Please join us in 2024 for the third annual Writers on Water Dinner and Auction. In 2023 we honored literary legend John Gierach with the first annual “Writer’s on Water” award. The evening included dinner, cocktails, a small auction held in conjunction with the Hooks for Books Fly fishing weekend, and the opportunity to meet many literary luminaries. Attendees also had the opportunity to purchase rare signed copies of books from some of the nation’s top authors.
Your 2024 ticket, which is partially tax deductible, will help support a new generation of writers pursuing an MFA in The University of Montana Creative Writing Program, one of the premier writing programs in the world.
Tickets will be $100 per person
Can’t make the event but want to support writers at the University of Montana? Simply click on donate.
Why Your Support Will Make a Difference
Like many universities, the UofM has experienced severe budget cuts that severely impacted the Creative Writing Department. The Writers on Water Dinner and Auction, which also takes place on the final evening of www.hooksforbooks.org, supports those shortfalls to build a new generation of writers.
UofM’s Creative Writing Program is one of our nation’s oldest and most prestigious, with an international reputation. Founded in 1920, it began offering one of the first M.F.A. degrees in 1966, and has boasted such iconic Western writers as Richard Hugo, Madeline DeFrees, Judy Blunt, James Lee Burke, Rick DiMarinis, and William Kittredge, while hosting Pulitzer Prize winners Richard Ford and Jorie Graham, and literary luminaries David James Duncan, Jess Walter, Susan Cheever, Barry Lopez, Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, and dozens of others.
Graduates have become essential voices in literature and the arts. Most recently, Stephanie Land’s best-selling book Maid was adapted into a hit Netflix television series. Andrew Sean Greer’s book Less was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Emily Danforth’s novel Plain Bad Heroines was named the best Book of the Year by The Washington Post. Kim Barnes memoir was shortlisted for the Pulitzer. Robert Wrigley’s ten books of poetry have been awarded Pushcart Awards and a Guggenheim Fellowship. James Welch, who both attended and taught in the M.F.A. program, was the preeminent Native American author of seven books. His first novel, Winter in the Blood was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. Fools Crow won the American Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. And now we look forward to helping create a new generation of writers. We appreciate the support offered by Hooks for Books contestants to continue this important legacy of literature.
