Megan McNamer

Executive Director

Megan McNamer, Executive Director for the Missoula Writing Collaborative, has an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington. She worked at a refugee resettlement center and taught World Music at the University of Montana before devoting her time to literary pursuits. Her essays have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Salon, The Sun, Northern Lights, Islands, Tropic, Trips, and in several anthologies, and her film, theater, and art reviews have appeared regularly in the Montana press.

Sheryl Noethe

Artistic Director

Sheryl Noethe is both Artistic Director and a writer-in-residence for the Missoula Writing Collaborative. She is co-author of the teaching text Poetry Everywhere, now in its third printing. She is the recipient of a Montana Arts Council Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the CutBank Hugo Prize, a McKnight Prize for Literature, an American Academy of Poetry Award, an honorable mention for the Pushcart Prize, and other honors for her poetry. In 2004 she received the Cultural Achievement Award from the Missoula Cultural Council for her work in Missoula schools. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals, and she has published three collections of poetry: The Descent of Heaven Over the Lake, Ghost Openings, which won a Northwest Publisher's Best Book Award, and As is. In 2011 Sheryl became Montana's fourth Poet Laureate, an honor she'll hold until mid-2013.

Sheryl's role in the founding of the Missoula Writing Collaborative is the subject of Mackenzie Enich's short film, "Notes From a Poet and a One Eyed Cat." Watch it here.