Former Montana Poet Laureate Sheryl Noethe began writing poetry at age 11 thanks to a single sentence from her teacher. “She simply told me I would be an author and write books.” That statement would lead her to becoming one of Montana’s Poet Laureates.
After her first publication and award from the Academy of American Poets at the University of Minnesota, she headed out of her hometown and east to New York City, where she taught poetry to children in Harlem & the South Bronx. She went west from there to Salmon, Idaho, where for over a decade she polished off her poetry teaching text, Poetry Everywhere.
She eventually found her home in Missoula, Montana, along with a brave fireman and her future husband.
While co-founding the Missoula Writing Collaborative, a writer in residence program in over a dozen public schools, she put together a book called As Is, which refers to both Zen Buddhism and thrift shopping.
Sheryl was chosen as Montana’s Poet Laureate from 2011-2013. During that time, she traveled across Montana on the Greyhound bus for a series of readings which resulted in her newest collection, Grey Dog Big Sky.
She lives with her fireman and their rescue animals at the foot of Mount Jumbo, worshipping nature and the imagination.