'Deadrock Review': Indie newspaper spotlights Montana arts

Dalton C. Brink walked up and down Main Street in Bozeman, toting a leather satchel stuffed full of the inaugural issue of The Deadrock Review.

He popped in and out of businesses, chipping away at his mission to distribute 1,000 copies of Livingston’s newest arts and culture newspaper.

“A Montana love letter to humanity,” Brink launched Deadrock to fill a void he observed in arts and culture media.

“In the age of AI and all this shit, where human beings are less inclined to create things, I figured we should have something in print that’s physical and celebrates humanity,” Brink said.

The 16-page inaugural edition features stories, reviews, poems, songs, photos, paintings, and sketches, all local submissions.

“I’ve been in the art and music scene for so long, I know a lot of really great artists and musicians,” Brink said. “It was as simple as calling them up, asking them for a piece, and getting it in the paper.”

The only submissions rule?

“No whining about anything unless you can actually offer a real solution to the whine,” Brink said.

Brink received nearly 100 submissions for the summer edition of Deadrock.

Printed on the same press as the Bozeman Chronicle, this first edition of Deadrock is Brink’s “proof of concept.”

With a physical copies it’s easier to rope in advertisers into the production cycle, per Brink.

“I’m more interested in the whole bartering aspect of it than I am in trying to make money on it,” Brink said. He covered the initial printing cost out of pocket. “As long as it can pay for itself, that’s all I really want.”

Additionally, Brink hopes distributing the first edition can expand Deadrock’s reach across Montana and the Bozeman area.

Brink dropped the free papers in Livingston, Bozeman, Billings, and Red Lodge.

Launching an arts-focused endeavor is not foreign for Brink. He launched the Cottonwood Club in 2011, a physical space where artists can display and create in community.

The nonprofit later moved from Bozeman to Livingston. The community role it plays remains the same.

“If there’s something I wish was happening, and there’s no one doing it, I feel obligated to do it,” Brink said. “That’s how this started. I decided I was going to do a newspaper, and within two months I had it done.”

Brink credits the local arts community with the quick turnaround.

Max Hjortsberg first met Brink at one of his art shows. The two remained friends.

Hjortsberg said his “overactive imagination” first brought him to creative writing as a teenager. He’s written short stories and poetry.

“I definitely don’t make any money writing, but it’s something I’ve always enjoyed,” Hjortsberg said.

Hjortsberg wrote a poem called “Eighteen and Ninety-Three” for Deadrock.

Inspired by a newspaper story about a woman who had turned 112, Hjortsberg explores what it was like to be alive 100 years prior, chronicling some of the physical and cultural changes in the proceeding years.

Change and temporality encompass Deadrock.

“I’m excited to see where Deadrock goes. Newspapers seem to be dying off a little bit, so it’s nice to see one pop up in this space,” Hjortsberg said.