# Michael N. McGregor

> Author, Essayist, Journalist, Biographer


## Posts

- ["The Last Grand Tour" Is One of Kirkus Reviews' "100 Best Indie Books of 2025"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/12/26/100-best-indie-books-of-2025/): Earlier this month, Kirkus Reviews named my novel, The Last Grand Tour, one if its "100 Best Indie Books of 2025." The books on the list are chosen from the thousands of small-publisher titles Kirkus reviews each year.
- [Free Author Talk at the University of Portland–5:30 p.m., Monday, October 27](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/10/23/free-author-talk-in-portland-monday-oct-27/): I'll be giving a talk and reading from my two new books at the University of Portland bookstore at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, October 27. My appearance is part of the university's 2025-26 Readings and Lectures Series.
- [Free Writing Workshop in Spokane: Discovering YOUR Stories](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/09/16/free-writing-workshop-in-spokane-discovering-your-stories/): I'll be leading a free writing workshop at Spokane's Liberty Park library from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 28. The workshop title is: "Discovering the Stories of Your Life: Memoir and Fiction."
- [Talking Points: What Is 'An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life' About?](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/07/28/talking-points-what-is-an-island-to-myself-the-place-of-solitude-in-an-active-life-about/): A few weeks ago, I did a radio interview about my new book, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life. To prepare for it, I wrote out some 'talking points.' I thought they might be useful to those thinking of buying or recommending the book. Here they are.
- [Video: A Wonderful Interview About "An Island to Myself"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/07/03/video-of-a-wonderful-interview-about-an-island-to-myself/): June was a busy month for me: I led my annual writing workshop at the Collegeville Institute, gave a presentation at the biannual International Thomas Merton Society conference, dipped into Wisconsin to see where my grandmother was born, and did several book interviews. Here's a video of one of them.
- [Listen: A Great Interview with Talk Radio Europe about "An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/06/24/interview-with-talk-radio-europe-about-an-island-to-myself/): On Tuesday, June 24, Hannah Murray of Talk Radio Europe interviewed me for 15 minutes about my new book, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life. You can listen to the interview here.
- [AN ISLAND TO MYSELF Comes Out Today!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/05/13/an-island-to-myself-launch/): My second book to come out in 2025, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, makes its debut today! This is an especially personal book for me, a memoir about the important ways solitude has affected me and sustained me through the past 40 years.
- [Upcoming Events to Celebrate 'An Island to Myself' Release](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/05/09/an-island-to-myself-release-events/): An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life will be published on May 13! And a number of events are coming up to celebrate its entry into the world.
- [I'll be the Featured Author in Tonight's Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Event](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/05/08/michael-n-mcgregor-writers-in-conversation/): My new book, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, won't officially be released until next Tuesday, May 13, but the first event focused on it will take place tonight. I'll be the featured author in the Writers-in-Conversation series at the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, WA.
- [THE LAST GRAND TOUR's Launch a Huge Success!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/02/08/the-last-grand-tours-entrance-into-the-world/): The Last Grand Tour's entrance into the world came on January 28, and its first two weeks were far more successful than I or my publisher hoped.
- [Substack Interview with Michael N. McGregor about His New Novel: The Last Grand Tour](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/02/02/michael-n-mcgregor-talks-about-his-new-novel/): Michael N. McGregor Talks about His New Novel The other day, Suzy Vitello, author of the marvelous Northwest-set novel Bitterroot, interviewed me about my new novel, The Last Grand Tour, for her popular Substack newsletter, Let’s Talk About Writing. Among the questions and answers was the following exchange: SV: You chose to filter this story through one character: Joe. How did you navigate and pace the sprinkling of secrets that Joe (and the reader) would uncover by novel’s end? MNM: I started by mimicking a tour guide’s experiences. When a group shows up, you know nothing about them. Over two […]
- [THE LAST GRAND TOUR One of Kirkus Reviews' "Best Indie Books of January"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2025/01/15/the-last-grand-tour-a-best-indie-book-of-january/): Kirkus Reviews sent out its list of the "Best Indie Books of January" this morning and The Last Grand Tour was one of just six books on it. This honor comes just 13 days before the novel's release on January 28., when Powell's Books in Portland will host its launch.
