Writing & Critiquing Since 1979

Nellie Corean

Nellie, the youngest member of Bearlodge Writers, writes fantasy and has a novel in the works.

Doug Dumbrill

R. Douglas Dumbrill is a native of Newcastle, Wyoming. His grandparents were great educators; every one. His parents always believed that everything which teaches about life was worth exploring. Doug’s father told him that his ideas were as good as anyone’s in the world. Some part of him was bound and destined to be a poet and a storyteller; for that is the art of everything.

Elizabeth Canfield

Elizabeth Canfield is a Wyoming-born ranch woman. Her published works include news reporting, essays, feature stories and editorials, chiefly in this area; some have been published nationally. She has two published chapbooks of poetry. She lives in Sundance, Wyoming where she is a columnist and staff member of the Sundance Times

Gene Gade

Gene Gade is a life-long educator who enjoys outdoor adventures, especially river trips, with his wife and two children. He has lived and worked in five western states and writes mostly non-fiction.

Page Lambert

Page Lambert, described in Inside/Outside Southwest Magazine as one of the most notable women writers of the contemporary West, is the author of the memoir In Search of Kinship, a Denver bestseller, and the historic novel Shifting Stars, a Mountains & Plains Booksellers finalist. A contributor to Writing Down the River: Into the Heart of the Grand Canyon, her River Writing Journeys for Women were featured in the January, 2006 issue of Oprah’s O Magazine as “one of the year's six great all-girl getaways.”

Jackie Lindstrom

Jackie Lindstrom, (alias JL) Spearfish, has had a love affair with horses all her life. Now a golden-ager, the ground is too hard and the stirrup too high for riding so she expresses her love for horses through writing and painting.

Merle Lossing

Merle Lossing – “Born in 1956, I grew up on my parent's farm in Northeast Montana, moved to Gillette, Wyoming in 1981, and have worked for United Parcel Service since 1984. The year 2005 brought many changes; a move to Sundance, Wyoming, a new marriage, and new family.”

Trent Redfield

Trent Redfield is a native of Minnesota, but has been wandering around the Midwest and the West for the past 5 years. Bearlodge Writers was the first group of writers that he joined and has inspired him to help form the Chequamegon Bay Word Affiliate writers group in Wisconsin. Trent is currently working for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, a unit of the National Park Service, on the Corp of Discovery II traveling exhibit. He’s a member of the Bearlodge Writers “at large.”

Shelly Ritthaler

Shelly Ritthaler is the author of numerous articles, short stories and poems. She is the winner of the Western Writer’s of America Spur Award and has eight published books to her credit, five of which are children’s books. She and her husband, Reuben, own a cattle ranch and are busy raising their two year old granddaughter, Shayna.

Mary Jean Wilson

Mary Jean Wilson’s writing has changed with greater emphasis on how situations around us affect us. It still has the slant towards the historical—sometimes more and sometimes less.
Mary Jean’s essays have been published in magazines, journals and newspapers.

Jamie Lee

Jamie Lee grew up in the land of 10,000 lakes but has lived in western South Dakota for almost thirty years.  She has written over 70 documentaries for public radio including an award winning native music series entitled Oyate Ta Olowan—The Songs of the People.  She has had numerous short stories and articles published, and is the author of Feeling Good About Feeling Bad, and Re-Visioning Adolescence and the Rite of Passage.  Jamie has an M.A. in Human Development and is a full time faculty member at Oglala Lakota College.   

Other Affiliates:

Fred Collier

Kristen Collier

John Newcomb

Terry McNutt

Regretfully, David E. Wagner died at his home in Hulett, Wyoming on November 11, 2008.

We of Bearlodge Writers miss Dave, who was a stabilizing factor at our meetings. A good, sensible man with a warm, shy smile, he often pulled from his many years of experience in the business world, suggesting we "stop talking about it and get it done" when there was a decision to be made.

Mary Hadley

Mary Hadley grew up riding jumping horses, married a cowboy, and moved with him to Nevada, on to Oregon, and finally to Wyoming while raising their seven children.