The Lighthouse Origins
When Andrea Dupree and I first got to Denver in 1997, we had a dreamy idea in our heads and a Ryder truck filled with stuff. The dream: to create a community for writers. The truck: big and yellow. We had no idea if it--the dreamy idea--would work. We had no idea if there really were aspiring writers out there, or how they'd find us. Nor did we have any idea where to put all our stuff.
On two consecutive weekends in August 1997, we held free workshops at the downtown branch of the Denver Public Library. The Denver Post listed the events in its "What's Up?" column. At the time, we were staying with Andrea's mother in Lakewood, looking for a place to live, an apartment that could hold small groups of eight or ten people. It would also have to fit all our stuff.
At the library workshops, a total of 50 people showed up. The turnout made the seminars a smashing success. We begged and pleaded a few of those folks to sign up for our first, rather undefined, Creative Writing Workshop. Andrea and I co-facilitated. We had no other jobs, no source of income, but we had a friend and backer, Lisa Sporte, who rather daringly believed in us. We found a downtown loft to rent and moved in a few days before the inaugural meeting.
That first workshop had just four members, then two, then four again. Once we settled in, the workshoppers quickly became devoted to one another. That September, we sent out a newsletter to about 60 people. We photocopied it at Office Depot and placed the stamps on by hand. It took about an hour.
Flash-forward to 2007. This past session, Lighthouse had a total of 14 workshops with 140 students. We have an amazingly talented faculty of 30 or so working writers and teachers. Our website that gets over a thousand hits each month. Many of our students have been published; several have received book contracts. A bunch have gone on to MFA programs. A bunch more have come to us after receiving their MFAs and PhDs in creative writing. In 2000, we were the only non-academic institution to have a member place a creative work for publication through the AWP Intro Journal Series.
Andrea and I are very lucky. We get to hang out with intelligent and interesting people. We get to talk about writing every day. Every book we buy is "for work." When we discover a great story, poem, or book, we immediately tell others about it, and sometimes they listen. In the past ten years, we've watched Lighthouse grow into something that is alive, that has its own heart and legs. And it's been an amazing ride--a lot more amazing than the long, slow trip in the Ryder truck.
Michael Henry
Executive Director