorby and CMarie Fuhrman will lead a conversation on Civic Storytelling & The Living Land; Wednesday’s program will delve into The Wilderness Idea & Deep Time, with Lisa Baril, Cristina Eisenberg, and Todd Wilkinson; and this year’s workshop faculty – featuring Jamie Ford, Chris La Tray, Deborah Miranda and Diane Wilson – will present a craft-focused talk on Wednesday about The Writer as Witness: Ecology and Narrative.
The series culminates on Thursday evening with Gathering the Wild: Finding Refugia in a Broken World, featuring a keynote address by MacArthur Genius Fellow J. Drew Lanham on finding sanctuary as marginalized people, protecting the wild, and how we build an American landscape that acts as a refuge for the next 250 years. Lanham’s address will be preceded by remarks and an introduction from his good friend and grizzly expert Doug Peacock. The evening will include hearty appetizers and a silent and live auction hosted by celebrity auctioneer Scott McMillion.
The panel discussions are at 7 pm each evening. The Thursday celebration begins at 5:30 pm, with tickets available here for a suggested $5 donation.
Established in 2015, the Elk River Writers Workshop has served more than 400 students and nearly 1,500 community members over the course of eight workshops. The workshop is a program of Elk River Arts & Lectures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating and celebrating the literary arts in Park County. More information is available at elkriverarts.org or by contacting info@elkriverarts.org.