Oregon Humanities Fall/Winter 2007

Cover of Oregon Humanities Fall/Winter 2007
Kathleen Holt
EDITOR
Jennifer Viviano
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Leigh van der Werff
PUBLICATIONS ASSISTANT
Allison Dubinsky
COPY EDITOR
Editorial Advisory Board
Tom Booth
Brian Doyle
Debra Gwartney
Julia Heydon
Marianne Keddington-Lang
Guy Maynard
Win McCormack
Camela Raymond
Kate Sage
Linny Stovall
Rich Wandschneider
Curt Yehnert

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Field Work: The Citizens' University

In 1988, eleven years after opening the Bookloft in a second-floor former dentist's office, Rich Wandschneider had an idea. He had watched his Enterprise bookstore serve as a magnet for Western readers and writers and recently attended a workshop by poets Kim Stafford and Peter Sears about writing in Oregon. Wandschneider, along with fellow northeastern Oregonians George Venn and David Memmot, realized that the region was ripe for a different kind of writer's workshop. Wandschneider envisioned the workshop as a distinctive place for writers of all disciplines and levels to gather and learn from each other and guest presenters. Joined by Western writers Alvin Josephy, Bill Kittredge, Ursula Le Guin, Craig Lesley, James Welch, Venn, and Stafford, Wandschneider held the first Fishtrap Institute that summer, entitled "Western Writing, Eastern Publishing."

From the beginning, Fishtrap was different from other writing conferences because of its conviviality and noticeable lack of focus on the business side of writing--finding an agent or a publisher--that is more present at other workshops.

Fishtrap has since evolved into a well-supported nonprofit organization that constitutes a great part of the spirit in Wallowa County. And on the eve of the organization's twentieth anniversary, after serving as executive director since its inception and hosting more than two hundred guest authors, Wandschneider is stepping down. He says he's leaving the organization at its peak, confident that the local community will continue to foster the creative spirit that attracts so many writers to Wallowa County.

The Wallowas--which Wandschneider describes as "almost the geographic center of the Northwest"--inspired the workshop's focus. "Fishtrap is place-based," says Wandschneider. "It is not at a motel or an empty summer college campus, but at a place alive and at the heart of western landscape, immersed in the great issues of the West."

Fishtrap, through its "first come, first served" mantra and low program cost, allows for a diverse group of writers, teachers, librarians, and any other curious folk to partake in its weeklong workshops, as well as programs such as lecture series and writers' retreats. The workshop has retained its strength and appeal beyond being an important resource for aspiring and accomplished writers alike, because it encourages its participants to use its themes--which have included everything from "Writing about the Natural World" to "New Wealth in the Old West"--to consider the larger picture, while also maintaining an awareness the lifestyles of the West.

Bette Husted, author of Above the Clearwater: Living on Stolen Land, was invited back to Fishtrap's twentieth anniversary as a Founding Fishtrap Fellow. She says the atmosphere over the years not only immersed her in other writers' views, but also gave her time to reflect on the continuing struggle of what it means to have a Western identity as a writer. But, she adds, "The gifts of Fishtrap are found not just in writing workshops, but in talk around the meal tables and out on the grass, beside the lake and on the forest trails. We learn by listening."

Stafford, who along with the other founding presenters remains an active Fishtrap participant, describes the workshop as a "citizens' university of literature and writing." He continues, saying, "Ideas are abundant, conversations are deeply engaged, and the literature being written and discussed tends toward a commitment to cultural understanding in a changing world, and particularly in the Western states as part of a global economy of ideas."

While there is certainly no shortage of writers' workshops nationwide, Fishtrap remains one of the few that focuses on theme-based intellectual exploration instead of on publication instead. Fishtrap occasionally hosts agents and publishers, but stresses the learning process, rather than the business side. Guest presenters and publishers often choose to participate in workshops themselves.

Wandschneider believes our society needs more organizations that encourage face-to-face discussion and contemplation, the kind that can look beyond immediate gratification and resemble thinking institutes, as opposed to carbon-copy, aspiring-author clinics. "I like to think of Fishtrap as infecting people and communities with the bugs of imagination and creativity. I hope there are no clones--clones aren't very imaginative--but that the infections will breed and cross-breed with new ideas across the region."

On the final night of the summer workshop of 2007, Fishtrap held a casual fundraiser. The many repeat attendees and presenters rallied around Wandschneider, besting each other with a round of spontaneous pledges that lasted all of ten or eleven minutes, but raised a total of $11,000. Guest speaker Debra Gwartney witnessed the event and says, "It was truly remarkable, and all out of affection for Rich. There is no sense of competition there--all support."

Husted adds, "Maybe Rich was exactly right when said that for a week at least, Wallowa County is the center of the literary world."

--Leigh van der Werff

Published in the Fall/Winter 2007 issue of Oregon Humanities.

© 2007 Oregon Council for the Humanities