About the Workshop

Both Ivan Doig and Wallace Stegner spent their lives crafting stories about the West and the complex relationship of place in our American narrative. MSU’s Ivan Doig Center and the Wallace Stegner Chair in Western American Studies are proud to introduce the Doig/Stegner Writing in the West advanced fiction workshop. The program will help develop new voices and stories that address the complexities of this diverse and ever-changing landscape.

Spring 2019 Workshop

This year's workshop will be led by MSU Western Writer-in-Residence, acclaimed novelist and poet Louisa Hall, whose most recent novel, Trinity, was named a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Trinity blends science with literature and fiction with biography. The novel asks searing questions about what it means to truly know someone and about the secrets we keep from the world and from ourselves. Her second novel, Speak, was also named a New York Times Editor’s Choice as well as a best book of the year in Slate, NPR, The Washington Post, and Men’s journal.  Louisa Hall will lead a class of eight writers as they compose their stories in a small, two-week class setting that will culminate in a public reading. Louisa Hall will conduct the four-part advanced fiction writing workshop at Montana State University.

The workshop will meet four times for two hours on Monday and Wednesday evenings, starting on May 20th, Hall will work with eight writers in a small setting to explore the writing process. The workshop will then conclude on Friday, May 24th with a public reading of the participants' works.

Workshop Schedule

The writing workshop will meet in the evenings on the following days:

  • Monday, May 20th - Thursday, May 23rd
  • Public Reading - Friday, May 24th

Application Process

Applications are now open for the first Doig/Stegner Writing in the West workshop, sponsored by the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands and Peoples of the North American West and the Wallace Stegner Chair in Western American Studies at Montana State University.

Applicants are invited to submit up to 10 pages of a work-in-progress to the Ivan Doig Center by March 15th via email ([email protected]). Selected participants will be notified by April 1st. Cost of the workshop will be $350 and a small number of scholarships are available. For more information, please contact the Ivan Doig Center ([email protected]).