- [Willamette Week Newspaper Features THE LAST GRAND TOUR as One of Four "Standout New Books by Pacific Northwest Writers"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/12/20/last-grand-tour-a-standout-new-book/): Willamette Week Newspaper in Portland, OR, has named THE LAST GRAND TOUR as one of four "Standout New Books By Northwest Writers."
- [A Celebration of the Triumph of Freedom Over Tyranny](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/11/09/a-celebration-of-the-triumph-of-freedom-over-tyranny/): Thirty-five years ago today, I stood in my apartment in Seattle and watched images like this on my TV with tears in my eyes. I’d been in East Berlin just weeks before and seen new friends there shy away from Checkpoint Charlie, the crossing point to the West, while I passed through freely. My tears were tears of joy for them. My forthcoming novel, The Last Grand Tour (publication date: January 28, 2025), takes place in Germany and nearby countries in the years right after the Wall fell, when there was hope and even belief everywhere that freedom would always […]
- ["Vivid and Sweeping...a Gripping, Entertaining, and Ultimately Transporting Novel"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/11/06/vivid-and-sweeping-a-gripping-entertaining-and-ultimately-transporting-novel/): A beautiful new endorsement of THE LAST GRAND TOUR by Chelsea Bieker, author of the new breakout bestseller MADWOMAN. “[Bieker’s] writing is raw, breathlessly confessional, brilliant in its depiction of the long shadows cast by domestic violence, the constant tension carried by survivors.” – The New York Times Book Review You can pre-order my novel by clicking here: https://bookshop.org/a/84534/9781957024103 And order Chelsea’s wonderful book by clicking here: https://bookshop.org/a/84534/9780316573290 Or ask for these books at your favorite independent bookstore!
- [Book Launch for THE LAST GRAND TOUR at Powell's Books on January 28!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/10/29/combook-launch-for-the-last-grand-tour-at-powells-books-on-january-28/): The publication-day launch for The Last Grand Tour is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at Powell’s Books in downtown Portland! I hope you’ll be there! If you can’t come, you can pre-order the book from Powell’s and they’ll send you a signed copy right after the event. Just click here. I’m delighted to have documentary filmmaker Brian Lindstrom interviewing me that night. A few months ago, I attended a pre-release showing of Brian’s latest film, Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill, and was blown away. It’s a thoroughly fascinating look at the difficult times of […]
- [KIRKUS REVIEWS Gives THE LAST GRAND TOUR a Starred Review!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/10/28/kirkus-reviews-gives-the-last-grand-tour-a-starred-review/): The first review of The Last Grand Tour is out–and it's a very good one: a starred review from Kirkus Reviews!
- ["A Haunting Story About Love and Disillusion"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/10/26/a-haunting-story-about-love-and-disillusion/): You can pre-order The Last Grand Tour by clicking on the name of one of these great independent bookstores hosting book-related events: Powell’s Books, Portland, OR (Tuesday, January 28, 2025) Edmonds Bookshop, Edmonds, WA (Thursday, January 30) Village Books, Bellingham, WA (Thursday, February 6) Third Place Books Ravenna, Seattle, WA (Tuesday, February 11) You can also pre-order from: Bookshop.org Amazon
- ["A Journey of the Heart Filled with Longing and Brio"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/10/24/a-journey-of-the-heart-filled-with-longing-and-brio/): You can pre-order The Last Grand Tour by clicking on the name of any of these great independent bookstores that will be hosting book-related events: Powell’s Books, Portland, OR (Tuesday, January 28, 2025) Edmonds Bookshop, Edmonds, WA (Thursday, January 30) Village Books, Bellingham, WA (Thursday, February 6) Third Place Books Ravenna, Seattle, WA (Tuesday, February 11) You can also pre-order from: Bookshop.org Amazon
- [Scenes from My Time in Cold-War Russia in 1986](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/10/12/scenes-from-my-time-in-cold-war-russia-in-1986/): In the fall of 1986, my buddy Steve Smith and I spent two weeks in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) and Moscow with a student exchange group. Mikhail Gorbachev, who would eventually dismantle the Soviet Union, had been in power only a year, but the students we met were already testing the possibilities for more freedom. Because Gorbachev’s reign was so new, conditions throughout the country remained the way they’d been for decades. One of my first realizations upon seeing the relative poverty and the poor conditions in which people lived was that the US government had been overselling the […]
