It’s the middle of another blazing Las Vegas summer. While much of UNLV has gone quiet, the offices of the Black Mountain Institute (BMI) are buzzing with activity. All summer long, the staff at BMI, under the leadership of executive director Colette LaBouff, are planning for a major milestone: the 20th anniversary of UNLV’s literary arts center. 

Founded in 2006 by UNLV President Emerita Carol C. Harter, BMI champions writers and storytellers through programs, fellowships, and community engagement. From its beginning, BMI has brought writers from all walks of life to Las Vegas and cultivated future generations of creative writers in Southern Nevada.

LaBouff came to Las Vegas in 2022, fittingly in the summer, to lead the institute through a transformative period. A poet, author, educator, yoga instructor, and amateur baker, LaBouff takes BMI’s purpose — cultivating community by focusing on our shared human connections — to heart.

We met up with LaBouff at the Black Mountain Institute’s library to talk about her eventful three years at BMI and the 20-year legacy of UNLV’s premier literary organization. 

This is your fourth summer in Las Vegas — and you’re still here! What has your experience been like so far?

I arrived here in May 2022 with my two senior dogs, Ranger and Elvis, and cat, Juno, from New Mexico, where I had been about seven years — first in Roswell and then in Taos, where I was executive director at a center for visual and performing arts. My initial impressions were that it wasn’t the Las Vegas I knew when I grew up driving in from Los Angeles to see my grandfather, who lived here from the mid-1960s until he died in 2007.

My very first visit to Vegas when I was about 10 years old included a trip to Valley of Fire, and it’s one of the places I always take friends who visit when weather allows. It is an extraordinary experience every time. Overall, my time here so far has been amazing, and one unique surprise in this big city is my incredible neighbors on the street where I live. 

What makes working at Black Mountain Institute meaningful for you?

I understand that those who are in the practice of making anything meaningful and important for others are on a long path that requires time, space, financial resources, and community. That’s what drew me to BMI. Right now what makes it particularly meaningful is considering how we can encourage connection and be of service to more people in the Las Vegas and wider literary arts community.

The team at BMI works toward this goal daily. In addition to our team of six staff members, we will work with seven graduate students from the Department of English this year. These students will curate and help produce live and virtual events; they will edit our newsletter and contribute ideas, support a podcast, and deepen the experience of our fellows in residence. 

What do you wish people in Las Vegas knew about BMI?

I wish more people knew that BMI is not only for UNLV students and faculty!

Yes, the campus is our home, where our offices are. But we extend out from there — whether it’s programs in the community or virtual programs that reach far. And, though the word seems to be getting out, I wish more people knew that we have one of the most amazing small spaces — our library — that has the perfect amount of sunlight and is free and open to use during the week.

What else? I wish those who wanted to explore ideas and voices or just hear someone talk about their experiences knew that our programs — which are often free! — might be for them. You don’t have to be a published writer. You don’t even have to want to write a book. We want to involve others and have BMI last another 20 years and longer.

Black Mountain Institute was founded at UNLV in 2006. Can you tell us more about the institute’s history? What do you find inspiring about BMI’s history?

BMI has forever an important beginning and place at UNLV and in Las Vegas. Beyond this and centrally, two immensely generous pledges from Jim and Beverly Rogers and then from The Rogers Foundation have made the work of BMI to this point possible. Since then, Miriam Shearing has been incredibly generous in establishing and continuing to provide support for Shearing Fellowships. 

What’s inspiring to me about BMI’s history is that something like the institute doesn’t come into being overnight. Before it became BMI, tremendous work was being done through the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) and contributions from business leader Glenn Schaeffer.

At the center of that story was Nobel Laureate and Elias Ghanem Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at UNLV Wole Soyinka whose work fighting for human rights, democracy, and freedom found a home in Las Vegas and at BMI through the establishment of the first City of Asylum Fellowship in the United States. The City of Asylum Fellowship remains key to the work we do at BMI. 

Black Mountain Institute is celebrating its 20th anniversary with activities throughout the 2025-26 academic year. How are you celebrating?

We feel like 20 years is a big deal! UNLV is a young university, and BMI already has a history here. So, we’re planning on celebrating all year at our regular public programs and talking with people who were at the beginning and who have seen BMI grow and change.

We are also inviting the public to visit our office spaces at the Rogers Literature & Law Building to visit an exhibition of photos taken at BMI events over 20 years by photographers like UNLV’s own Aaron Mayes. 

Beyond this day-to-day recognition of the 20 years, we are planning a culminating one-day celebration with a keynote program on Saturday, March 7, 2026, at the Historic Fifth Street School and in partnership with the City of Las Vegas. We’re still confirming our (incredible!) artists for the program, but we hope the community will celebrate this milestone with us and be hopeful about what literature and expression can mean for us and others at this particular moment. 

What are you passionate about outside of BMI?

Though my work is connected to supporting the literary arts, outside my job a central throughline in my life is writing. I just finished a poetry manuscript I began in 2018 (I’m very slow!) and have just begun something new, which for me means listening, reading, and making notes. I used to feel frustrated by how slowly I work, but now I can also say that is something I’ve come to be passionate about! It’s interesting to stay curious about how writing finds its way as you do, too.

Beyond this, for me, connection to others — makers! — for whom paying attention to the world and those around them is huge. And on another level, I love baking cakes and desserts for others — and sometimes I bake the most when I am most busy. I find measuring and mixing and waiting a kind of meditation that ends up being something for someone else to enjoy.