This is a story about a kid I taught in Eastern Oregon at a 10-person school in ranch country, just outside of Burns. Check out the photos on the link at the Daily Yonder, a site about rural life.

 

A  city slicker who lives on the west side of Oregon in Portland, I’ve worked as the Eastern Oregon Writer in Residence since March. I have changed worlds, not just sides of the state. I teach creative writing at Harney County rural schools, most with fewer than 15 students from kindergarten to eighth grade, as well as adults, professional writers, home schoolers and young sex offenders (13-21) at the Youth Authority in Burns. Because of the vast distances between schools, I move around like a gypsy, staying in communities such as Frenchglen, Fields, Riley, Burns and Juntura. My homes have ranged from a doublewide 17 miles outside of Burns to a room above the Riley Store to a 160-acre ranch in Fields, where I saw one pheasant and no cars other than my own in five days. The county is Oregon's largest in size (about 10,000 square miles) and smallest in population -- less than 7,000.
 

 

 

I have fallen in love with the endless horizon, the sight of ribbons of snow geese, and the polite, hard-working kids.
 

 

Find some of my Harney County students’ work here.