Dear Mr. Doe:

When did the written word take you to a new world…right outside your door?

I am pleased to announce Writers on the Plains, a partnership between Colorado State University and northeastern Colorado communities to foster reading and writing about the High Plains landscape we inhabit. I will contribute to Writers on the Plains as one of four visiting authors. I invite you to contribute to this program as well. You can help by:

• Participating in Writers on the Plains activities
• Spreading the word in your community
• Donating a monetary gift

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. –Marcel Proust

You and your fellow Writers on the Plains participants will understand what it means to have new eyes. You’ll read and discuss literature and complete your own writing that commands a closer look at the places we call home. Your work might even reach a national audience through publication in a Writers on the Plains anthology. Watch your local media or visit the public libraries in Eaton, Fort Morgan, Loveland, and Sterling for program information. And be sure to share this information with anyone who would enjoy joining you in the voyage of discovery.

We Americans are taught to devalue the places we come from. We are taught to abandon old worlds. –William Ferris, former National Endowment for the Humanities Chair

By supporting Writers on the Plains, you will resist the abandonment of old worlds. Your financial contribution will help Coloradans recognize and ultimately enhance the value of our communities. A donation of $25 will help us produce paper and online curricular materials for one participant in your community. A $50 donation will provide coordinator materials for your public librarians. Your gift of $100 will support a writing discussion conducted in your community by a nationally recognized writer, and a $300 donation will support a public reading by that author. Your $500 contribution will help us engage a writer from your area to facilitate additional workshops, and a $1,000 gift will provide a stipend to a public librarian or other coordinator in your community.

Will you join me in supporting Writers on the Plains? Please use the enclosed gift form to make your tax-deductible contribution. For more information about Writers on the Plains, visit http://lib.colostate.edu/writersontheplains/ or stop by the public library in one of the partner communities listed above.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Kent Haruf

P.S. I will visit Fort Collins and Eaton this October to read from my work and will discuss my work in Eaton. I hope to see you then.