Faculty

All 406 Workshop leaders hold MFA’s from the nation’s most celebrated writing programs and have taught at major universities. They are published fiction writers, editors, screenwriters, freelance writers, and poets who have a demonstrable commitment and passion for teaching while actively engaging in their own creative pursuits.

The current session’s instructors at 406 include:

Elizabeth Urschel

Workshop co-Director and Instructor of Fiction Writing, as well as the Post-MFA writing workshop, Elizabeth received an MFA in fiction from the University of Montana. A dedicated teacher, she has taught writing at University of Montana, University of New Orleans, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, and The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has appeared most recently in the anthology Intersection: New Orleans. She is at work on a novel.

Brian Buckbee

Workshop co-Director and Instructor of Fiction Writing, Imitations, and Dead Forms, Brian Buckbee spent a year in the University of Montana’s MFA program before moving to Tuscaloosa, where he earned his MFA in fiction from University of Alabama. His alter ego, Brian Christopher, is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Buckbee, A Writer, Inc., a publicly traded company whose ventures into Indublishing include the The Sadness Museum (the world's first), the model community Buckbeeville, and the production of a literary journal. His recent project, a novel about time travel and heartbreak, is currently in the editorial process with his New York agent. His stories have appeared in magazines like The Sun, The Georgia Review, and the Mid-American Review. Brian taught writing at University of Alabama for seven years.
 

Michael Fitzgerald

Instructor of First Chapters, a novel-writing class, Michael's shorter work has been published in Massachusetts Review, Swink, Northwest Review, Cutbank, Other Voices, Boise Weekly, and the anthology, Santi:Lives of Modern Saints. He has been the recipient of a Fishtrap Fellowship, Idaho Commission on the Arts Quickfunds Grant, and is presently an ICA Writing Fellow. He holds an MFA from Montana and has taught fiction at Boise State, The Cabin (in Boise) and University of Montana. His first novel, Radiant Days, was listed as one of L.A. Weekly's Favorite Books of the Year for 2007 and was nominated for Nerve's Henry Miller Award.

Catherine Jones

Instructor of Screenwriting and Fiction Writing, Catherine received an MFA in creative writing from University of Montana, and her short fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review. In 2007 Full Glass Films optioned the manuscript of her novel, The Ceremony, and Catherine was hired to write a screenplay based on this manuscript. An earlier version of the same novel was a finalist for the 2005 Dana Award in the Novel. Catherine was Writer in Residence at Marian Pritchett School in Boise, Idaho, and she has taught writing at University of Montana, Boise State University, and The Cabin, a literary center in Boise.

Chris Dombrowski

Instructor of Poetry Writing, Chris Dombrowski is the author of a book of poems, By Cold Water, as well as a chapbook, Fragments with Dusk in Them.  His poems have appeared in Poetry, Orion, Denver Quarterly, Crazyhorse, Colorado Review, and others.  The recipient of a writing fellowship from the UCross Foundation, and a grant from the Matthew Hansen Endowment, he has instructed courses in poetry, hybrid-genres, and Montana writers at University of Montana, as well as workshops at Interlochen Center for the Arts, where he served as writer-in-residence.  Born and raised in Michigan, he has lived a third of his life in Montana, and considers himself a "Michitanan."

Bryan Di Salvatore

Instructor of Nonfiction Writing, Bryan Di Salvatore received his MFA from the University of Montana in 1976. He has taught at UM as well as Austin Peay State University and the University of Louisiana Monroe. His work includes articles in The New Yorker (a profile of Merle Haggard, and two-part pieces on long-distance trucking and dynamite as well as many Talks of The Town). Additionally he has written dozens of pieces for Outside, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, Men's Journal, Doubletake and many other magazines and has been widely anthologized. He is the author of A Clever-Baseballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward (Pantheon, 1999). He is married to novelist Deirdre McNamer.

David Allan Cates

David Allan Cates is the author of three novels, Hunger In America, X Out of Wonderland, and most recently Freeman Walker.  His short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines and his travel writing in Outside and The New York Times Sophisticated Traveler. He is the executive director of Missoula Medical Aid, and leads groups of medical professionals on trips to Honduras.  He teaches writing in the high schools as part of the Missoula Writing Collaborative, and is part-time faculty at Pacific Lutheran University's low-residency MFA program.

Andy Smetanka

Andy Smetanka has lived in Finland, Sweden and Montana. He is the former Arts Editor of the Missoula Independent, and earned his MFA in Creative Nonfiction from UM in 2007. For fun he cuts and animates silhouettes and plays the musical saw. His art and writing have appeared in Brick, CutBank and Spin magazine. As an animator he has collaborated with Portland-based musical group The Decemberists and Canadian cult director Guy Maddin. He lives on Missoula's historic Moon-Randolph Homestead with his wife Joanna and their two young boys.

Jeff Hull

Jeff Hull has been a freelance magazine writer for over 20 years, focusing on travel and outdoors writing. His work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Audubon, Outside, Travel & Leisure, Islands, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Budget Travel, Fly Rod & Reel, Fly Fisherman, Yachting, Sailing, Outdoor Life and many other publications. His work has taken him from Indonesia to Iceland, New Zealand to northern Saskatchewan, with dozens of stops in between. He has taught Magazine Writing in the University of Montana School of Journalism for the past ten years. He has also published short stories, the novel Pale Morning Done, and a book of essays, Streams of Consciousness.