Montana Book Festival 2019

For the past 20 years, poets have gathered in the Mexico highlands for a week to read and write poetry at the San Miguel Poetry Week, where the late Patricia Goedicke was a visiting writer. Many of the workshoppers have created a poetry fellowship around these once-a-year gatherings, bonding through writing and mentorship. More recently, San Miguel West sprang up as an offshoot, bringing Western poets together to workshop and write in the fall, this year Missoula being the venue.

This panel brings together a few of the members of this community who have worked together and helped one another in the process of publication and life. The panelists will discuss briefly both how poetry has influenced their lives and how their fellowship has influenced their work. Each participant will read and reflect upon way writing fosters friendship.