SOUL MOUNTAIN SUMMER 2008

Best greetings to friends of Soul Mountain and members of our Soul Mountain family, as our hearts join in concern over this troubles-plagued world.

In our own little corner of the world, change and growth have been the catch-words. We’ve changed our board and our administrative structure, updated our website, and begun to implement a fund-raising plan. Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, E.Ethelbert Miller, and Natasha Trethewey have accepted our invitation to be members of our honorary board.

Gideon Young came back at the first of March to be my co-host for spring and summer. He’s also working part-time at the Florence Griswold Museum, which continues to be a big sister to our little organization. Gideon and I hosted five poets in March and April. Laurel Bastien, an MFA student at the University of Wisconsin/Madison, and Garrett Burrell, an MFA student at Sarah Lawrence College, were selected by their MFA program faculties to receive Soul Mountain Spring Break fellowships. Tony Ellis drove out from Iowa and stayed for a month. April Lindner was here, and Stephanie Batiste.

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