- [That Time I Listened to the World Series in Class](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/10/03/that-time-i-listened-to-the-world-series-in-class/): When I was a kid, you could send in bubblegum wrappers and get prizes. I found this envelope that held one of them in an old box yesterday. (Notice the cost for mailing a package then: six cents.) It may have held the tiny transistor radio I took to my grade school to listen to the baseball playoffs while in class. My teacher never noticed the wire going up to my ear. That had to be about this time of year. The team I was cheering for was the Cincinnati Reds, one of whose stars, Pete Rose, died a couple […]
- [A Look Back at My Tour Guiding Days in Greece](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/09/26/a-look-back-at-my-tour-guiding-days-in-greece/): The other day, Sylvia brought out photo albums from our tour guiding days in the 1990s. The shots here are from one of the trips I led through Greece and Turkey when I had my own company, Halcyon Tours. My tours were focused on small groups, learning about the local culture, and staying in local-style places where my clients could get to know the people of an area. Of course, there were plenty of opportunities for wine-drinking on rooftops in places like Oia on Santorini too! Back then, Oia was still somewhat unvisited. Many of the buildings hadn’t been rebuilt […]
- [THE LAST GRAND TOUR IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDERING!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/09/06/the-last-grand-tour-is-available-for-pre-ordering/): My new novel, THE LAST GRAND TOUR, is available for pre-ordering NOW! Reserve your copy by clicking below (or asking for it at your favorite independent bookstore): Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/84534/9781957024103 Powell’s: https://www.powells.com/book/-9781957024103 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Grand-Tour-Michael-McGregor/dp/1957024100/ Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/…/the-last…/1146223076 Publication date: January 28, 2025 PLEASE SHARE THIS NEWS WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND ON SOCIAL MEDIA! THANK YOU! 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.
- [Advance Reader Copies for THE LAST GRAND TOUR Have Arrived!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/09/02/advance-reader-copies-for-the-last-grand-tour-have-arrived/): The Advance Reader Copies of THE LAST GRAND TOUR arrived over the weekend, giving me a chance to hold the fruits of my labor in my hands for the first time. What an immense joy. You can pre-order it on Amazon now. It should be available on other sites soon! Publication date: January 28, 2025 [Cover design by Olivia Croom Hammerman Design]
- [Tonight! At 7 p.m. at Powell's in Portland](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/08/14/tonight-at-7-p-m-at-powells-in-portland/): I’ll be appearing at Powell’s Books at 7 p.m. tonight, in conversation with historian Amanda Bellows, talking about her new book, The Explorers. The Explorers is a retelling of America’s exploratory history with women, people of color, and immigrants foregrounded. Among the figures focused on are: Sacagawea, Black mountain man James Beckwourth, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Black polar explorer Matthew Henson, early pilot Amelia Earhart, and astronaut Sally Ride. The book is a great read and a welcome update to history as most of us have been taught it. One of the things I like most about the book is how […]
- [First Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Evening a Huge Success](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/08/09/first-cascadia-writers-in-conversation-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 […]
- [Introducing the Cover for THE LAST GRAND TOUR–Coming January 28, 2025](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/08/07/introducing-the-cover-for-the-last-grand-tour-coming-january-28-2025/): Here’s the cover for my novel, THE LAST GRAND TOUR, coming from Korza Books on January 28, 2025. Cover design by the wondeful Olivia Croom Hammerman at OCHbookdesign.com.
- [Coming Tomorrow, August 7: Cover Reveal for My New Novel, THE LAST GRAND TOUR!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/08/06/coming-tomorrow-august-7-cover-reveal-for-my-new-novel-the-last-grand-tour/): COMING TOMORROW (Wednesday, August 7) at 8 a.m. PDT: The full cover reveal for THE LAST GRAND TOUR by Michael N. McGregor. Publication date: January 28, 2025.
- [Worrying about a Fledgling Eagle 20 Feet from my Desk](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/08/01/worrying-about-a-fledgling-eagle-20-feet-from-my-desk/): Its cry was usually intermittent, but sometimes it became continuous. We worried it would starve to death.
