Dear Friends --
It's time for a mid-year update on The Missoula Writing Collaborative.
School Residencies:
This year we are in 19 schools in Missoula and beyond.
All nine elementary schools in the Missoula County Public Schools district are receiving fourth grade creative writing instruction through funding from MCPS and a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant. Additionally, twenty-one third and fifth grade classrooms in the district are served through NEA Artworks funding and school contributions.
Other MCPS schools receiving MWC creative writing instruction are Big Sky High School, C.S. Porter Middle School, and Willard Alternative High School.
The Missoula Writing Collaborative also serves Bonner School, DeSmet School, and Sussex School in Missoula; Ovando School, Florence-Carlton School, Arlee School, and Helena's Smith School.
Our funders:
We are grateful to Missoula County Public Schools, to all our participating schools, and to school PTA's for making this teaching possible.
We also wish to thank these additional major funders:
The Charles Engelhard Foundation
The Heineman Foundation
The National Endowment for the Arts
The Steele-Reese Foundation
The Gallagher Foundation
The Silver Foundation
The Charlotte Martin Foundation
The Pleiades Foundation
The Montana Arts Council
US Bank
The LEAW Family Foundation
Lois Welch
The Judy Family Foundation
James Lee Burke
Kathy Veazey Caras Nursery We appreciate these individuals who donated to The Missoula Writing Collaborative during the past month: MWC Friends (click for list)
Our community partners:
We owe thanks and appreciation to the Missoula Art Museum, the Watershed Education Network, the Montana Natural History Center, the University of Montana, Missoula County Public Schools, the City of Missoula, KUFM - Montana Public Radio, MCAT - Missoula Community Access Television, Missoula Public Library, the Payne Family Native American Center on the UM campus, Caras Nursery, and Talbot Youth Homes for collaborations and support.
MWC writer news:
Alex Alviar (Cold Springs School, Lowell School, Missoula, Words With Wings) has been busy teaching lacrosse, in addition to writing, to students at Salish Kootenai College. Read The Missoulian feature article.
Catherine Bailey (Rattlesnake School, Missoula, Words With Wings) had recent work inspired by her background in anthropology published in Animal Farm and Zocalo Public Square. Read some here.
Anne Bauer (Smith School, Helena) won the 2010-2011 Pavement Saw Press poetry-chapbook award for her collection, Fine Absence. Find it here.
David Allan Cates (on leave in Mexico from teaching at Big Sky High School) has a new novel, Ben Armstrong's Strange Trip Home. More here.
Chris Dombrowski's new poetry collection, Earth Again, is due out in February. More info here. He currently is on leave from the MWC, teaching at Interlochen Academy of the Arts.
Mark Gibbons' (Franklin, Russell, and DeSmet School, Missoula) new collection Forgotten Dreams (Foothills Publishing, 2012) includes seven portraits by Lee Nye from the Eddie's Club Collection. Check it out here.
Robert E. Lee (Arlee School, Bonner School, Big Sky High School, in Missoula, Words With Wings, and Ovando School) was a Resident Fellow at the Island Institute at Sitka, Alaska during the month of September, 2012. Three of his poems appear in the Fall/Winter issue of Connotations, the Island Institute journal. More here.Laurel Nakanishi (Words With Wings) is a Fulbright Scholar this year in Nicaragua, where she is working on a poetry and theater program in schools in Leon and Granada. The project is mentored by The Missoula Writing Collaborative. Learn all about it here.Sheryl Noethe (MWC's Artistic Director, who also teaches at Lewis and Clark School, Willard High School, Missoula, and in the Words With Wings summer program) is enjoying a second year as MONTANA'S POET LAUREATE. She recently completed a series of teaching videos, available on Youtube. Her latest collection As Is (Lost Horse Press) will be followed by Grey Dog, Big Sky, due out this spring. Here, Sheryl shows creative hula hoop skills at summer camp.  Caroline Patterson's (Chief Charlo School and Lowell School, Missoula) children's book on ocean fish: Fish Do What in the Water? has been published by Farcountry Press. Her residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for the month of January is sponsored by the LEAW Family Foundation of Montana.
Marnie Prange (Lone Rock School, Florence-Carlton School) is teaching poetry at the University of Montana during the 2012-13 year. She recently returned from travels in Mexico. When not teaching or writing she is riding her horse Fresco.
Deborah Slicer (Hawthorne School, Missoula) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana. Some of her poems can be found on The Writer's Almanac.
Jeremy Smith (Rattlesnake School, Missoula) is on leave from MWC teaching this year to write a book about global health, big data, and a team of scientists trying to measure and improve how the world lives and dies. He can be found here.
MWC Board news:
Margie Dougherty-Goodburn stepped off the MWC Board of Directors to become Project Director for Our Town -- a creative place-making grant project funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Margie also directs the Words With Wings summer program, which last year was extended to a full-day camp with an outdoor emphasis. She will represent the MWC on a panel about writing across the curriculum at the 2013 AWP Conference in Boston this March.
Mary Windecker, Vice-President for Planning and Marketing at Community Hospital, Missoula, was elected to the MWC board in October.
Peter Stark, adventure and exploration writer (Driving to Greenland, Last Breath, At The Mercy of The River, The Last Empty Spaces) will join the board in February.
Events:
February 1, 2013, First Friday 
Book launch and reading! Hear young writers read their work from Words With Wings 2012, an anthology of summer writing. Enjoy some refreshments and sign up for Words With Wings 2013, scheduled for July 8-12 and 15-19, 2013 on the University of Montana campus.
5 to 7 p.m. (reading at 5:30)
Fact and Fiction, 220 N. Higgins, Missoula
Order anthologies here.
Saturdays in January - A Winter Wonderland for Young Writers
These Missoula Writing Collaborative workshops are designed to engage young writers in the wonders of winter. Taught by Jenny White, at the Montana Natural History Center.
Saturdays, January 19 and 26, 1:30 -3:30 p.m. FREE
Still available ...
Order your MWC 13-month calendar from MagCloud. Beautiful nature photos, kids' poetry, writing prompts, pertinent quotes and important dates. No wall should be without it. Click image to order.
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