Niloc Retseh ENG 102-010 Professor Hester Winter 2013 — Evaluation Paper U. Montana’s Graduate Writing Program: The Last Best Place In early 1989, while living in the suburbs of North Vancouver, British Columbia, my then-wife, Kim, finally grew tired of hearing my nightly complaints about my publishing sales job and my frustrated writerly ambitions. Kimgrew so tired that not only didshe secretly send away to a half-dozen U.S. graduate schools for their applications, but once those applicationsarrived, Kimforced me to sit at the kitchen table for six successive nights and fill those applications out. But when the timecame to mail those applications, wehesitated. For, unfortunately, each school’s applicationrequired a fee of $100. Struggling with two young children on my paltry income, Ihad to narrow the choice to one or two. To do so, Iwould first have to research and rank each of them. To do that, I first had to settle on some criteria for judging the schools. With Kim’s help and earnest input, wedecided on three important criteria. First, Iwanted to attend a program with renowned authors as professors. Those author/professorsdidn’t have to be world-famous authors whoguest-appeared on the Tonight show, but theyneeded to be renowned enough that when theychampioned my book (its content back then still mysterious and amorphous), their editorswould listen. Next, weneeded a family-friendly place. As mentioned earlier, wehad two children: boys, three years and two. Back in 1989, many regions of America still seethed with violent crime, and Kim and Iwould not only be risking our children’s safety, but also, coming from a quiet suburban town in Canada, wewould be risking our sanity. Finally, Isought a supportive environment not only of fellow student writers but student writers of my age, because of all the crafts and occupations, writingis the loneliest and easiest to abandon. And if Iabandoned my dream, Iwould have to resume my nightmare. Of the half-dozen graduate schools under consideration, U. Montana’s programbest met the first criteria. In fact Montanaexceeded criteria #1. Montana’s cataloguelisted on its faculty page William Kittredge, Beverley Lowry, Richard Hugo and James Welch. I’d heard only of James Welch. Indeed, Iread and loved his sombre if not sober Winter in the Blood. As for the other faculty, in the pre-Amazon late 80s, Idecided to visit my local branch of the North Vancouver Public Library (as opposed to the main downtown branch) and see if the library’s card catalogueheld any of U-of-M faculty titles. Iwas pleasantly surprised for my smallish branchdid indeed hold their books: Kittredge’s book of short stories, We Are Not In This Together; Lowry’s Daddy’s Girl; and not only the poet Richard Hugo’s murder mystery, Death and the Good Life, but also his book of poems The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir which earned nomination for a National Book Award and whichcontained the fine poem, “Degrees of Gray in Philip.

1. Niloc Retseh
ENG 102-010
Professor Hester
Winter 2013 — Evaluation Paper
U. Montana’s Graduate Writing Program: The Last Best Place
In early 1989, while living in the suburbs of North
Vancouver, British Columbia, my then-wife, Kim, finally grew
tired of hearing my nightly complaints about my publishing
sales job and my frustrated writerly ambitions. Kimgrew so
tired that not only didshe secretly send away to a half-dozen
U.S. graduate schools for their applications, but once those
applicationsarrived, Kimforced me to sit at the kitchen table for
six successive nights and fill those applications out. But when
the timecame to mail those applications, wehesitated. For,
unfortunately, each school’s applicationrequired a fee of $100.
Struggling with two young children on my paltry income, Ihad
to narrow the choice to one or two. To do so, Iwould first have
to research and rank each of them.
To do that, I first had to settle on some criteria for judging the
schools. With Kim’s help and earnest input, wedecided on three
important criteria. First, Iwanted to attend a program with
renowned authors as professors. Those author/professorsdidn’t
have to be world-famous authors whoguest-appeared on the
Tonight show, but theyneeded to be renowned enough that when
theychampioned my book (its content back then still mysterious
and amorphous), their editorswould listen. Next, weneeded a
family-friendly place. As mentioned earlier, wehad two
children: boys, three years and two. Back in 1989, many regions
of America still seethed with violent crime, and Kim and Iwould
not only be risking our children’s safety, but also, coming from
a quiet suburban town in Canada, wewould be risking our
sanity. Finally, Isought a supportive environment not only of
fellow student writers but student writers of my age, because of

2. all the crafts and occupations, writingis the loneliest and easiest
to abandon. And if Iabandoned my dream, Iwould have to
resume my nightmare.
Of the half-dozen graduate schools under consideration, U.
Montana’s programbest met the first criteria. In fact
Montanaexceeded criteria #1. Montana’s cataloguelisted on its
faculty page William Kittredge, Beverley Lowry, Richard Hugo
and James Welch. I’d heard only of James Welch. Indeed,
Iread and loved his sombre if not sober Winter in the Blood. As
for the other faculty, in the pre-Amazon late 80s, Idecided to
visit my local branch of the North Vancouver Public Library (as
opposed to the main downtown branch) and see if the library’s
card catalogueheld any of U-of-M faculty titles. Iwas
pleasantly surprised for my smallish branchdid indeed hold their
books: Kittredge’s book of short stories, We Are Not In This
Together; Lowry’s Daddy’s Girl; and not only the poet Richard
Hugo’s murder mystery, Death and the Good Life, but also his
book of poems The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir which
earned nomination for a National Book Award and
whichcontained the fine poem, “Degrees of Gray in
Philipsburg.” Unfortunately, Hugowas dead. But, Montanahad
replaced the irreplaceable Hugo with a series of visiting poets,
one of whom, Mark Strand, had served as the U.S. Poet
Laureate. Truly, U. Montanawon on this first criteria by a clear
margin.
Next, the family-friendly criteria: again U. Montana, tucked
away in the Rockies in the medium-sized town of Missoula, won
outright. Back then, in the early 90s, we not only lacked
access to Amazon.com, welacked access to the entire internet.
But if wecould have accessed the internet back then, Iwould
have Bingled “Missoula crime rates” and discovered in my
search results neighborhoodscout.com. At that site, I would
have learned how Missoulaboasted a violent crime rate
thatstood at 30% less than U.S. crime rates nationally.
HadIbeen able to further search the web, Iwould have landed on
the FBI website whichwould have confirmed the national

