THE CABIN IN THE COMMUNITY Carmen Morawski I remember exactly where I was when I first heard about The Cabin. I was stuck in traffic, when a BSU radio announcement came on to say that Andrei Codrescu was coming to Boise to speak at the Egyptian Theatre. As an avid NPR listener, I’d long been a fan of Codrescu. His was the Eastern European accented voice I loved to listen to on the radio. I bought my tickets as soon as I got home. At the Egyptian, it was exciting to see the man behind the radio voice I knew, and then to actually meet him as he signed my books. I became an immediate fan of The Cabin’s Readings & Conversations lecture series. That was in 2007. Yet beyond Readings & Conversations, I knew little else about The Cabin. As the years went by I began to hear about other activities sponsored by The Cabin, among them, summer writing camps for kids and drop-in writing workshops for adults. Then, a little over a year ago a friend of mine invited me to an event where he would be reading from a short story he’d had published. It was in the Writers in the Attic anthology, a publication sponsored by The Cabin to celebrate the work of local writers. It was his first short story to be published, and I’m sure it won’t be his last. The thing is, I’d had no idea The Cabin was so involved in supporting the work of local writers. For anyone who’s been involved with The Cabin over the years, these activities will likely come as no surprise. Yet since its inception in 1996 The Cabin has grown and evolved. The intention of this special print issue of CABIN is to both celebrate and inform readers
of where The Cabin has been and of how The Cabin will continue to meet the needs of Boise’s growing literary community in the future.
Why The Cabin? In the inaugural edition of its newsletter, founder Alan Minskoff wrote that he believed The Cabin would combine “two endeavors that define the character of a city: preserving old buildings and encouraging the literary arts.” While it’s clear that The Cabin’s activities are dedicated to promoting Boise’s literary culture, some readers may not be aware of the history of The Cabin’s role in preserving an historic architectural landmark. Located just south of the Boise Public Library and within a stone’s throw of the Boise River, The Cabin is located in the heart of Boise’s cultural center, making it a convenient site for hosting many literary activities. Yet it should come as no surprise that the builders of the log cabin structure that today houses Boise’s literary center did not originally intend for it to serve this function. The Cabin edifice was designed to serve as an office for the Forest Service. In part, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Idaho’s statehood, it was decided that it should be constructed of native woods. To that end, Hans Hulbe of the Boise Payette Lumber Company designed The Cabin with its characteristic log exterior of Idaho Engleman Spruce and used a mix of yellow and white pines, red cedar,
and Idaho Red Fir for its interior spaces. Although the building also functioned as an office for the Department of Lands for a short time afterwards, the City of Boise purchased the building from the state in 1992 for $20,000. In need of a building, in 1996 the board of the newly formed literary organization that has since become know as The Cabin, contracted a 30 year lease from the city with the intention to preserve the historical structure. Since then, not only has The Cabin made good on its founding vision to create a literary center in Boise, but according to Preservation Idaho, The Cabin’s members and supporters have raised over half a million dollars to support building renovations, so that it is now on the national register of historic places. While the log exterior of The Cabin is symbolic of the interdependent relationships that have historically existed between wood, paper, and print in the literary arts, recent technological innovations may sometimes make it seem as though words and the content it carries are somehow spontaneously generated, right out of thin air. Yet despite the internet, the creation of original written content in the form of one word that is painstakingly placed beside another requires labor. Original writing is still created by human beings, people of real flesh and blood, that occupy space. It is for that reason that Boise writers need a place like The Cabin, a tangible site where local writers can gather to meet for readings, workshops, and support.
JOHN GREEN TO MARK TWAIN Frances Shafer-Coffey Grade 8, 2015 You wrote of nature and the west. You wrote of rivers and the truth. Before you wrote, writing was a formal thing, but you changed that like I changed the love story. We’ve created a world for readers like so many others that tells them of life blunt and beautiful as it is from your baby’s first breath to the epitaph on your gravestone, with all the in-between from a temple to a shrine.
