1) When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer, and what has your path looked like to get here?
I became interested in writing a memoir five years ago and then enrolled in Marni and Tracy’s IMWA course in January 2023. I found it so interesting that I completed the year-long certificate twice. I’ve been interested in writing since being a sports writer for a local weekly in rural Montana during high school in the 1950s, writing an honors thesis in college, and pursuing an academic career as an American historian after earning a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in 1970. I co-authored A New Academic Compact (2002) about faculty-administration collaboration in colleges and universities.
2) What sparked the idea for this particular book?
My historian focus was Montana and the American West. I realized that the mystic about Montana and my growing up on a cattle ranch amidst the heyday of the Greatest Generation had inherent reader interest. My coming of age occurred during the dramatic transformation in rural America after World War II that laid a foundation for the nostalgia behind Make America Great Again (MAGA) in America’s rural heartland. My memoir explores what it was actually like to grow up in the 1940s and 1950s.
3) If you could go back and tell yourself one thing at the beginning of this journey, what would it be?
That a stable family and community are the glue that leads to contentment and quality of life.
4) Where can readers connect with you? (This is a good place to share website, socials, a book ordering link, and any upcoming events!)
My email address is wgberberet@aol.com. I’m looking to a publication date for my memoir of late 2026 or early 2007 (with my fingers crossed!). Tentative title: The Ranch: A Montana Childhood in a Bygone Era.
Jerry Berberet is sponsoring:
End of Days – Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America