- [COMING ON JANUARY 28–My First Novel: The Last Grand Tour](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/07/30/coming-on-january-28-my-first-novel-the-last-grand-tour/): On a foggy morning with geese drifting by, a seagull flying overhead, and otters playing just offshore, I’m pleased to announce that my novel, THE LAST GRAND TOUR, will be published on JANUARY 28, 2025. Here’s a description of the book: American tour guide Joe Newhouse wants nothing more than to reach Venice. Since moving to Munich after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he’s watched his business fail, his wife leave him, and his love for Europe diminish. Now he faces one last ten-day tour with a surly group that doesn’t want to be there. As he leads them […]
- [A Moody Old Vision of Venice](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/06/30/a-moody-old-vision-of-venice/): Looking back through slides of my early travels in Europe, I came across this one from my first time in Venice. I’ve been thinking about Venice a lot lately because it’s the final destination for the group in my upcoming novel, The Last Grand Tour. We’re working on the cover for the novel now. I’ll post a picture of it when it’s ready for release. The publication date hasn’t been finalized yet but it will probably be early November. I’ll announce it on this site as soon as it’s set.
- [Coming This August: The Cascadia Writers-In-Conversation Series](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/05/06/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 […]
- [Spring 2024 Issue of the Robert Lax Newsletter Just Released!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/05/01/spring-2024-issue-of-the-robert-lax-newsletter-just-released/): This issue of the newsletter includes an short article about how Lax spent his winters, news about my forthcoming book on solitude, a YouTube video featuring author Steve Georgiou talking about his friendship with Lax, images of Lax poems, a hilarious Reddit string about a Lax poem, and other delights.
- [My Review of Portland Author and Friend Mark Pomeroy's New Novel](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/04/28/my-review-of-portland-author-and-friend-mark-pomeroys-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 […]
- [Mother Teresa On Why We Have No Peace](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/04/27/mother-teresa-on-why-we-have-no-peace/): If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. –Mother Teresa
- [Staying in Robert Lax's Old House](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/04/24/staying-in-robert-laxs-old-house/): In late January and early February, I spent two weeks living in Robert Lax’s old house on Patmos while doing research for my forthcoming book An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life (Monkfish Publishing, spring 2025). I’ll be posting more about the book and my experiences in writing it in coming days, but for a taste of it now, you can go to robertlax.com and read about my thoughts while looking over the only reminders of Lax still in his house: his books.
- ["Art Makes the Real World."](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/04/23/art-makes-the-real-world/): The title of this post is a quote from an autistic artist named William Scott, who was featured in a PBS Newshour segment on an exhibition of art by disabled artists at SF MOMA. I think he is exactly right. The world we see in the news–of conflict, violence, hatred, accusations, recriminations, and revenge–is not genuine. Artists offer us visions of a world that is more real because it reflects the desires, values, and aspirations of our better selves. You can learn more about William Scott and the Creative Growth group he’s part of here: https://creativegrowth.org/william-scott
- [Manuscript Delivered! AN ISLAND TO MYSELF To Appear in Spring 2025](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/04/20/manuscript-delivered-an-island-to-myself-to-appear-in-spring-2025/): I just delivered the manuscript for my book An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life to Monkfish Publishing. Look for it in the spring of 2025.
- [Short Story Set in Greece: O Kairos](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/02/21/short-story-set-in-greece-o-kairos/): O Kairos by Michael N. McGregor [published in the Spring 2018 issue of Inkwell] for Sylvia On a small island not far from Turkey at the edge of the Aegean Sea, there lived a Greek farmer and his wife.  They had no children and few possessions, and the land on their island was bare and rocky except for a fertile strip that stretched like a lush beard along the sea on one side.  This strip the farmer plowed with a team of oxen each spring when the winter winds had subsided and the fields had absorbed the rain that vanished […]
- [Press Release for My Forthcoming Novel!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2024/01/12/press-release-for-my-forthcoming-novel/): The press release for my first novel went out this week! It includes the title reveal: The Last Grand Tour. I’ll be posting more about the book in the weeks ahead. You can read more about the publisher, Korza Books, on their website.