Idaho authors at the first CABIN FEVER event, December 2014. 2
The Cabin’s mission is to inspire a love of reading, writing and discourse.To encourage a robust reading and writing community, The Cabin offers a wide variety of programming accessible to all ages.
FIRST DAY Anthony Doerr, 1999 Our first day was a fine hot day beside the river with the crows shouting and sun pouring through the cottonwoods. By two-thirty we had learned each other’s names, done a bit of warm-up writing, talked about stories and taken a restroom break. Already the young writers seemed comfortable–comfortable with each other, with this odd mix of school and camp. Emily, to my right, a quiet writer with a purple Band-Aid on her ankle, was drawing spirals on a sheet of paper. Amber lay in a dirty patch of lawn in her flower-print dress, smearing a floppy ham sandwich into her mouth, chewing loudly, smacking her lips. Holly stared into the trees, the schools of drifting cottonseed. Moments before each writer had held out a folded sheet of paper and I splashed a bit of ink onto it. Then they folded their sheets so the ink would dry in a fairly symmetrical blotch, a kind of do-it-yourself Rorschach drawing. The ink was dry now, and I explained that I would like each writer to name his or her ink-blotch and imagine it into a character, with a gender and an age and a job and a host of characteristics. What does your character do at night? What is in your character’s garbage? What kind of things does your character carry in her pockets? How would your character ask someone on a date? The exercise, I hoped, would be an imaginative calisthenic, a way to show the writers that characters could come from anything, that everything and anything was worthy of attention. At the end of the exercise, when they would bring two characters together, they might see that narrative generated naturally from character, that making a story was simply a matter of introducing conflict into a character’s life. Fundamentally, it was designed, like any creative exercise, to flex the imagination. The kids opened their notebooks and scribbled away. Jessica drew her character before writing about her: a stout lady in black pumps. Doug had faded behind us and wrote diligently about a well-paid gravedigger. Katie folded her knees to her chin and wrote secretively, as she would all week, filling page after page with faint cursive. Jason guffawed about his character, a reggae instructor named Charles Barkley who made a million dollars a minute cleaning a workout gym after hours. Megan imagined a butterfly named Skyla and Holly imagined a ladybug. Thomas created a detective named Colonel Mustard with a sidekick pooch named Major Ketchup. Amber declared that she was done writing, that she only wrote during the mornings, and that she had never lost an argument in her life. To verify this, she said, I could
Every summer The Cabin hosts kids in grades 3-12 for week-long, half-day WRITING CAMPS. Led by a professional writer, campers can learn about songwriting, how to write a play, become a journalist or write while hiking in the Foothills.
Writing Wild campers, Boise Foothills, 2015 ask her mother or her sister. She sat a while with her arms crossed over her chest, then began to draw. After a while I noticed that Kylie, a tall sixthgrader who sat away from the group in a patch of sun, had written nothing. She stared at her ink-blotch, then looked away, towards the road. Her face was pinched, her cheeks were almost over her eyes, there was sweat on the back of her neck. Writing is a terrifying thing. It can freeze you, it can ruin your day; if it overcomes you it can infect your day with guilt and weakness. It is a frigid black lake you have to jump into, each time, a system shock, a freezing dark water, a fear, a dreadful plague. There are times when you would rather have a gun to your head than confront another awful expanse of blank paper. But this, this ink-splash exercise, was supposed to be as free as writing gets. This was by the Boise River, on a perfect day, for no grade, with no threat of criticism, for nobody but yourself, with a bluebird sky overhead and soft grass under you. What was there to be afraid of? Plenty. continued next page 3
I squatted beside Kylie and told her those things. I turned her inkblot upside-down. It looked like a fierce moose to me, so I told her that, and I told her it looked now like a fierce moose-hunter, and could she write about him? A fierce moose-hunter named Tyrell who wore a mask when he hunted moose. What did Tyrell look like under his mask, Kylie? She didn’t–couldn’t–answer. She didn’t even nod. A droplet of sweat hung from the tip of her nose. I scrapped the moose-hunter. What does the inkblot look like to you, Kylie? Does it look like a monster or a ballerina? Do you want to get out of the hot sun, Kylie? She said nothing. Her face was badly pinched and I couldn’t bear it. I urged her to abandon the inkblot, that it was only useful if it proved itself useful, and it clearly wasn’t proving itself useful. She could write about whatever and whomever she pleased. She didn’t have to write at all. She sat rigid.
