Irene Cooper
 
“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”
—Virginia Woolf
 
“Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”
—Annie Dillard
 
“The answer to life is ‘Yes.’”
—Ann Richards
 
Beginning a work with a single quote is a well-supported go-to for writers; three is ridiculous. So are semi-colons. But I’ll refer you to Quote #1.
 
And this is not a work: this is THE WORK. If you are joining us at the table, you have tacitly or otherwise self-identified as a writer. So enough of this, “I don’t really write, I’m not really a writer,” business.
 
Because I am a writer. I write. I am interested in getting better at it, and I believe one of the ways to do that is to practice it in the company of other writers. Let’s do this.
 
To Whom It May Concern:
 
Credentials: MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry, OSU-Cascades
 
Street Cred: Publication in Verseweavers, The Feminist Wire, Indolent Books Projects Transition: Poems in the Aftermath & What Rough Beast, others.
 
Professional Writing: Co-Founder of Frank, a Creative Copywriting Effort, with the magnificent Laura Winberry. Co-blogger for The Eternal Beginner’s Guide to Bend. Co-editor of The Stay Project. Copywriter at large.
 
Teaching: Writing workshop co-facilitator, Blank Pages Workshops, with the handsome and talented Michael Cooper; workshop facilitator for special programs at Deschutes Library, MUSE, COCC Continuing Education.
 
www.beginnersguidetobend
www.frankmouth.com
www.thestayproject.us
irenecooper.me​

 
 
 

Mike Cooper

“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost,
it reminds us that we are alive
and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”
~Ray Bradbury
 
“There is no real ending.
It’s just the place where you stop the story.” 
~Frank Herbert
 
“The mind that perceives the limitation is the limitation.”
~Buddha
 
“With enough butter, anything is good.”
~Julia Child
 
People want to hear stories and poems. They want their emotions jangled and their minds bent, their existence questioned,
their reality suspended, their world taken apart 
and put back together again. They need you to write.
 
Mike is a graduate of the OSU MFA Writing Program.
​He writes short and long fiction, and teaches writing at COCC and creative writing workshops in Central Oregon
​with his beautiful and gifted wife.


















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