Coming This August: The Cascadia Writers-In-Conversation Series

I’m excited to announce that starting this August, I’ll be partnering with the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, Washington (just north of Seattle), to host a new monthly series called Writers in Conversation.

On the second Thursday of each month, we’ll bring one Northwest writer in front of an enthusiastic audience for a brief reading, a lengthy discussion of his or her work, and a question-and-answer session with engaged literature lovers.

The main idea of the new series is to showcase the wealth of writing talent in the Pacific Northwest. To that end, we’ll feature writers from different genres at different stages of their careers who may have been overlooked rather than those readers already know.

Writers who appear in the series will also be featured, along with their work, on an updated and expanded version of the website WritingtheNorthwest.com.

This will be a unique chance to hear talented writers speak in-depth about what it means to be an author in the Northwest and why and how they create their works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The conversations will all take place in one of Cascadia’s beautiful galleries, with Northwest art lining the walls.

Cascadia Art Museum is the only museum dedicated to artists and their works from the Pacific Northwest. Focused on visual art and design from 1860 to 1970, it is committed to the belief that recognizing previously neglected artists who made significant contributions to the region’s cultural identity gives us a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of Northwest art history. The Writers in Conversation series signals the museum’s desire to highlight underappreciated NW artists in literature as well.

The first conversation starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday, August 8. Check back later this summer for more details and to learn who our first featured writer will be.

Here’s a peek at the space we’ll fill with good conversation and an enthusiastic audience just a few months from now:

Spring 2024 Issue of the Robert Lax Newsletter Just Released!

Robert Lax on Patmos
Robert Lax looking out over Patmos. Image © Michael N. McGregor

I just sent out the Spring 2024 issue of The Robert Lax Newsletter, a free quarterly publication with news about Lax-related events, articles, quotes, and images. This issue of the newsletter includes a feature article about Lax in winter, news about my forthcoming book on solitude, a YouTube video featuring author Steve Georgiou talking about his friendship with Lax, numerous images of Lax poems and publications, a hilarious Reddit string about a Lax poem, and many other delights.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the feature article on Lax in winter:

Two months have passed since I returned from my two weeks in Lax’s old house on Patmos, and I’m still thinking about what it was like for him living there in winter and then spring. In many ways, winter is the most beautiful time of the year on Patmos, especially when the sun is out. The fields are green, the wind whips the waves into beautiful patterns, and the island is quiet, with none of the hecticness that comes with the summer tourists.

But the wind is ever-present too, and it can be fierce. Lax’s house, like most on Patmos, is mostly concrete and holds the moisture as well as the cold. When I visited him in winter, he was usually wearing long underwear and a knit cap, and he spent much of his time on his bed, often with blankets over him. His only contact with the world beyond the grocery store, the post office, and a neighbor or two, was the half-hour each night he listened to news from the BBC...

Thousands of readers have already viewed the Spring 2024 issue of a newsletter that has been published since 2015. To be one of them, sign up here.