printed, thinly, in the top corner of the page, “John Smith” and “bum.” I applauded this small start–would she tell me more about John Smith? How did he become a bum? Kylie started to cry. She said she didn’t understand what was happening, that she just couldn’t write, that she didn’t want to be at Writing Camp. Creation is scary, no matter what age you are, no matter where you are, no matter what stakes you find yourself creating for. Already, at ages eleven or nine or eight, the writers in our group exhibited real fear, in a thousand disguises, when asked to put pencil to paper. Creation is elusive, it is magic, it lives on the outskirts of our understanding. It is rarely something that comes when called. For Kylie, it turns out, creation comes unbidden in the night. Three days after our first day, on Thursday, Kylie sat in our circle and read three poems she’d written the night before, carefully revised poems that spoke truly and without cliché. She was beaming. She was a new person.
When I came back fifteen minutes later Kylie had
PONYTAIL GIRL Esperance Marian Pritchett High School, 2012 In Africa I did have hair until my dad cut it short like a baby’s. In school in Africa, boys and girls had to have short hair, we all looked like little soldiers, same hair, same clothes.
WITS reading, 2015
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WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS (WITS) supports creative writing enrichment in 3rd-12th grade classrooms throughout the Treasure Valley. During the school year, The Cabin employs professional local writers—poets, novelists, playwrights, and journalists—to teach semester- or school-year-long writing residencies in schools, juvenile detention centers, and community learning centers.
I came to America at fourteen. I saw girls’ hair, soft, long, colors of the rainbow. I was jealous. I put stinky chemicals on my hair to make it straight, for two months my hair looked like a black waterfall. My hair, now, is a little longer straight from the metal jaws I use to keep it down My mom’s hair was curly. I want to put my hands in her hair and roll her curls around my fingers. Do you think she has curly hair in heaven?
The Writers in the Attic Program, or WITA, is an annual publication contest for local writers, both emerging and established, to publish work related to a theme chosen by The Cabin. This publication is a stepping stone for new writers and a venue that showcases the talent in our community. Work is blind judged by a local literary notable and selected works are published as part of the Writers in the Attic anthology. Thirtynine Idaho authors were chosen to be part of the fourth annual Writers in the Attic anthology book, ANIMAL, which will be released in September 2015.
TRUMPETER SWAN/BEAVER: 1/1/11 Matthew James Babcock Here is my confession. When I said I was leaving to run an errand I meant walking to the cottonwood stand behind the technical college to see how many twisted trunks beavers had toppled since last summer ground itself to sand. I’ve done this for years. Snow muted vacant lots. Ruts marred the place where bulldozers gouged up wild poppies we found. Cold spun breath to lace. Light grazed my face, cooled on cars. Ice burned. Fields and engineering offices blazed with frigid gold in thin galleries. The vivid always disappears. A sound turned me. Half honk, half manifesto. Seven swans, snowy flames from the river. Big as A-10s, they skimmed treetops, so low a man with a snow blower heard them carve the air. Into pale sun they veered at the velocity of white, through the sky’s cloudy gears. Every confession is an errand. I’ve tried to say this so you understand. The urge to believe is the speech of beavers perpetually unseen. Every year is a ritual of late arrivals, a futile reach for the beauty of the fallen, the crash that stills the thunder no one hears.
