Mountain Writers Series is one of the nation's longest running literary series. Since its founding in 1973, it has sponsored and facilitated thousands of literary events, broadcasts, readings, conferences, seminars and workshops. In cooperation with a network of literary presenters throughout the Pacific Northwest, Mountain Writers Series works to bring writers to all communities in the region, through writing workshops, conferences, and public readings. Mountain Writers Series has welcomed poets and writers of regional, national, and international reputation into the community in order to share with audiences and enrich the literary life of Portland and the Northwest.
Fishtrap serves writers, teachers, librarians, editors, publishers, and readers as it "promotes clear thinking and good writing in and about the West."
It began in 1988 at Wallowa Lake, Oregon, with a Summer Writers' Gathering. Over 100 writers, editors, teachers, librarians, and readers spent a July weekend reading, listening, and discussing "Western Writing and Eastern Publishing." Each summer since, people have gathered to listen and respond to outstanding Western writers address living and writing in the West. Writing workshops were added in 1989, and a Fellows program for emerging writers in 1990. The Winter Fishtrap Gathering was launched in 1992, followed by the Imnaha Writers' Retreat and the Writer-in-Residence programs in 1997.
Several programs that primarily serve residents of Wallowa County followed: the volunteer-driven Radio Storytelling program in 2000, both the Fishtrap College program and Lectures & Readings in 2002, and The Big Read in 2006. At the same time, programs for the regional audience continued to expand. A Children's Lit Workshop started in 2004; Fishtrap's writer-in-residence model was expanded in 2006 to serve four other eastern Oregon counties as the Eastern Oregon Writers-in-Residence program; a year-long low-residency book writing (novel first and now non-fiction as well) workshop program started in 2008, and the Outpost workshop and nature writing residencies saw their first incarnations in 2009. A library and archive project is also underway.
Over the course of 24 years, an estimated 20,000 participants and more than 350 presenters—writers, academics, and literary professionals—have been involved with Fishtrap programs, which now number more than 15 and occur year-round.
Summer Fishtrap Recordings: 2010 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1992 | 1991 | 1990 |
The Spare Room reading series was founded as a collective early in 2002, and in nine years has presented 140 public events focusing on innovative and experimental writing, in a variety of venues. Spare Room holds a monthly reading that typically pairs local poets with out-of-towners, and has also sponsored annual festivals devoted to collaborative and intermedia work, including sound poetry and neo-benshi, and marathon readings of book-length works by Bernadette Mayer, Gertrude Stein, Ted Berrigan, H.D., Clark Coolidge, and Charles Olson. Information on Spare Room events can be found at www.flim.com/spareroom.
