The readings, free and open to the community, enjoy attendance ranging from 100 to, at times, over 300 people. The second endowment has not only stabilized the series but has fostered the growth of the rural outreach program whose development was conceived by Coles. Prior to her position at Westminster College, Coles worked at the Utah Arts Council. From working at the Arts Council, I had friends in every corner of the state. Working in collaboration with the community and the Utah Arts Council, Coles asks poets participating in Westminster's reading series if they would give an additional reading in a rural area of Utah.
Poets are so generous.
The cost is covered by contributions of the community matched by the Arts Council. The 1996-1997 series, Poetry and Translation, includes readings and lectures by Robert Pinsky, Miroslaz Holub, Agha Shahid Ali, Mark Strand and a joint reading with Pierre Martory and John Ashbery. Of the poets, Holub and Ali have traveled to rural Utah to give readings. The Anne Newman Sutton Weeks reading series along with the rural outreach program reaches a diverse audience, promoting poetry to more than just writers. Coles came up with idea to ask for Weeks's support when she was approached by the Western Independent College Fund, an association of independent colleges, with a special request.