“New people will come and be part of this love of reading and writing. Together we are building something significant. I wasn’t joking the other day when I instructed my family to make certain that, when the time comes, my obituary mentions that I was a charter member of the Log Cabin Literary Center. That’s something of which to be proud.” – Jan Alden, 1999
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STORYFORT is an annual event presented as part of the Treefort Music Festival. The Cabin partners with other word-centric organizations to propel and inspire litlove in Boise. Storyfort brings together an eclectic group of writers, readers, historians, musicians to plumb the depths of Boise’s stories — everything from its musical heritage to fiction it has inspired to its deepest, most personal secrets. “I just came from a great Artistic Advisors meeting at The Cabin and my brain’s on fire. They have so many bold and exciting things planned to help promote reading, writing, and discourse in Idaho. As it should be. These folks get it big time! Our great meeting lead me to thinking about how many discussions I’ve had over the years have in some way asserted that conversations and events about reading and writing need to be quiet and staid, like we’re still at the library and the librarian is shushing us. I think there are so many selfsame associations with books that hinder their proper place in our communities. I mean, I always hated to be shushed, and if libraries are quiet that’s not because books are inherently quiet. Books are loud and thrilling and angry and reckless and make me swoon and cheer and laugh till I’m crying, make me hate and contemplate this world and other worlds and
Alan Heathcock and Christian Winn at Storyfort, 2015
fill me with tremendous hope. I’ve thrown books against the wall. I’ve held books close while sleeping. On at least one occasion, I thought a book was haunted. And...sometimes books make me want to be quiet and still, too. But even then I don’t feel like celebrating books quietly or daintily. So don’t let yourself be shushed, people! We think books are amazing and important and totally freaking cool and we need to shout that out so everyone can join in the fun or wonder why the hell we’re making so much noise.” – Alan Heathcock,2013
THANK YOU 20 years of programs, 20 years of support, 20 years of success = more names than we can list here. The Cabin staff and board extend heartfelt gratitude to each and every member, ticket holder, camp parent, program participant, teachingwriter, grantor, writer, reader, donor, and Leadership Circle member that has encouraged The Cabin to thrive. We look forward to sharing another 20 years with you! Special thanks to the City of Boise, Nagel Foundation, Idaho Commission on the Arts, Idaho Humanities Council, Idaho Community Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Idaho Statesman, and the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation. 6
“Perhaps, above all, the Cabin has given our community a place where the written word is cherished, works of the imagination honored and the interaction among those developing their own voices is stimulated.” – Alan Minskoff, 1998
Established in 2003, READINGS & CONVERSATIONS brings internationally acclaimed thought leaders to our community. See the world through the eyes of bestselling authors, award-winning writers, and literary movers and shakers.
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ALAN MINSKOFF Founding Chair of The Cabin and Working Writer Carmen Morawski
Founding chair of The Cabin board, Alan Minskoff served actively on the board for some five to seven years before his teaching commitments at the College of Idaho grew so as to prevent his continued actively participation as board member. Nevertheless, Alan’s commitment to The Cabin continued, as his administrative role on the board evolved to become that of an active working writer. As someone who has always identified himself as a writer of poetry and non-fiction this isn’t surprising. In fact, you could say that writing was an important part of what first brought Alan out West from his native New York in the early seventies. Alan says that when he first came to Idaho he was struck by how the landscape of this “new territory” would be a wonderful place for someone wanting to write. Despite the predictions of the friends he’d left back East who told him he’d be back in two years, it was twelve years before he returned. Alan has spent most of his life in Idaho, and it’s become his home. Alan spent most of his early writing career as a journalist working as a magazine editor. Beginning in the ‘70s when he worked as the editor of the Idaho Heritage, his first magazine, Alan went on to for Boise Magazine, the Boise Journal, and Art Idaho. It was his unique combination of interests in both writing and preservation that led to The Cabin founding. As a writer, Alan was a member of a writing group that used to meet monthly during