Spirit of the Bear Lodge: An Anthology of Bearlodge Writers

Good bones. That’s what house renovators say old homes need to make them worth saving. This phrase applies to the Bearlodge Writers as well. We still follow the mission and guidelines set forth by our charter members. That framework has formed the basis of a long-lasting organization.\nThe Bearlodge Writers have been meeting bi-monthly in Sundance, Wyoming, since 1979. The Hills have drawn us from different directions. We are ranchers and homemakers, artists and teachers, musicians and business people—but most of all, we are wordsmiths.\nWe encourage and support one another in our writing endeavors, help each other improve our work, share information, and provide workshops and writing retreats. We produce poetry, essays, novels, short stories, articles, and columns. Our published works ripple outward—regionally, nationally, and internationally.\nOur table has changed little in essentials since its founding. We still bring chocolate along with our red pens. We critique gently but honestly. We try to give each other what we need, be it grammar help, publishing tips, or simply nonjudgmental ears to listen.\nAt times, our table has become a virtual one, as we incorporate words like “Zoom” into our vocabulary. In this shifting geography, we aren’t always physically “at the table,” but our spirits remain there. The essence of who we are endures.\nPraise for Spirit of the Bear Lodge:\nChocolate and red pens! Bearlodge writers wield both with good cheer and skill as they support each other in their writing. Meeting monthly for more than forty years, members of Bearlodge Writers have been widely published, spreading their work to readers everywhere. In these pages, you will find writing “from Tiananmen to Vilnius,” from Maine to the Medicine Bow, deep as roots can burrow and high as mountains and eagles can soar. Their voices echo and sing, piercing the fog of our daily lives, bringing new hymns of entertainment, reflection, grief, healing, and contentment. Gaydell Collier, one of the group’s founders, to whom this collection is dedicated, would be proud. Add Spirit of the Bear Lodge to your library; read it with gratitude, joy, and hope.
—Linda M. Hasselstrom, Walking: the Changes, a collection of poems published with photographs by James Parker, Lame Johnny Press\nDedicated to Gaydell Collier, a founding member of Bearlodge Writers, Spirit of the Bear: A Bearlodge Writers Anthology is a collaboratively-edited anthology that is both gracefully and thoughtfully organized—filled with carefully selected and well-crafted pieces. In richly detailed imagery and finely-wrought language, the works in this anthology reveal a strong connection to questions of place and community. A testament to writing community and writing in community, this book brings to beautiful fruition the presence, talent, collaboration, and craft of Bearlodge Writers. This anthology is a celebration of individual voices working cooperatively to further their writerly talents in unison, and it is a powerful and engaging collection.
—Lee Ann Roripaugh, Author of tsunami vs. the fukushima 50