Indiana-born poet Melissa Kwasny has been a Montanan since her undergrad studies began in 1974 – and a Jeffersonian much of that time. She’s called Basin home since 2019 after living outside Jefferson City for nearly two decades while teaching at Helena’s Carroll College.
Over the years her writing has won a shelf full of honors and awards: in 2007, the Idaho Prize and the Silver Meadow honor from ForeWord magazine; two years later, the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award and the Poetry Society of America’s Cecil Hemley Award; and from 2019 to 2021, she served as Montana’s poet laureate.
Now Kwasny has added another laurel to her mantle: her seventh collection, The Cloud Path, recently won the 2025 High Plains Award for poetry. I reached out to the award-winning poet for her reaction and insights into her perspective.