the mid-eighties, often in the Garden City home of Ruth Wright. Due to his involvement with the Boise preservation community, he was also in touch with key members of the Boise arts and preservation community. One evening, after a phone call with Gaetha Pace of the Heritage Trust, Alan arrived at the monthly writing group meeting armed with Gaetha’s news about Boise City plans to expand the Main library into the land occupied by the historic Log Cabin. Although the city plan didn’t entail demolition of the structure, Gaetha was opposed to their plan to move the building from its original site and had stressed the need to mobilize the community to preserve the structure in situ. According to Alan, the idea for making the Log Cabin a literary center came up that evening at Ruth’s home while the group discussed preservation options. In passing, Alan proposed that “maybe they should turn it into a literary center,” thus planting the original seed for The Cabin. 8
As it turns out, many of the people in the writing group that met in Ruth’s home that evening were also members of the Snake River Writers. Alan was the City Arts Commission chair at the time, and together with Paul Schaeffer, who Alan says was his “comrade in arms at the time,” they began to work towards making the idea a reality. Together with the Snake River Writers, they were able to successfully lobby the Boise City Council to save the Log Cabin. Alan said that the City Council gave them “a very affordable rent” of a dollar per year on the condition they commit to restoring and renovating the building, and raise the money to do it. With that, The Snake River Writers soon became the titular group committed to saving the cabin. To help raise the necessary money, they began creative fund-raising programs, among them a reading series that brought eminent writers like Alan Ginsberg to Boise. They put together a founding board, and John Bertram, currently of Preservation Idaho, wrote a plan for the group that became the template for how the Cabin was run and how money was raised. Although Alan has been teaching at the College of Idaho for some fifteen years now, he’s maintained his involvement with The Cabin over the years – primarily as a teacher. He’s taught for The Cabin in both the WITS program as well as in the Summer Writing Camps program. As an adjunct professor at the College of Idaho, he was able to supplement his income for three years by teaching one day a week for WITS. He’s also spent ten years or so teaching in the Summer Writing Camps, most recently in 2014. He says the Summer Camps transform The Cabin into “a vital and vigorous place in the summer.” Alan credits Kristin Tucker, who later became the director of the Washington Sate Arts Commission, with the original idea for the Summer Camps. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Alan’s two favorite programs are WITS and the Summer Writing Camps. He believes they reach the most people are important because “it gets kids started writing.” He’s even seen his Summer Camp students go on to become writers in national magazines. When asked what The Cabin does best, Alan came up with the following list: 1. It brings literature to the community in a variety of ways. 2. It provides a home for people who want to write (via workshops). 3. It helps to start young writers ( maybe most importantly).
4. It provides work for local writers (the teaching writers). He said, “That’s a lot for one organization.” As a writer, Alan believes in the importance of publication. In fact he sees it as an important part of what makes the Summer Writing Camps so successful. By following the basic model: Writing/Reading/ Publication, students come together for an intense week of writing, then read their work to a community of writers, and finally get to see their work published. Currently, The Cabin’s print publications are Writers in the Attic, Cambia, and the various Writing Summer Camp publications. Alan would like to see these expanded to include The Cabin’s original vision, one that included a regular literary journal. “If I had my druthers, the Cabin would have a regular journal. Maybe quarterly or bi-annual … something like the original issues” of CABIN. As for its mission, Alan doesn’t see The Cabin as having changed much over the years. “It’s always been a literary center with a focus on readings, teaching, limited publications and a place that provides a home to writers and classes … “ As for future improvements? “It would be nice if they’d finish the building. I think it will happen.” ways. 2. It provides a home for people who want to write (via workshops). 3. It helps to start young writers ( maybe most importantly). 4. It provides work for local writers (the teaching writers). He said, “That’s a lot for one organization.” As a writer, Alan believes in the importance of publication. In fact he sees it as an important part of what makes the Summer Writing Camps so successful. By following the basic model: Writing / Reading/Publication, students come together for an intense week of writing, then read their work to a community of writers, and finally get to see their work published. Currently, The Cabin’s print publications are Writers in the Attic, Cambia, and the various Writing Summer Camp publications. Alan would like to see these expanded to include The Cabin’s original vision, one that included a regular literary journal. “If I had my druthers, the Cabin would have a regular journal. Maybe quarterly or bi-annual … something like the original issues” of CABIN. As for its mission, Alan doesn’t see The Cabin as
