Appearances – Michael N. McGregor

First Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Evening a Huge Success

The inaugural Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation evening took place last night, with the delightful and eminently charming Sharma Shields as our first featured author. In a beautiful museum setting, with Z. Vanessa Helder’s magnificent watercolors of Eastern Washington on the walls, 60+ people had the great fortune to listen to a terrifically talented writer talk in depth about her life and her work.

Among the topics Sharma discussed were: how she became a writer, how fairy tales can help us find a different path to a deeper reality, the source of her ability to write funny, a writer’s relationship to the serious issues of our times, and the importance in her life of the stories of Hans Christian Anderson (the subject of her next novel).

Sharma listens and smiles with Z. Vanessa Helder’s watercolors behind her.

She also talked at length about the development and “weirdness” of her three books–Favorite Monster, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac, and The Cassandra. One of the evening’s many treats was Sharma’s reading of three short stories about witches that showcased her humor and love for tales as well as the unique blend of edginess and tenderness that characterizes much of her work.

The audience waits for the conversation to begin, surrounded by Helder’s watercolors.

Next month–on Thursday, September 12–I’ll be interviewing the amazing Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajawea. Check back later for details.

Writers-in-Conversation events take place at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, WA, and are sponsored by the Edmonds Bookshop and the Holman Company.

Kicking things off with thank yous and the story of how the Writers-in-Conversation series came to be.

Photos by Gene Openshaw and Rod Ralston.

Note: I’m an affiliate of Bookshop.org, where your purchases support local bookstores. If you buy a book through a click on this website, I’ll earn a small commission that helps defray the costs of maintaining this website.

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:

My Review of Portland Author and Friend Mark Pomeroy’s New Novel

Work on the books I’ll be publishing in the coming months forced me to put my Writing the Northwest site on pause last year. But I just relaunched it with a review of my friend Mark Pomeroy’s excellent second novel, The Tigers of Lents.

As I write in my review, Mark’s novel is a “full and compelling picture of a struggling family in crisis”and “a deeply satisfying read.”

You can read the whole review here. And you can purchase the book here.

If you live in the Seattle area, you can see Mark in conversation with me about his novel at Third Place Books-Ravenna at 7 p.m. on THURSDAY, MAY 9.

Back in One of My Happy Places

The view from my apartment at the Collegeville Institute.

After three Covid-forced years away, I’m back at the Collegeville Institute this week and next, leading a workshop called Apart and Yet a Part. I couldn’t be happier.

For the next ten days, I’ll be meeting individually with writers who will spend their days with no commitments other working on their own writing. Evenings, we’ll have dinner together and post-dinner discussions about writing and life, a book exchange, a meditation walk, and a final-night reading of new material.

This is the land of Minnesota Nice, which isn’t as glib as it sounds. Our power was out this morning and it strengthened my belief in humanity just to watch the staff here interact with the physical plant workers who came to get us back online. Everyone was respectful and helpful and thankful and had a good sense of humor. Why aren’t we all this way with each other all the time?

Teaching a Nonfiction Writing Seminar in NY June 17-21

For the third year in a row, I’ll be part of the excellent creative writing faculty at the Manhattanville College MFA Summer Writers’ Week. Taking place June 17-21, the program offers workshops every morning, craft and publishing seminars every afternoon, and readings every evening. It’s an awesome week.

This year’s featured writer is novelist Hannah Tinti, who will be teaching the fiction workshop. The wonderful Melissa Tuckey will be back to teach the poetry workshop and the talented Sharbari Ahmed returns to teach dramatic writing.

Registration is $750 and for a mere $200 more, you can stay in a single room in a suite in the dorms. Manhattanville is in Purchase, NY, just half an hour from New York City, making it easy to add a couple of days in Manhattan on either end.

Go to the Summer Writers’ Week website for full details.

IN HIS OWN WORDS: A TRIBUTE TO BRIAN DOYLE — 7 p.m., Thursday, March 28, in Portland

I’m thrilled to announce I’ll be part of a reading called IN HIS OWN WORDS: A TRIBUTE TO BRIAN DOYLE at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, with these amazing authors:

Robin Cody, David James Duncan, John Freeman, Jordan Imani Keith, Brenda Miller, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Kim Stafford, and Joe Wilkins. Chip Blake, editor of ORION, and Sy Safransky, editor of THE SUN, will speak too.

