Mountain Writers Series |
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Remebering Harold Johnson 1933 - 2024
Remembering Tom Spanbauer 1946 - 2024
Remembering Sandra McPherson 1943 - 2024
______________________________________________ From the Archives -- Mountain Writers Series 1973 - 2024
Celebrating 45 years of serving the literary community
In March 2019, Mountain Writers Series hosted two events at the AWP Conference in Portland. The first all-day, off-site event (11 AM - 10 PM) featured 28 poets and writers paying tribute to over two dozen Mountain Writers Series "alumni" readers from the past 45 years. There were three special tributes recognizing former Oregon Poet Laureate Peter Sears; award-winning author and poet, Denis Johnson; prize-winning poets W. S. Merwin and Donald Hall. Others among those recognized were Oregon authors Katherine Dunn, Ursula K. Le Guin and Vern Rutsala; Nobel Laureates Czeslaw Milosz and Derek Walcott; and a dozen other recipients of Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards and more. This event celebrated 45 years of programming and serving the literary community in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Mountain Writers also presented a panel at the AWP Conference at the Oregon Convention Center: "Mountain Writers Center: A Non-Profit Model," featuring a panel that included Michael Dickman, Jennifer Grotz, Dorianne Laux, and Joseph Millar. The panel detailed the decade that Mountain Writers Center operated in SE Portland: "After twenty years of building a regional network, in 1993, Mountain Writers opened the first writer’s center in Oregon, immediately increasing funding for NW literary activity—readings, workshops, craft talks—featuring acclaimed poets and writers: Bei Dao, Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Mark Doty, David James Duncan, Jack Gilbert, Yusef Komunyakaa, Denise Levertov, Louis Simpson, James Tate, C.K. Williams, and hundreds more. Former Center staff, faculty, and students discussed the impact."
In October 2010, Oregon Poet Laureate, Paulann Petersen, gave the following opening remarks as introduction to the events on the Mountain Writers Series stages for Wordstock 2010. Remarks at the Opening of Wordstock, 2010 It’s a delight and an honor to help launch the Mountain Writers’ readings at Wordstock 2010. Two stages. Two days. Sixty writers. Remarkable. Mountain Writers has been a fixture at Wordstock since its inception. Over 300 writers have appeared on the Wordstock Mountain Writers stages since 2005, and Mountain Writers has been the force establishing and sustaining poetry’s presence at this festival. For that, I give particular thanks to the entire Mountain Writers’ board of directors and staff. Orchestrating over 60 writers on two stages for two days is a formidable undertaking. But it’s only one of Mountain Writers’ ongoing programs. Mountain Writers sponsors the monthly Press Club readings on Clinton Street in Southeast Portland. Third Wednesdays. Mountain Writers offers the bi-annual Columbia Gorge Writers’ Conference, which—in June of 2011—will feature on its faculty Annick Smith, William Kittredge, Barbara Drake, Vern Rutsala, and Gerald Costanza. And that’s only what MW is doing currently. Established in 1973, Mountain Writers has spent 37 years enriching our region with visits, readings, and workshops by many of the world’s finest writers. The list of writers who have given readings and workshops and talks under the aegis of Mountain Writers and its partners includes W.S. Merwin, Rita Dove, Sherman Alexie, Lucille Clifton, Czeslaw Milosz, Jamaica Kincaid, Charles Simic, and Derek Walcott. The whole list is hundreds of names long. I took workshops led by Sharon Olds, Martin Espada, and Carolyn Forché, thanks to Mountain Writers. I heard C. K. Williams, Eavan Boland, Jane Hirschfield, and Galway Kinnell give readings, thanks to Mountain Writers. My West Linn High School creative writing students had workshops led by Li-Young Lee, Naomi Shihab Nye, Agha Shahid Ali, and Cornelius Eady, thanks to Mountain Writers. For decades, through its Northwest Regional Residencies Program, Mountain Writers toured stellar writers through Oregon and Washington. For years, Mountain Writers opened the doors of its Center (on Milwaukie Boulevard, in Portland), inviting the public to readings, workshops and gatherings. Am I listing all of MW accomplishments? No. I’ve mentioned only a fraction of them. The 37 years of Mountain Writers’ existence hold a remarkable variety and number of programs. But there is one constant in the Mountain Writers’ story. Sandra Williams. Sandra founded Mountain Writers in 1973. She’s been, all along, its sustaining force, its guiding vision. What our community of readers and writers owes to Sandra Williams is immeasurable. Offering Sandra our praise and gratitude today is a pleasure.