having changed much over the years. “It’s always been a literary center with a focus on readings, teaching, limited publications and a place that provides a home to writers and classes … “
Cabin Publications: Writers in the Attic Carmen Morawski From the beginning, it was the intention of The Cabin to promote and support local writers and to showcase their writing by putting it in print. As anyone who writes knows, there is no bigger thrill than seeing your writing in print. Although writers do write to express themselves, they also want to be read, and published. To address that goal The Cabin has recently initiated an annual publication series called Writers in the Attic, The Cabin’s literary journal intended to celebrate the work of Idaho poets, fiction writers and non-fiction. Since 2011, each year The Cabin has sent out a call to Idaho writers of poetry, fiction and non-fiction to submit their work to The Cabin’s annual competition. For those unfamiliar with the publication, the 2012 inaugural issue, Rooms: writers in the attic is still available for purchase on Amazon.com. This densely printed slim volume features the work of 32 writers exploring their interpretation of the title theme, “Rooms,” within the space of 148 pages. Since then the writing themes have varied. “Detour” was the thematic prompt for the second competition, while “Nerve” was the theme for a third anthology featuring the work of local poets. This year’s competition is open to all writing genres and will encompass Gem State writers’ interpretations of “An Animal.” Although today’s Writers in the Attic program is relatively new, the roots of this program were visible since the beginning of The Cabin’s history, in Alan Minskoff’s short article called, “All the Lit that Fits.” Already, in the Winter/Spring 1997 edition of CABIN, Minskoff wrote “The CABIN staff welcomes, encourages and desires poems, short stories, memoirs, excerpts and essays. Currently, we publish twice per year; … We intend this publication to include writers at all levels: work generated at our workshops, writers’ groups and from the greater community will find its place here.” Indeed, as inspiration to other writers within the pages of that early publication were poems, stories and memoirs by many Idaho writers like Diane Josephy Peasvey, Jyl Hoyt, William Studebaker and Diane Raptosh whose names are still familiar. Due to it’s large format that early issue even had room for a five column excerpt from a novel by Mitch Wieland, the founding editor of
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the Idaho Review, and a prize winning fiction author. According to Mitch, Alan solicited him to contribute an excerpt of his work after hearing Mitch read at one of the Writers and Readers Rendezvous being held in McCall. In a recent conversation with Alan Minskoff, he told me that the initial vision for CABIN, the print newsletter, was for it to not only serve as as a means of keeping readers appraised of upcoming literary events, but to also serve as a community based publication to showcase the work of local authors. In this regard it can be considered as a precursor to today’s Writers in the Attic. Unfortunately, a combination of funding and priorities resulted in scaling back Alan’s original vision for CABIN. The need to inform The Cabin’s readership of upcoming literary events in a format that lent itself to timely communications necessitated a newsletter that could be published more frequently. This need was initially addressed with a small-format quarterly newsletter that could still accommodate local writing submissions, usually of poetry. These quarterly newsletters were supplemented with a thin monthly publication called, CABIN Happenings. According to Jan English, these smaller newsletters were published in house, with a laser printer. As internet access became widespread, over time the communications function of the newsletter was transitioned to The Cabin website and the print newsletter was discontinued in the Winter of 2007. With The Cabin’s new annual publication, Writers in the Attic, the original goal to put local author’s writing into print is once again realized. In fact, it’s a testament to the consistency of The Cabin’s mission over time that Alan’s original vision for a publication to celebrate Idaho authors is back in place with this new annual publication.
