Summer Fellowships

Each year, Fishtrap, Inc. awards up to five Fellowships valued at $1000 for Summer Fishtrap Workshops and Gathering, held every July at Wallowa Lake, Oregon. Awards are made on the basis of writing submission only, and are not limited to any one genre. Submissions should follow the Fishtrap mission, which is to promote "good writing in and about the West." Therefore, applicants should be from the West, or writing of the West. Fellowships cover the cost of a workshop, registration for the Gathering, and food and lodging for the week. A small travel stipend is also included.

It is the goal of Fishtrap's Fellowship program to recognize and encourage emerging writers. Previous Fellows include novelists Kathleen Tyau and Michael FitzGerald, poets Charles Goodrich and Marilyn Johnston, short fiction writer Kelly Magee, and non-fiction writer Ellie Waterston.

2010 Fellows:

Fishtrap is pleased to announce the Fellows for Summer Fishtrap 2010: Christine Colasurdo, Dave Jarecki, Christina Robertson, Rob Williams and William W. Wright.

Writer, teacher and calligrapher Christine Colasurdo was born in Portland. She earned a double B.A. in French and English from Portland State University and a Master’s degree in English from UC Berkeley. After living in France and California for many years she returned home to Portland in 2006. She has published two books on the outdoors. Her first, Return to Spirit Lake, is a memoir of Mount St. Helens. In 2005 it was honored as a “Washington Reads” book. Her second book, The Golden Gate National Parks: A Photographic Journey, celebrates the country’s largest urban national park. Colasurdo’s prose is featured in anthologies Holding Common Ground (2005) and In the Blast Zone (2008). Her other published works include prize-winning poems, scholarly essays, and articles in magazines including Audubon, Orion, Sunset and Sierra. Her poems have been published in Denver Quarterly, Portland Magazine, Convolvulus, and other publications.

Dave Jarecki writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction from his home in Portland, Ore., and facilitates youth and adult writing workshops throughout the Greater Portland area. He is the author of Backwards On the Train, a chapbook of 11 poems (© 2009, Imperfect Press). In 2004, Jarecki founded Breakerboy Communications, a writing firm that helps individuals and business owners communicate their stories. In addition, he features interviews and the work of other writers at DaveJarecki.com.

Chris Robertson was born in Vancouver and grew up there, and in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. In her writing, she explores Western landscapes, bird migration, environmental issues, and sense of place. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Colorado State University, and earned her Ph.D. in Literature and Environment from the University of Nevada, Reno. She and her husband, John, spend as much time as possible hiking, camping, birding, and skiing in the Sierra Nevadas. Chris is at work on an ecological memoir, Drift: Kin, Class, and Place, and she and her friend and colleague, Jennifer Westerman, are coediting a collection of scholarly and creative nonfiction essays, Working on Earth: The Intersection of Working-Class Studies and Environmental Justice. This fall Chris and John will make their way with their two cats to the Midwest, where Chris will take up a creative nonfiction post at Bemidji State University and they’ll both take up horizontal skiing and skating. Ever Westerners and mountain people, they'll be back.

Rob Williams, San Diego, CA, is the co-editor of the anthology, From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up (2006, Carroll & Graf). His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in San Diego Citybeat, Maisonneuve Magazine, Pindeldyboz, Versal, 6S: Six Sentences, as well as the anthologies It All Changed in an Instant: More Six Word Memoirs, I Do/I Don't, and Fool For Love. He received an MFA from Columbia University in 2004 and was a January 2010 fellow at the Vermont Studio Center. He currently teaches Creative Writing and Composition in San Diego, is the Program Coordinator for San Diego Writers, Ink, a non-profit writing organization, and is learning how to surf. His website is http://www.robwilliams.org/

William Winfield Wright began writing poems as a Fulbright Scholar in Tromsø, Norway in 2001. Since then, he has published in The Beloit Poetry Journal, Field, The Ninth Letter, The Seattle Review, Spinning Jenny, Third Coast and elsewhere.  He has been a finalist for the Cider Press Prize and a semi-finalist for the Anthony Hecht Prize. Born and raised in California, he was educated in Oregon, New Hampshire, and Arizona. He is currently a Professor of English at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado.  He is named for his grandfather.

Congratulations to the new Fellows. Thank you all for your applications. This year Fishtrap received over 130 applications for the five fellowship slots at Summer Fishtrap.

Nearly 100 fine writers have been selected as Fishtrap Fellows since 1990. Now, Fishtrap would like to help libraries, arts and culture organizations, schools, and community groups connect with Fishtrap Fellows for readings, workshops, classes, lectures, and more. You can view or download a Fishtrap Fellows Directory (in PDF format) and find a poet, novelist, storyteller, or other writer to present to or work with your audience. If you were a Fishtrap Fellow and are not in this directory, please email us with your information and we will update the Directory

Click here for a complete list of Fishtrap Fellows.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Call Fishtrap 541-426-3623, or email director@fishtrap.org.

For information on previous Fishtraps, see our history page.

NOTICE OF NON-DISCRIMINATION Fishtrap, Inc. prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age within its organization and during the conduct of any of its programs.