Be sure to visit the Writers’ Row at the Sunrise Festival of the Arts Saturday. Half a dozen authors will be on hand to sell, discuss and autograph their books.

Russell Rowland

Author and creative writing instructor at MSU-Billings, Russell Rowland, returns to the Sunrise Festival with his novels “In Open Spaces” and “The Watershed Years.” Rowland will speak at 10:30 a.m. at a picnic shelter at Veterans Memorial Park during the Sunrise Festival. This is a Montana Humanities program entitled “Eastern Montana Through the Eyes of a Homestead Family.” He blends the history of his own family, among the first cattle ranchers in Montana, with his skill as a creative writer to create a stark yet touching portrayal of the fictional Arbuckle family in his novels. Rowland said, “The people of eastern Montana live in a region that is completely different from what most people think of when they picture Montana.”

Russell Rowland’s appearance is funded through a grant from Humanities Montana and the assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities and Montana Cultural Trust.

Jeanette Prodgers

Jeanette Prodgers, Dillon, will be in the MonDak area promoting the recent reprint of “The Champion Buffalo Hunter: The Frontier Memoirs of Yellowstone Vic Smith.” Prodgers will be at the Sunrise Festival through the sponsorship of Books on Broadway in Williston, N.D. She will present a program and book signing at the MonDak Heritage Center Friday at 7 p.m.

While researching material for her book of bear hunting stories, “The Only Good Bear is a Dead Bear,” Prodgers became acquainted with Victor Grant Smith, a colorful frontiersman of the late 1800s. She discovered his memoirs probably written between the years 1906 to 1912 in the Houghton Library at Harvard, the repository of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection. The memoir was finally published in 1997 with a reprint in 2009. Prodgers will make additional appearances at the Missouri Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center and at the Chateau De Mores Interpretive Center in Medora,k N.D.

Kathleen Baskett

First time author Dr. Kathleen Baskett of the St. Vincent Healthcare Weight Management Clinic in Billings will attend the Sunrise Festival. Baskett said, “My book is a common sense approach to getting to a healthier weight and staying there.” The title of her book is “Moving forward: The Weigh to a Healthier Weight.” Baskett will have a talk and book signing Friday afternoon at the Foundation for Community Care office in Sidney. The program is free and begins at 3:30 p.m.

Craig Lancaster

Newspaper columnist Craig Lancaster, Billings, brings his self-published novel, “Six Hundred Hours of a Life,” to the Sunrise Festival. Witness the awakening of Edward Stanton who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in this story told skillfully by

Lancaster.

Rick H. Bain

Author Colonel Rick H. Bain an Old West historian, educator and theologian from Plentywood will be on hand to visit about his unique book, “The Killing of the Musgave Kid.”

Look for the large green umbrella on the west side of the displayers’ area and browse down Writers’ Row. Local and regional authors are welcome to join Writers’ Row at the 19th Sunrise Festival of the Arts Saturday. Booth space is available. Call the Sidney Area Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture at 433-1916 or e-mail chamber@midrivers.com.