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bring outstanding writers and literary figures to the Boise area each year. Over the years, the list of national and international writers that The Cabin has brought to Boise is impressive. Early writers sponsored by The Cabin include authors of popular novels like Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson in 1998, and well known American poets like Billy Collins in 1999. As early in its history as March 31 1999, The Cabin was instrumental in bringing the internationally renown poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko to Boise. Since then the list of author who have given public readings is as varied as it is too lengthy to list, but it includes names like David Sedaris, Sandra Cisneros, Ira Glass, Frances Mayes, Luis Alberto Urrea, Abraham Verghese, and of course Anthony Doerr. In an effort to expand the demographic this program serves and to inspire younger readers in the same way it does adult readers, this year The Cabin brought Markus Zusak, the internationally acclaimed Australian author of the young adult novel, The Book Thief, to Boise. The Cabin’s success in bringing provocative and inspiring writers to Boise continues to make this program one of The Cabin’s most popular. Tickets for the 2015 – 2016 season are already available. This upcoming season promises to be even more exciting than last year’s as The Cabin brings Pulitzer Prizing winning author Anthony Doerr to Boise in a special engagement on October 6, 2015. This first reading will be followed by Daniel James Brown on November 17, 2015, Roz Chast on February 4, 2016, George Saunders on March 2, 2016, and Jacqueline Woodson on April 13, 2016
Summer Writing Camps Carmen Morawski
Did you know that this year’s Pulitzer Prize winning author, Anthony Doerr, was also once a Summer Writing Camp instructor at The Cabin? Readings and Conversations Carmen Morawski While Readings and Conversations may be The Cabin’s best known program, it’s the Summer Writing The popularity of this annual lecture series is such that it is often the first point of contact with The Camp program that is among the most popular for long Cabin for newcomers to the Boise area. As such it serves term staff members like Jan English and founding board as an important outreach program to promote greater chair, Alan Minskoff. Why? Perhaps it’s because they public awareness of literature by providing access to recognize the important role of The Cabin’s Summer renown authors and thinkers through public reading and Writing Camps in transforming even reluctant readers speaking events. In providing this service, the Readings and writers into the next generation of writers. These weeklong summer workshops for kids and Conversations program successfully fulfills the first in grades 3-12 are led by professional teaching-writers item in the list of The Cabin’s founding goals. With its roots in the original Snake River Writers Reading Series, who use their genre expertise in poetry, drama, fiction, the Readings and Conversations program continues to memoir, and journalism to design challenging creative writing enrichment in Camps that meet in June, July,
and August each year. Jan English says that she’s seen “kids who were there reluctantly, and by the end of camp, they love it. They love writing; they want to come back.” This ringing endorsement of The Cabin’s Summer Writing Camps is in large part due to the structure and focused intensity of the Camp sessions. It’s what makes them so effective. Through hands-on exploration, camp students practice the tools they need in order to write well. Students encounter challenging prompts and write lots of new work, then receive indepth critique toward revision. At the end of camp, students share their writing at a public reading and publish a revised piece in The Cabin’s end-of-summer print anthology, Camp Fire. The Cabin’s Summer Writing Camps help ignite a lifelong love of reading and writing, and gives students practical tools to apply their life’s passions to a writing practice on the page. The Cabin is dedicated to bringing creative writing enrichment to all students. For those that qualify, scholarship funds are also available depending on financial need. Who knows? Your Summer Writing Camp instructor may well be on their way to not only becoming one of America’s next Pulitzer Prize winners, but inspiring each of their students to also become one.