- [Another Contract–This One For a Book about Solitude](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2023/12/15/another-contract-this-one-for-a-book-about-solitude/): When it rains, it pours. I’ve signed another contract, this one for a book on solitude to be published by Monkfish Publishing in the spring of 2025. The title is still TBD but the subtitle will be: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life. The book is centered on my experiences during a month of total solitude on Patmos when I was 27 years old. It was after that month, while I was still on the island, that I met Robert Lax. The rest of the book will feature my later experiences of solitude, some on Patmos, some elsewhere. […]
- [Korza Books Will Publish My First Novel in the Fall of 2024](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2023/11/29/korza-books-will-publish-my-first-novel-in-the-fall-of-2024/): I’m excited to announce that I’ve signed a contract with Korza Books to publish my first novel in the fall of 2024. A press release will be coming in January. The book follows guide Joe Newhouse, whose marriage and business are failing, as he leads one last tour from Munich to Venice shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Traveling through the heart of Romantic Europe, Joe sorts the stories and mysteries of clients who don’t seem to want to be there while weighing–and acting on–his own desires.
- [The Soul That Sees Beauty](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2023/11/15/the-soul-that-sees-beauty/): “The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I don’t know if I’m alone in seeing beauty in these dying hostas beside such vivid ivy. All I know is the older I get, the more beauty I see at times and in places I don’t expect it.
- [New on WNW: Three Questions and a Quote with Pulitzer Prize Winner Mitchell S. Jackson](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2023/04/13/new-on-wnw-three-questions-and-a-quote-with-pulitzer-prize-winner-mitchell-s-jackson/): I’m thrilled to feature novelist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning nonfiction writer Mitchell S. Jackson in the newest WritingtheNorthwest.com post. Mitchell is one of the most exciting writers to come out of the NW in recent years. Read his answers to “Three Questions and a Quote” here.
- [New WNW Post: An Illuminating Book of Poetry about E. Washington Migrant Workers](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2023/04/05/new-wnw-post-an-illuminating-book-of-poetry-about-e-washington-migrant-workers/): I just posted a review on WritingtheNorthwest.com of a unique book by a promising young poet named Ricardo Ruiz. The poems in it come out of interviews with migrant workers in Eastern Washington. Together with brief bios of the interviewees, the poems present a full and sympathetic look at this hopeful but struggling and tragically neglected community. Here’s how the post begins: I never know where or how I’m going to come across good writing about the Pacific Northwest. A couple of weeks ago, for example, I was walking through the book fair at the Associated Writers and Writing Programs […]
- [America's Midnight in the Pacific Northwest](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2023/02/22/americas-midnight-in-the-pacific-northwest/): My new post on WritingtheNorthwest.com looks at the many Pacific Northwest connections in Adam Hochschild’s fascinating and sobering new book about America during and after World War I, AMERICAN MIDNIGHT. Among the Northwest people you’ll read about are the feisty, progressive Portland doctor Marie Equi, the organizers of the 1919 Seattle General Strike, and the brave members of the International Workers of the World (Wobblies) labor union. You’ll also read about less savory characters like the immigrant-hating Washington State congressman Albert Johnson and Seattle mayor Ole Hanson, who may have been the first politician to make a career out of […]
- [New WNW Post Features NW Novelist & Screenwriter Jon Raymond](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2023/02/09/new-wnw-post-features-nw-novelist-screenwriter-jon-raymond/): After a brief break over the holidays, WritingtheNorthwest.com is back, and I’m pleased to start the new year with a new feature, Three Questions and a Quote, and one of my favorite Northwest writers, Jon Raymond. Raymond is the author of an award-winning story collection, an essay collection, and four novels, including Denial (2022), a finalist for this year’s Oregon Book Award in Fiction. He has also coauthored several films, including the HBO mini-series “Mildred Pierce” and the remarkable “First Cow.” Most of his work is set in the Northwest. Three Questions and a Quote is a new, occasional feature […]
- [Where Art Begins...](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/12/08/where-art-begins/): “Say you have seen an ordinary bit of what is real, the infinite fabric of time that eternity shoots through, and time’s soft-skinned people working and dying under slowly shifting stars. Then what?” –Annie Dillard, “This Is the Life”
- [New on WNW: John Okada's NO-NO BOY, Set in Seattle, Is a Must-Read](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/12/06/new-on-wnw-john-okadas-no-no-boy-set-in-seattle-is-a-must-read/): My latest post on WritingtheNorthwest.com is about John Okada’s NO-NO-BOY, the most beautiful and devastating novel I’ve read about the American immigrant experience. The book’s focus is the difficult return to Seattle of a young Japanese American man who went to prison rather than serve in the US military during WWII: the hostilities he faces, the kindnesses he can’t bear, and his own feelings of guilt and shame. Click below to read my thoughts on this amazing and eye-opening book.
