Flathead River Writers Conference: Thresholds & Frontiers: Writing Your Next Best Story

Saturday’s Opening Keynote Speaker: Author Michael Punke
Keynote title: “Writing the Story that Only You Can Write“
Nearly twenty years after his NYT Bestselling The Revenant, which became an Oscar-winning blockbuster film, Michael Punke returns with his second novel, a thrilling, richly researched historical novel about legendary Native American warrior Crazy Horse and Ridgeline is a 2021 historical fiction novel by Michael Punke, author... focusing on the 1866 Fetterman Massacre in Wyoming. The book is actively being developed for film, with Punke working on a screenplay adaptation, as reported in March 2026, making it a highly anticipated follow-up project to The Revenant movie.

Punke will talk about his personal and professional background, and how writers can draw upon their unique life experiences to tell stories of transcendent importance to a broader audience. He will discuss how broad and seemingly disconnected events can be woven together. He will talk about his process for actually putting pen to paper, and the importance of finding a rhythm in daily writing work. And finally, he will also touch on the practical aspects of publishing, like finding agents and publishers.
Sunday’s Keynote Speaker: Author Peter Stark
Keynote title: “Lost Cities and the Mystery of Discovering a Story Idea”
"The bestselling author of The Lost Cities of El Norte, Stark traces the path that led to this book and to earlier works such as Astoria, illuminating the process by which a story idea emerges. The new release has been chosen by America's librarians as the April nonfiction choice for their "LibraryReads" program, and chosen by the Los Angeles Times, as one of their Top 10 books to read for April.

Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, a New York Times bestseller and a PEN USA Literary Award finalist. A longtime correspondent for Outside magazine, Stark has also been published in Smithsonian, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Men’s Journal. His other books include Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father, a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize; and Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation. He lives in Montana with his wife and children.