3. statistics that neighborhoodscoutcited. From those FBI
statistics, Icould reasonably infer that neighborhoodscout also
cited accurate figures for Missoula itself. However, back in
those internet-lacking early 90s, Iresorted to buying a Sunday
subscription to the Missoulian newspaper, and Kim and I
regularly monitored the “City” section for crime reports. Those
reportswould have substantiated the internet data welacked.
However, for even further substantiation, Itelephoned the
Missoula police department and spoke to the desk sergeant. The
sergeantdid indeed further confirm what Kim and Ihad intuited
from the Missoulian: that Missoulaoffered "the safest urban
environment in Montana — one of the safest states in the lower
forty-eight."
Finally, Igathered data for my final criteria: a supportive
environment with writers my own age. This criteria too, U
Montanascored highly on, the details of which Ifound out by
sheer coincidence. For when Ihad spoken with the desk
sergeant about Missoula's crime rate, he heard that Iwas moving
to possibly attend U of M's graduate writing program. The
sergeantinformed me that Missoula's police captainwas a
graduate of that program and had had several novels published.
The Captain's namewas Robert Sims Reid, and hehad authored
four crime mysteries: The Red Corvette, Big Sky Blues,
Benediction and Cupid, the lasthaving been translated into
French of all things. When Itracked him down by telephone in
his office a few days later, Captain Reidaffirmed and validated
my third criteria. "Well, when Iattended a few years back,"
hetold me, "I'd say about a third to a half of the students were
non-trads with the ink dry on their BA's for at least a decade."
Iasked him if those numbersdiffered between the poetry strand
and the fiction strand, and heenlightened me: "UM's
programdoesn't officially have separate strands for poetry and
fiction. Most students readily and eagerly cross over. But on
sheer anecdotal evidence," hesaid, "probably the poetsrange on
the younger side." "Angry young men?" Ijoked. "And even
angrier older men," hequipped. "Angrier" and "older" In short,

4. Iwould fit right in.
True, Kim and Iremained concerned that Missoula’s school
systemmight not measure up to the wonderful North Vancouver
system. So Kimtelephoned Missoula's School District 11 and a
few days later, wereceived several pamphlets. One of the
pamphlets, "Missoula Kindergarten Honored Nationally!"
detailed how the U.S. Department of Educationhad bestowed an
award on Rattlesnake Elementary School. Wehad another
concern though. In the Missoulian newspaper, weread
bothersome stories of mountain lions occasionally prowling the
streets at night. But on the fringes of our North Vancouver
neighbourhood, black bears often staggered into the back yards
and even kitchens of the houses. Indeed, when we first moved
to North Vancouver back in 1987, Iread in a North Shore News
article, how the year before, RCMP officershad shot and killed
37 black bears whohad menaced people, even children (Hanson
37). Comparatively, our then-current black bear menacepaled
Missoula's one or two mountain lion sightings. Even so, Kim
and I both resolved to not wander Missoula’s streets alone and
after dark.
In the end, weagreed unanimously: U.M.-Missoula. And the
authors, the town and my fellow studentsturned out to validate
our choice. First, author and U.M. Professor William
KittredgesuggestedIsend my manuscript to New York literary
agent Patricia Van der Leun whosold it to publishing's eminence
grise Jack Shoemaker. Secondly, in the 14 years Iended up
living there in Missoula, Iwitnessed only one violent act. That
violent actoccurred when a drunken white student with
dreadlocks bit the fingertip off my good friend, bartender and
fellow author, Grenadian Claude Alick while Claudeattempted
to bounce the student. Finally, in addition to Claude, Imet
several other men and women — David Allen Cates, Peggy
Christian, Jeff Hull, Tom Groneberg — U.M students who also
became authors and, much more importantly, my life-long and
cherished friends, both in that last best place and through the
years since I've moved on.

5. Works Cited
"Crime in the United States." The FBI Federal Bureau of
Investigation. U.S. Department of Justice, n.d. Web. 21 Feb
2013
"Crime Rates for Missoula, MT." Neighborhoodscout. Location
Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Feb 2013.
Hanson, David. "In Trash Fight, Some Progress." North Shore
News [North and West Vancouver] 10 Oct 1987, Sunday. Print.
"Missoula Kindergarten Honored Nationally." City of Missoula.
Missoula School District 11.
Missoula Police Desk Sergeant. Telephone Interview. Jun 1989.
Sims Reid, Cpt. Robert. Telephone Interview. Jun 1989.