wyoming writers, Inc.

alan o'hashi, President

Nicole Kelley, Treasurer

Nicole Kelley has a BA in Elementary Education (emphasis: Creative Arts) and an MA in Education (concentration: Curriculum and Instruction, emphasis: Educational Leadership) from the University of Wyoming. She has worked as an elementary and middle school teacher for more than 10 years in Wyoming, Arizona, and Nebraska. Nicole’s focus includes teaching students requiring special assistance due to poverty, trauma, and/or psychological needs.

Often described as quirky, Nicole usually lives the quiet life (reading, writing, running, and playing with her dogs), but sometimes does exciting things like skydiving, breaking world records, and traveling to foreign countries. Nicole believes the best writing comes from the most random inspiration. Her current work was imagined during a trio of events: 1) recovering from surgery (pain killers were involved), 2) binge-watching The X-Files, and 3) reading Strangers by Dean Koontz. Although her writing often varies in genre and topic, she is currently prioritizing YA and humorous short stories.

Jessica Jackson, PAST PRESIDENT

Jessica Jackson’s writing career has taken many forms over the years, staff writer for the Northern Wyoming Daily News, grant writer for various non-profit programs as well as publisher, editor, and writer for various newsletters, and currently a contributor to The Ten Sleep Tribute.  She received a B.A. in English Literature from Aquinas College in Michigan, and an  M.A. in Literature with a Creative Writing Emphasis, from Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles. 

After graduating, she proceeded to put her degrees in an envelope and drove straight into an outfitting camp to cook for fisherman and elk hunters in the Bighorns. She has been living in the foothills outside of Ten Sleep raising children, observing the lives around her, and gathering material and courage through the years. She is currently working on a series of narrative non-fiction stories.

Andrew Call, Vice President

Andrew Call is a writer and photographer living in Laramie. Short stories are his bread and butter, but like any self-respecting/self-loathing fiction writer, he’s got half-formed skeletons of a novel or two collecting dust in the closet.
 
Andrew graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2010 with a focus on marketing, advertising, and creative writing. He's a supporter of the Oxford comma.He has worked professionally from the technical end of the writing spectrum—website copy for a restaurant supply business in Colorado, back cover book blurbs, and copy editing for an independent publisher out of Washington, copywriting for a content marketing company based in Nevada—but every so often, he’s drawn back by the siren song of short fiction.

Melissa Cook, Secretary

Melissa Cook grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and Tucson, Arizona, before moving to Wyoming, where she married Elgin Cook. Together they raised three boys in bush Alaska while working as teachers and school district administrators. Melissa earned advanced degrees in school administration and educational technology from the University of Alaska and bachelor's degrees in education and composite social science from Black Hills State University in South Dakota. 

Melissa’s best-selling memoir “The Call of the Last Frontier” won the Western Horizon Award in 2022 and is a finalist for the High Plains Books Award to be announced in October 2022. In her spare time, she volunteers for the local fire department, maintains her EMT certification, creates videos for her Wyoming Jeepers YouTube channel, and writes two blogs “MSsymptoms.me” and “Alaska Bush Life” weekly.

Donovin Sprague, Publicity Chair

Donovin Sprague teaches history and political science at Sheridan College, including Wyoming Tribal History, American Indian History & Culture, Tribal Law, Treaties, & Government, and Plains Indian Art, among other courses. At previous universities, he taught classes in history, political science, sociology, social science, psychology, literature, and art. Sprague serves as the advisor for the Multicultural Center as well as the Native American organization on campus. In addition, he plans events each November to celebrate Native American Heritage Month.

Donovin was born and raised on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota where he is an enrolled member of the Minnicoujou Lakota. He is a university instructor, author of ten books, and a historian. Recently, he has traveled to give presentations and do consulting work, which has taken him to Culver Military Academies, Culver, Indiana; Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana; Purdue, Lafayette, Indiana; University of Frankfurt, Germany; U.S. Army Base Wiesbaden, Germany, and Paris, France. He conducts tours and has been a frequent speaker in the Sheridan area. In addition, he has presented at major universities, museums, and cultural centers throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Megan Stratford, SCHOLARSHIPS/AWARDS CHAIR