The Missoula Writing Collaborative was established in 1994 as a writers-in-the-schools program mentored by Teachers and Writers Collaborative, New York and Houston WITS. We place professional writers into school classrooms in Missoula, Montana and surrounding rural areas, including the Potomac Valley,the Bitterroot Valley, and the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
We currently have fourteen school residencies that provide continuing, in-depth creative writing instruction to approximately 4500 schoolchildren. Creative writing is combined with human service at our evening workshops called Common Ground, which reach disabled adults and teenagers living in area youth homes. We also teach creative writing at the Poverello Center and the Joseph Residence, shelters for the homeless in Missoula, and participate in the Flagship Program, a free, after-school program at Missoula schools.
