Where Poetry Lives

Matt Daly once imagined himself writing novels.

Years of study and work carried him across the West as he built the foundations of a writing life, shaping extended narratives and long works of fiction.

In 2006, after the birth of his son, Matt spent a summer at home navigating childcare. The quiet rhythm of those days opened a different creative path. Instead of working on a novel, he began writing poems as a daily practice. “I thought I would just write some poems to keep the practice going,” Matt says. “And I never looked back.” 

Today Matt is a published poet, longtime educator, and the executive director of Jackson Hole Writers, the organization behind the valley’s annual writers conference. His books include “The Invisible World” and “Between Here and Home,”, along with the chapbook “Red State.” His work has received recognition including a Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry from the Wyoming Arts Council for writing inspired by the natural world. 

His work stands within a long tradition of Western poets who explore the relationship between land, community, and identity. 

Matt grew up in Jackson before leaving in search of larger artistic communities. During the 1990s he lived and studied in places like Portland, San Francisco, and Davis, California, exploring cultural environments that nourish writers. 

Wyoming’s valleys, mountain ranges, and small communities appear frequently in Matt’s poetry. In his work the landscape becomes emotional terrain, a setting where human stories unfold within the rhythms of the natural world.

One experience that stayed with him for years took place in a small Wyoming bar. A woman clearly in no condition to drive prepared to leave while the rest of the room gently encouraged her to arrive home safely. The moment revealed the layered dynamics of rural life: personal choice held within a shared awareness of community. “That moment stayed with me for a long time,” Matt says. 

The experience eventually grew into a poetry collection told through multiple voices, almost a novel in verse. In “Between Here and Home,” Matt builds a portrait of a Wyoming town through many voices.

“There’s what the poem is about,” he explains, “and then there are the other things it’s about.”
For Matt, poetry functions much like music or visual art. Moments of openness within a poem often invite the richest responses. Those spaces allow readers to bring their own understanding into the work.

Matt’s role as director of Jackson Hole Writers reflects the organization’s mission: “We are a community of writers.”

Workshops, critique groups, youth programs, and the annual writers conference support writers across every stage of development.

That range appears clearly in the valley itself. A poetry gathering might include published authors alongside someone holding a page and saying, “I think this might be a poem, but I’m not sure.”

Across Wyoming, long distances separate towns and communities. Writers travel for conferences and workshops while digital networks connect creative communities across the region.

Matt also brings writing beyond traditional literary spaces. He co-founded Write to Thrive, an initiative that introduces reflective and creative writing practices within community and professional settings.

Matt has also helped bring poetry into Jackson’s public spaces.

One example is the Jackson Poetry Box, a small public art installation that distributes poems printed on postcards. Visitors can pick up a poem while walking through town, then mail it to someone else. Sometimes, these poems travel far beyond the valley, carried in envelopes to distant places.

In a landscape defined by wide horizons and long distances, Matt believes poetry offers something similar to the mountains themselves: an invitation to pause, look closely, and recognize the shared stories shaping a place.