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Dear Friends,
Last fall there was an early cold snap in Missoula. All the leaves withered on the branch without experiencing their usual burst of radiance. Those leaves looked about how we felt. The recession had hit us hard. Our funds were dwindling, our programs were uncertain, our staff was dispirited. Our pots were empty and the house was cold ....
But now, now, in the depths of gloomy February, the bird is on the wing, and we are full of news!
Read on.
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Pleiades Foundation Gives Funds for Common Ground |
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Missoula Writing Collaborative workshops at Talbot Youth Homes --our program called Common Ground -- will continue twice a month year-round, thanks to a generous grant from the Pleiades Foundation, dedicated to protecting and celebrating the landscapes, ranches, and communities of the rural west. Common Ground workshops currently are taught by Chris Dombrowski. |
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James Welch Residency Established |
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A multi-year gift from Lois Welch will provide for our first named residency -- the James Welch Residency -- in honor of the late James Welch (Riding the Earthboy 40, Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney, Killing Custer, The Indian Lawyer, Fools Crow, The Heartsong of Charging Elk). $1,000/ year for five years will go to a Missoula Writing Collaborative residency on an Indian reservation. |
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Fall Fundraising Yields $10,500 | |
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We've received checks large and small -- all welcome! -- from supporters of literacy and of children. Many of our donors live in western Montana, though we've received donations from coast to coast. 85 are new donors. We look forward to thanking publically each and every one at the conclusion of our school residencies in May.
Special thanks now to Lois Welch, James Lee Burke, Zan Bockes, Arthur Prange, Mayor John Engen, Kathy Vezey, and Mary Eversole. We also are grateful to US Bank, the L.E.A.W. Foundation, and the Judy Family Foundation, and to Hawthorne School, Paxson School, and the Arts at Lone Rock for extra funds for residencies this year.
We have $14,500 yet to go to meet our $25,000 goal. DONATE
Missoula Writing Collaborative classes are literally life-changing for young students. It's as though each young writer radiates Richard Hugo's statement, "A creative writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters."
-- Lois Welch
My father, Tom Bockes, finally succumbed to a "long, courageous battle with reality" (his words) on 12-13-08. Always my Don Quixote, his love of the lyrical and the support of a Poets in the Schools program taught me early on how much poetry can aid survival and guide the transcendence of pain.
In my view this program has done an enormous amount of good in the Missoula school system. I was born in the Depression and grew up in an era when the book mobile program was literally a Godsend. I think the Writers in the Schools program works in the same fashion. It's run and staffed by grand people who help others in a way that lasts for a lifetime. My wife and I are very proud to be part of their efforts.
-- James Lee Burke
Whatever you can do to promote education, and especially literacy, is noble.
-- Arthur Prange
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The support of our friends has changed a gray world to color.
Thank You! 
MWC resident writer Robert Lee listens to students read their work during the summer program Words With Wings.
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Now enrolling for Summer 2010
Words With Wings
July 12-16 and July 19-23
call 549-3348 |
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MWC in the news... 
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Rattlesnake School Poets Read
The Missoula Art Museum was hopping with Rattlesnake School fourth and fifth graders Wednesday night, February 10. The students, who work with MWC resident writer Jeremy Smith, read their original poems for friends and family. Many thanks to the MAM for hosting and to the Rattlesnake School PTA for the funds that helped make this residency possible.
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Watching my mom work at the hospital,
I hear her typing as her fingers get sore and sorer.
I watch her do favors for doctors
And hear her suede shoes hit the ground
As she walks down the hall.
--Katrina Shull, fourth grade
If I could talk to you, Midnight
I would ask you: how is heaven?
Is it nice up there?
Have you met any other puppies?
Have you met puppy God?
Have you seen the dog I had before you?
Her name is Molly.
--Dakota Jeffries, fourth grade
Halloween midnight
Everyone's asleep in bed
I steal their candy
--Dan Shipley, fourth grade
The wind blows trees toward abandoned houses.
It smells like pine with a hint of smoke.
There are no people to be seen.
A rabbit hops along the road with a raccoon by its side.
All you can see is the fog in the air and the animals
Coming out to get food for winter.
The raccoon stops dead in his tracks.
He hears a bear roaring behind him.
The taste on his tongue has a hint of fear.
The hard rough texture on his paws from running on the road.
--Marley McDonald, fifth grade
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T0 learn more or to donate -- www.missoulawritingcollaborative.org
MWC
P.O. Box 9237
Missoula, MT 59807
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