Schedule of Events

Prairie Gate Literary Festival (PGLF) 2022

Thursday, October 6-Saturday, October 8

Thursday, Oct. 6

  • 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Registration for Workshops, Student Center
  • 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Author Reading: Gwen Nell Westerman, Briggs Library Main Level. NoteBook selling and refreshments available starting at 6:30 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 7

  • 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Registration for Workshops, Student Center
  • 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Coffee With a Queer Creative Writer, Student Center TMC
  • 3:00 p.m-4:00 p.m. Author Panel Discussion, Briggs Library Main Level
  • 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Author Reading (Teresa Peterson/Walter LaBatte), Briggs Library Main Level. Note: Book selling and refreshments available starting at 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 8 Note: Book selling and refreshments available starting at 9:30 a.m.

  • 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Same Day Registration for Workshops, Student Center
  • 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Craft Talk Workshop


Workshop, Teresa Peterson & Walter LaBatte
Title: Weaving Stories: A Glimpse Into the Writing and Research Process
Location: Briggs Library, SmartBoard Room #240
Description: Authors Teresa Peterson and Walter LaBatte will share their writing and research process, the challenges they faced, and the compromises and solutions they applied to complete their project Pejuhutazizi: Dakota Stories and Storytellers. Teresa will also share her first children’s book, Grasshopper Girl and the support she received from Native owned publisher, Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing. If time allows, Teresa will also share a piece and writing prompt from her current writing project. Topics covered in the workshop include: digging into research sources, challenges (e.g. multiple voices, stories vs history, family/community/Dakota people representations, language translations & interpretation, maintaining voices vs editor).

  • 12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Craft Talk Workshops

Workshop, Gwen Nell Westerman
Title: Listening to the Land
Location: Briggs Library, McGinnis Room
Description: The workshop will include short writing exercises that focus on learning to listen to the land and our connections to it. Through observing and re-presenting images, participants will move through the process of free-writing to collecting lines to building poems.