Sheryl Noethe founded the Missoula Writing Collaborative in 1994. She is currently both Artistic Director and writer-in-residence. She is co-author of the teaching text Poetry Everywhere, now in its third printing. A recipient of a Montana Arts Council Fellowship, she also has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the CutBank Hugo Prize in Poetry, the Emerging Voices Award from New Rivers Press, a McKnight Prize for Literature, and an American Academy of Poetry Award, as well as an honorable mention for the Pushcart Prize. She is a recipient of a 2004 Cultural Achievement Award from the Missoula Cultural Council for her work in Missoula schools. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals, and she has published four collections of poetry: The Descent of Heaven Over the Lake (New Rivers Press, 1984); The Ghost Openings (Grace Court Press, 2000), which won a Northwest Publisher's Best Book Award; As Is (Lost Horse Press, 2009); and her latest collection, Grey Dog Big Sky (FootHills Publishing, 2013). In 2011 Sheryl became Montana's fourth Poet Laureate, an honor she held until 2013.