The event will take place at the McMenamins Mission Theater & Pub (1624 NW Glisan, Portland, OR). It’s FREE but you need tickets, which will be available starting at 4 p.m. (PST) TODAY. (The theater seats about 200 people, but the organizers–ORION and THE SUN–think tickets will be snapped up quickly, so don’t wait!)

To order tickets, go to: https://www.mcmenamins.com/mission-theater. You will go through what looks like buying a ticket, but in the end, there will be no charge, no asking for credit card info, etc.

We’re all going to be reading pieces of Brian’s work. It should be a wonderful evening.

Speaking at a Celebration of Robert Lax at Poets House in NYC: 7 p.m., Friday, November 30

If you live in or around New York City, come down to Poets House at 10 River Terrace at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 30, for a Celebration of Robert Lax on his 103rd birthday. I’ll be sharing stories about Lax and reading some of his poems, along with poet and former Lax literary assistant John Beer and poet Stacey Tran. Lax’s niece and literary executor, Marcia Kelly, will be in attendance too. It should be a wonderful evening of great poetry, fellowship and reminiscences. The cost is: $10, $7 for seniors & students, free for Poets House members.

Note: We were hoping we’d have copies available of New Directions’ reissue of Lax’s classic collection 33 Poems, but publication has been delayed until next February. We’ll have advance copies for you to look at, though.

More About my Writing Residency in China This Fall

I announced a couple of months ago that I’ve been asked to be a resident writer at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, this fall.

I have a few more details about it:

The residency is sponsored by the English Creative Writing Center at Sun Yat-Sen University, the only program in China focused on creative writing in English. The programs founder and director is a writer herself, Dai Fan.

The residency begins on October 22 and lasts through Nov. 18. For the first two weeks, we’ll be in Yangshou in the Guangxi Autonomous Region with no duties other than writing. (The featured image here, of Yangshou, is from the China and Asia Cultural Travel website.) Next, we’ll spend a week at Sun Yat-sen’s main campus in Guangzhou, giving talks and readings and meeting with faculty and students. Then, the last week, we’ll be back to writing, this time in Meizhou in Guangdong Province.

I’ll be there with seven writers from six other countries–for information on them and their work, click on their names below:

Charlson Ong, the Philippines

Elisa Biagini, Italy

James Scudamore, Great Britain

Monica Aasprong, Norway

Sally Ito, Canada

Vladimir Poleganov, Bulgaria

Zdravka Evtimova, Bulgaria

I’ll post some of their work in the days ahead.

I haven’t been blogging on this site lately but I will during my time in China. For now, if you’re interested in learning more about the program and what I’ll be experiencing, check out this edition of Ninth Letter with links to creative works by participants in the program two years ago.

A Writing Residency in China This Fall

In March, after my talk on the ethics of biography at the Associated Writers and Writing Programs conference in Tampa, Florida, a Chinese writer named Dai Fan, who directs the creative writing program at Sun-Yat Sen University in Guangzhou, China, came up to me and invited to be part of a writing residency there this fall. It’s taken a while for the paperwork to be done but I can announce now that I will be joining writers from seven other countries for four weeks of writing, lectures and readings this October and November.

We’ll have two weeks free for writing in the beautiful autonomous region of Guilin (pictured here), a week of talks and readings in Guangzhou, and a final week of writing in the cultural capital of Meizhou.

I’ll give more details, including the names of the other writers and the countries they’re from, in a future post.

The creative writing program at Sun Yat-sen University is the only one of its kind in English in China. Students from the program will be our interpreters while we’re there. I anticipate many interesting conversations with them, as well as the other writers and the program faculty.

I’ll Be Leading a Nonfiction Workshop for the Manhattanville College MFA’s Summer Writers’ Week, June 18-22

If you’re looking for a summer writing program to attend, you can’t do better than the Manhattanville College MFA’s Summer Writers’ Week. For just $650 ($750 after March 31), you get an all-morning workshop each day with a small group of fellow writers, afternoon craft presentations in all genres, and evening readings and other events. Housing for the week is just $40/night–and Manhattanville College is only a half hour away by train or car from New York City. (All workshop and events take place in the most beautiful rooms you’ll find at any writers’ week anywhere.)

Bestselling fiction writer and memoirist Dani Shapiro will be the week’s keynote speaker and lead the fiction workshop.

Poet Melissa Tuckey, a co-founder of Split This Rock, will lead the poetry workshop.

Screenwriter Sharbari Ahmed will lead the dramatic writing workshop.

And I’ll lead the nonfiction workshop.

Click here for full details and registration information.