Brad Tyer

 GRANT COUNTY Newspaper and magazine journalist Brad Tyer will kick off the Grant County Writer-in-Residence Project Wednesday, Jan. 19.

 Tyer, of Anaconda, Mont., has more than 20 years of news experience, and recently completed an eight-month Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

 He has served as editor of the Missoula Independent and managing editor of the Texas Observer in Austin. 

 His features on environmental issues, books, music, rivers and people have earned several awards and his work has appeared in publications in Texas, Oregon, Montana and New York.

 Tyer has a bachelors degree in English/fine arts from Rice University and is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Book Critics Circle.

 He is working on a nonfiction book, Opportunity, Montana, which blends environmental history and memoirs. The book chronicles the restoration of western Montanas Clark Fork River.

 The first half of his nine-week residency will be in Long Creek and Monument, after which hell transfer to Prairie City.

 He will share his professional skills to guide students and adults in interpreting our local mining, logging and ranching history and heritage.

 During the remaining two years of the project, writers will spend residencies in John Day and Dayville, as well as back in Long Creek and Monument.

 The three-year project is funded by an Oregon Community Foundation grant to Fishtrap, Inc., and Eastern Oregon Universitys Oregon Writing Project program.

 The Oregon Cultural Trust and the Portland State University geology department have also provided support of the local project.

 For more information, contact Christine Lewallen at 541-820-4727, or grantcowir@gmail.com.