Link to Donation RequestConsider Mountain Writers Series for Charitable Giving Please consider Mountain Writers Series for a tax-deductible contribution. We appreciate whatever gift you can make.
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In MemoriamAgha Shahid Ali 1949 - 2001 Lois Baker 1928 - 2016 Marvin Bell 1937 - 2020 Eavan Boland 1944 - 2020 Lennart Bruce 1919 - 2002 Jack Cady 1932 - 2004 Hayden Carruth 1921 - 2008 Lucille Clifton 1936 - 2010 Tom Crawford 1939 - 2018 Walt Curtis 1941 - 2023 Robert Dana 1929 - 2010 Madeline DeFrees 1919 - 2015 Brian Doyle 1957 - 2017 Joseph Duemer 1951 - 2017 Robert Duncan 1919 - 1988 Katherine Dunn 1945 - 2016 Stephen Dunn 1939 - 2021 William Everson 1912 - 1994 Lawrence Ferlinghetti 1919 - 2021 James Fleming 1924 - 2017 Marilyn Folkestad 1927 - 2002 Kathleen Fraser 1935 - 2019 Jane Glazer 1925 - 2017 Patricia Goedicke 1931 - 2006 Linda Gregg 1942 - 2019 Thom Gunn 1929 - 2003 Donald Hall 1928 - 2018 Sam Hamill 1943 - 2018 Kenneth O. Hanson 1922 - 2003 Ehud Havazelet 1955 - 2015 Geoffrey Hill 1932 - 2016 Tony Hoagland 1953 - 2018 Richard Hugo 1923 - 1982 Denis Johnson 1949 - 2017 Harold Johnson 1933 - 2024 Donald Justice 1925 - 2004 Galway Kinnell 1927 - 2014 W. P. Kinsella 1935 - 2016 William Kittredge 1932-2020 Carolyn Kizer 1925 - 2014 Bill Knott 1940 - 2014 Maxine Kumin 1925 - 2014 Ursula K. Le Guin 1929 - 2018 Philip Levine 1928 - 2015 Morton Marcus 1936- 2009 Vaughn Marlowe 1931 - 2017 Irene McKinney 1939 - 2012 Sandra McPherson 1943 - 2024 W. S. Merwin 1927 - 2019 Lisel Mueller 1924 - 2020 Czeslaw Milosz 1911 - 2004 Richard Murphy 1927 - 2018 Raymond Patterson 1929 - 2001 Walter Pavlich 1955 - 2002 Lucia Perillo 1958 - 2016 Judith Root 1939 - 2020 Vern Rutsala 1934 - 2014 Ralph Salisbury 1926 - 2017 Dennis Schmitz 1937 - 2019 Peter Sears 1937 - 2017 Jon Silkin 1930 - 1997 Charles Simic 1938-2023 Joseph Soldati 1939 - 2019 Tom Spanbauer 1946 - 2024 William Stafford 1914 - 1993 Clemens Starck 1937 - 2024 Mark Strand 1934 - 2014 Ronald G. Talney 1936 - 2019 James Tate 1943 - 2015 Steve Tyler 1942 - 2020 David Wagoner 1926 - 2021 Derek Walcott 1930 - 2017 James Welch 1940 - 2003 C. K. Williams 1936 - 2015 Al Young 1939 - 2021
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Portland, OR |
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