Missoula Writing Collaborative
What We Do
The Missoula Writing Collaborative teaches literary competence, critical thinking, cultural awareness, and artistic joy through creative writing.
We place writers in rural, tribal, and town schools throughout western Montana to show young people the power of words and help them find their voices as writers.
Each year we teach over 2500 kids to love to write.
Upcoming Events
- End of Year Giving: Make your gift today!
- Writers’ Room 4 Week Series: January 2024
- Community Hand Up at Dram Shop Central: April 2nd
News & Announcements
Meet Caroline Simms, MWC’s New ED!
Caroline Simms comes to the Missoula Writing Collaborative with a background in teaching English,...
Caroline Patterson Reflects on Retirement
When Megan McNamer called me in September 2009 to see if I would be interested in teaching poetry...
Words Into Water: C. S. Porter Students Write River Poems
With lines like “the shivering soul-reaching shock of the water” or “I smell the sinister but...
A testimonial
From St. Ignatius 5th Grade Teacher, Tim Krantz
“Having the MWC come into the class has been an awesome experience for our school. First, we teachers get to sit back, relax, (kinda) and have another voice instruct our students. The students get to have a pro at the art of expression through writing, giving them different topics, styles, conventions (or lack thereof) to express their thoughts through writing. The culmination, a published anthology, to hold and share and look back, to see the past, to lay the tracks of the future for our students, is the priceless value of having the MWC in our schools.“
Schools Served each year
Years established
Writers in Residence
Students reached each year
On This Paper
Excerpt by Zach, 8th grade
On this paper can be mythical things
Treasured kings
This world is built from the tip of a pen
The wings of a crow
The falling snow
This shining place
This fantastical love.
Land Acknowlegment
The Missoula Writing Collaborative is located in the Missoula valley, the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Séliš (Salish), Ktunaxa (Kootenai), and QÌispé (upper Kalispel or Pend d’Oreille). Our teaching takes us further afield to the homelands of the Niitsitapi (Blackfeet) and A’aninin (Gros Ventre). We acknowledge the systematic erasure of many Nations from this land and recognize that indigenous people are a vital part of our past, present, and future. Our teachers have been honored to teach creative writing to students in schools on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes for many years, students who teach us every day.
