The Northwest Writing Institute is part of the graduate school at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, United States.
The founding director of the institute is Kim Stafford, who is also literary executor of the estate of poet William Stafford. The institute began in 1986 and co-founded the Fishtrap writers' gathering in 1987. It founded the Oregon Folk Arts Program in 1988 and offered a series of workshops in rural and remote Oregon libraries in the early 1990s. As of 2007, a Writing Culture Summer Seminar and the annual William Stafford Symposium are offered
The institute offers a courses for teachers and adult writers, as well as occasional events for undergraduate students on campus, programs for young writers, and community outreach programs.