Paul Zarzyski left his Hurley, Wisconsin home ground in the fall of ’73 for Missoula, where he studied creative writing at the University of Montana with Richard Hugo, Madeline DeFrees, and John Haines, received his MFA degree, and later taught Dick’s classes after his passing. While teaching in The Program and riding bareback broncs on the ProRodeo Circuit, he attended in 1987 the first of his twenty-eight consecutive National Cowboy Poetry Gatherings in Elko, Nevada. He’s made his living since as a performance poet at venues that include The Library of Congress, The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, The Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, Festival Hall in London, and The Mother Lode Theater in Butte, where he was featured in 1999 on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” He’s appeared, as well, with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Spokane Symphony. Imbued with Richard Hugo’s belief that poetry is music, Paul has also applied his poetics to the art of lyric writing and has co-written songs with esteemed musicians Tom Russell, Ian Tyson, David Wilkie of Cowboy Celtic, Wylie Gustafson, Don Edwards, and others. The author of twelve books, chapbooks, and limited-edition chapbooks—most recently, "51: 30 Poems, 20 Lyrics, 1 Self-Interview" (Bangtail Press, 2011)—and five spoken-word CD recordings, Paul’s life’s work was celebrated with the 2005 Montana Governor’s Arts Award for Literature. He currently lives west of Great Falls with art historian and C. M. Russell scholar, Elizabeth Dear, their Aussie dog, Zeke, and horses Pecos and Lash.