The Nature of Words Staff

Ellen Waterston, Executive Director
Waterston the founder/director of The Nature of Words. An award-winning author and poet, her most recent book is a collection of personal essays Where the Crooked River Rises, OSU Press, 2010. She has published two collections of poetry (I Am Madagascar and Between Desert Seasons), a memoir (Then There Was No Mountain). She concluded a successful 15-year run as president of a communications and strategic planning firm prior to launching The Nature of Words in 2005. She was the co-founder of The Music of Words (2002, 2003), a small one-day literary event which preceded The Nature of Words. She is the president of the Writing Ranch which offers retreats and workshops for emerging writers. Waterston received a BA from Harvard University, an M d’Archeologie from the University of Madagascar and an honorary PhD from OSU-Cascades in the Humane Letters.  

Jamie Houghton, Programs Director
Houghton began writing and performing poetry while attending Smith College in New England. A professor handed down an open mic night to her, thus launching her passion for collaboration and facilitation in the arts. She represented Smith College at College Slam Nationals 2006, and won an Open Poetry Contest judged by Daniel Moore in Philadelphia that same year. She has taught and performed at the Longest Days Street Festival in Whitehorse, Yukon, and has performed and won poetry slams in Vermont, Massachusetts, Texas and Oregon. She has been teaching workshops of her own design since 2006, and specializes in performance poetry and slam poetry workshops. Her work had appeared in the online magazines Lacuna and Torches n' Pitchforks, as well as La Fovea, qarrsiluni, Folly and the High Desert Journal online. Houghton is honored to be the Programs Director for The Nature of Words, as well as teaching creative writing programs in Deschutes and Crook County.

 Sara Roth, Development and Marketing Director
A graduate of Bucknell University with a degree in English/Creative Writing, Roth attended The Stonecoast Writers Conference through The University of Southern Maine and has worked as a freelance writer and journalist in New York City and Bend, Oregon. The former Marketing Director, copy editor and writer for Resource Magazine in New York City, Roth is now the Development and Marketing Director for The Nature of Words, as well as a feature writer for The Source Weekly newspaper in Bend.

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