- [New WNW Post: Northwest Indigenous Artist Sky Hopinka Receives 2022 MacArthur "Genius Grant"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/12/03/new-wnw-post-northwest-indigenous-artist-sky-hopinka-receives-2022-macarthur-genius-grant/): Head over to WritingtheNorthwest.com to read about (and watch!) the fascinating video work of Indigenous artist Sky Hopinka, who was raised in Ferndale, WA, and went to school at Portland State University. Hopinka is one of this year’s MacArthur fellowship winners. His evocations of Indigenous culture in the Northwest subvert traditional views with fresh and sometimes disorienting approaches.
- [New on WNW: How a Fashion Trend Led to a Bloodbath—And How it Was Stopped](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/10/24/new-on-wnw-how-a-fashion-trend-led-to-a-bloodbath-and-how-it-was-stopped/): A new post on WritingtheNorthwest.com looks at the tragic slaughter caused by the late-19th C fashion trend of women wearing feathers and even whole birds on their hats. Focused on Oregon’s beautiful Malheur wildlife refuge, the post is titled, “How a Fashion Trend Led to an Eastern Oregon Bloodbath–and How It Was Stopped.” You can read it here: https://writingthenorthwest.com/?p=753
- [FDR on the Dangers to a Nation of Exploiting Prejudices](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/10/14/fdr-on-the-dangers-to-a-nation-of-exploiting-prejudices/): As part of my J. D. Ross research, I’ve been reading FDR’s May 26, 1940, fireside chat titled “On National Defense.” After making a pitch for beefing up the military in response to what was happening in Europe, he said this: ” But there is an added technique for weakening a nation at its very roots, for disrupting the entire pattern of life of a people. And it is important that we understand it. “The method is simple. It is, first, discord, a dissemination of discord. A group –not too large — a group that may be sectional or racial […]
- [New WritingtheNorthwest.com Post: Portland the Spinster](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/10/04/new-on-wnw-portland-the-spinster/): I just posted a new piece on WritingtheNorthwest.com. It’s about a 1917 profile of Portland, Oregon, in the national magazine Collier’s Weekly. Called “Portland the Spinster,” the article suggests the city is run by a handful of conservative FFPs (First Families of Portland) who lord it over the later arrivals. I love reading other people’s views of places I love, and I had some fun writing about this one. You’ll find my post here.
- [The Ethics of Writing About Others](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/10/02/the-ethics-of-writing-about-others/): I haven’t been publishing a lot lately, but a piece I wrote called “The Ethics of Writing About Others” just appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle. I thought it was going to be behind a paywall, but the WC editors have made it available to anyone. Here’s an excerpt: One of the trickiest things to do is balance what you feel is true after all of your research with fidelity to what you actually know. Given that a biography is usually based on years of research and a memoir on years of knowing the people around you, it is easy to […]
- [“One of the Greatest Americans of Our Generation”–The Subject of My Next Biography: J. D. Ross](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/09/07/one-of-the-greatest-americans-of-our-generation-the-subject-of-my-next-biography-j-d-ross/): When James Delmage Ross died suddenly on March 14, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt mourned his passing by telling the country it had lost “one of the greatest Americans of our generation,” a man whose “successful career and especially his long service in behalf of the public interest are worthy of study by every American boy.” Yet “J. D.,” as he was called by everyone who knew him—from the president to senators to children in his neighborhood—is virtually unknown today. Even in Seattle, where he was once the city’s most powerful—and popular—figure, those who recognize his name know it only because […]
- [In Praise of "Ruby in Paradise," a Movie that Presents Conflict and Emotion in Honest, Real-Life Ways](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/09/02/in-praise-of-ruby-in-paradise-a-movie-that-presents-conflict-and-emotion-in-honest-real-life-ways/): The other night my wife and I re-watched “Ruby in Paradise,” the 1993 Victor Nunez film starring a 25-year-old Ashley Judd. We didn’t remember anything about the movie except that we’d like it the first time. And we liked it just as much this time. What struck me most about the story of a naive woman who leaves her backwoods Tennessee home to make a new life on the Florida shore is how much the writer and director trust the characters and situation to develop and carry the story’s conflict and emotional weight. There’s one incident of sexual harassment and […]