Jan English: Office Manager and Heart of The Cabin Carmen Morawski It’s not every literary center that can boast having a Pulitzer Prize winning author among their crew of Summer Writing Camp teachers, but it’s secrets like these that often only live in the memory of long-time staff members like Jan English, the former office manager at The Cabin. According to Jan English, Anthony Doerr has not only been an important supporter of The Cabin through his work as a board member, his generous donations and his readings, but during the 1990s, he was also the Summer Writing Camp teaching writer of some lucky Summer Writing Camp students. Jan was incredibly modest about her importance to The Cabin, but as anyone who has worked in an office knows, it’s the office manager who is key in keeping an organization together and on track. Tidbits of institutional memory, like the fact that Anthony Doerr was once a Summer Writing Camp teacher are just one of the things that come with this sort of the behind-thescenes job. Jan moved to Boise in 2001 from the town of Kenwood, near Santa Rosa, California when the company she worked for at the time moved their
headquarters to Pennsylvania. While still new to Boise, she was scanning the Idaho Statesman job ads one day, when she found a call for volunteers to help The Cabin out with its Summer Writing Camp that year. Both Jan and her husband decided to answer the call, and signed up as volunteers. Jan says she was soon caught up with her assigned Camp duties and got started working for Paul Shaeffer, The Cabin’s Executive Director at the time. That initial volunteer experience with The Cabin convinced Jan of its value as a community literary center. Both Jan and her husband, Bill English became new members soon afterwards. Months later, in November of 2001, Jan was still in search for a job and found another Statesman classified ad for The Cabin, this time for a full-time staff position. She applied, and was hired as The Cabin’s new office manager. When I asked Jan what her job at The Cabin entailed, she said she was in charge of keeping The Cabin running. Her early responsibilities in the position ranged from things like taking care of memberships, paying bills and ordering things, to helping with Summer Writing Camps. Over time, this Jill-of-all-trades, position evolved so that she eventually was in charge of most of the financial work. She was also in charge of taking the orders for Readings and Conversations, and assigning event seating. Due to the popularity of the program, she got to know the preferred seating of most long-time season ticket holders. Although Jan is an avid reader, she won’t commit to naming her favorite book – she says it’s always the last one she’s read. But she’s much less reticent about naming her favorite program at The Cabin. It’s WITS. “I really think WITS is a fabulous program … It does so much good.” She’s also a big fan of the Summer Writing Camps, “the writings that these kids come up with is just unbelievable.” Although she enjoyed getting to meet the authors that came into town for Readers and Conversations, she found the WITS and the Summer Writing Camps much more gratifying. “Summer Camp is integrating the outdoors, hiking around, and going downtown … all these different experiences … it’s really helped kids to write and to put down their thoughts on paper.” She also emphasized how important it was in fulfilling The Cabin’s mission “to make sure we supported writers, and one way was to make sure they get decent pay.” Both WITS and the Summer Writing Camps make that possible. Jan’s decision to leave her position with The Cabin coincided with that of her coworker Larry Tierney, with whom she shared an office. When Larry, who had
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FOUNDING BOARD Jan Alden Kent Anderson Rick Ardinger Helen Copple Williamson Chuck Guilford Bev Harad Jyl Hoyt Steven Mayfield Mike Medberry Alan Minskoff Diane Josephy Peavey Rita Rodriguez Diane Ronayne Judith Root Gino Sky Judith Steele Ruth Wright Driek Zirinsky Amy Stahl Paul Shaffer Kris Tucker
BOARD PRESIDENTS Alan Minskoff Jan Alden Kathy Barrett Vince Hannity Scott Gipson Karen Baker Michael Spink Jack Harty Russ Stoddard Patricia Johnson Byron Johnson Marsha Smith Scott Gill Karla Bodnar Alex Davis Karen Baerlocher
been The Cabin’s grant writer since about 2007 decided to move to New Orleans, to follow his love of jazz in April of last year, Jan decided she was also ready to retire, saying that she didn’t want to hold The Cabin back. She believes recent staff changes at The Cabin have brought many positive changes. Among the recent improvements she listed were: the updated website, revamping the drop-in workshops, and
the effort to broaden the target age group for Readings and Conversations with authors like Markus Zusak. After working at The Cabin for thirteen years, Jan carries with her much irreplaceable institutional memory. In fact, in many ways she was the heart of The Cabin. Her last day as The Cabin office manager was April 28, 2014. We wish her the best in her retirement.
INVEST IN THE CABIN’S FUTURE Donate to 20-for-20! $20,000 for 20 years of reading, writing and discourse. Every dollar donated will be MATCHED so your dollars can go even further in serving your community’s center for readers and writers! Kick us off toward another 20 years of Writers in the Schools, Readings & Conversations, Writing Camps, Storyfort, Writers in the Attic, workshops for adults, scholarship programs for young writers and countless free programs.
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801 S. Capitol Blvd. Boise, ID 83702 (208) 331-8000 info@thecabinidaho.org www.thecabinidaho.org The Cabin is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Federal Tax Identification Number: 82-0488067