Paul Zarzyski Reading

The Northwest College Writers Series and the NWC Rodeo Team are joining forces to sponser nationally acclaimed poet Paul Zarzyski on Saturday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Center Auditorium.

A former bareback bronc rider, Zarzyski now lives in Great Falls, Montana, where he’s “been spurring the words wild across the open range of the page and calling it Poetry for 33 years.”

In his earlier years, Zarzyski studied with Montana’s own Richard Hugo and during the same time took up bareback bronc riding. With help from the former, he earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at the University of Montana in Missoula; and with the latter, he tasted the blood, sweat and dirt in both amateur and ProRodeo circuits before finally hanging up his hooks in his late 30s. After turning 40, Zarzyski tried to outwit the broncs again for a couple years on the senior circuit, or what he calls “The Masters.”

Zarzyski has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” on public radio and has recited at national book, folk and storytelling festivals, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Library of Congress and with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, to name just a few.

For more information, check out Zarzyski's website at http://www.paulzarzyski.com/.