Eastern Oregon Writers in Residence

Back in 1997, Fishtrap inaugurated a Writer-in-Residence (WIR) program here in Wallowa County. Rather than pushing the writer through a short, grueling, and intensive experience, we sought an extensive experience – one that would benefit the community, students, and writer in equal measures.

The model we came up with brings an outside writer into the community for eight or nine weeks, places that writer in schools for about 8 hours each week, connects the writer with the community through evening or weekend workshops and readings, and gives the writer plenty of time to explore the local landscape and culture, and to work on his or her own projects. The writer receives a stipend, and the community provides housing.

The model worked so well here that we introduced it to three other communities in 2007, naming the expanded program the Eastern Oregon Writers in Residence (EOWIR):  Chiloquin, located north of Klamath Falls in Klamath County, Harney County, including Burns, Hines, Frenchglen, and other small communities, and the neighboring towns of Fossil and Condon in central Oregon.

Fishtrap is constantly on the lookout for qualified writers who will work well in Wallowa County and in our partner communities. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in a residency.

Wallowa County

Fishtrap’s Writer-in-Residence for 2010 is poet Collier Nogues. Her first book of poems will be published by Four Way Books in Spring 2011. She earned an MFA in Poetry at University of California, Irvine, and was a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. A finalist in four national poetry competitions, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Barrow Street, Third Coast, Washington Square, Salamander, The Pinch, and the anthology Shade 2006.

Previous Wallowa County Writers-in-Residence

1997    Ellie Belew
1998    Annie Callan
1999    Beth Piatote
2000    Mike Spring
2001    Peter Chilson
2002    Suzy Vitello
2003    Gregg Kleiner
2004    Merna Ann Hecht & Elaine Grinnell
2005    Ellen Waterston
2006    Paula Coomer
2007    Kate Power & Steve Einhorn
2008    Keith Scales
2009    Collier Nogues