- [A Glimpse of Our Island Life...and My Memoir](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/08/28/1999/): For many years, Sylvia and I have been spending part of each summer in the San Juan Islands, on land her parents bought back in the 1960s. We just returned from our latest sojourn there. The land contains two small cabins, one of which began as her family’s tent platform and I use now as a writing studio, which sounds much loftier than the space deserves. The cabin land is what they call high-bank waterfront, which means there’s a beach below but it’s a long ways down. The cabins are nestled into a forest of mostly Douglas-firs and grand firs, […]
- [New WritingtheNorthwest.com Post: My Review of Portland Writer Peter Rock's PASSERSTHROUGH](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/08/25/new-writingthenorthwest-com-post-my-review-of-portland-writer-peter-rocks-passersthrough/): The latest post on WritingtheNorthwest.com, my new website dedicated to writing about the Pacific Northwest, is my review of a strange new novel from the always-interesting Portland author Peter Rock. Here’s a part of the review: In his last two novels—2019’s The Night Swimmers and this year’s Passersthrough (both published by Soho Press)—Rock has used a spare, allusive style to focus closely on a small number of characters in a limited situation while suggesting that there is more going on around them than they or the reader can know, some of it possibly supernatural. This approach can create a feeling […]
- [My Review of an Engaging New Memoir by a "Coast Salish Punk"](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/08/06/my-review-of-an-engaging-new-memoir-by-a-coast-salish-punk/): New on WritingtheNorthwest.com: my review of the 2022 memoir RED PAINT: THE ANCESTRAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A COAST SALISH PUNK by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, a prime example of a welcome surge in new Indigenous writing. You can read it here: https://writingthenorthwest.com/?p=588
- [Pine Pollen and Canopy Tears: An Iowa Essayist Looks at a Northwest Forest](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/07/19/pine-pollen-and-canopy-tears-an-iowa-essayist-looks-at-a-northwest-forest/): A new post on my WritingtheNorthwest.com site looks at an essay on an old growth forest in Oregon that’s part of my friend Tom Montgomery Fate‘s new book collection, The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries. The essay is full of sharp observations of the NW environment by a native Iowan, and the book takes you on trips of discovery to other places too: the Pine Ridge Reservation, the backwoods of Ontario, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and Midwest backroads. You can read my post here.
- [In the Islands...](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/07/15/in-the-islands/): I looked up from reading last night and saw that a visitor had arrived without my knowing it.
- [Talented Writers Supporting and Encouraging One Another](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/06/17/talented-writers-supporting-and-encouraging-one-another/): I spent the past week and a half leading a workshop with this incredibly talented and openly loving group of writers. Together, they were the embodiment what we need right now: creative people supporting and encouraging one another in an increasingly harsh and fearful world. #collegevilleinstitute, #vortexesoflove
- [Beautiful New Children's Book by My Co-Mentor, Patrice Gopo](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/06/12/beautiful-new-childrens-book-by-my-co-mentor-patrice-gopo/): If you have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or just young friends in the 4-8-year-old range, consider gifting them this beautifully written and beautifully illustrated story. The author is the amazing Patrice Gopo, my co-mentor in a Collegeville program for emerging writers this coming fall and winter. Here’s a summary of the book: In her first picture book, author Patrice Gopo illuminates how family stories of far-off lands help shape children, help form their identity, and help connect them with the broader world. Her lyrical language, paired with Jenin Mohammed’s richly textured artwork, creates a beautiful, stirring portrait of a child’s […]
- [Back in One of My Happy Places](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/06/07/back-in-one-of-my-happy-places/): 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 […]
- [New on WritingtheNorthwest.com: The Fancydancing Voice of Sherman Alexie](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/05/31/new-on-wnw-the-fancydancing-voice-of-sherman-alexie/): My new post on WritingtheNorthwest.com, “The Fancydancing Voice of Sherman Alexie,” is a personal reflection on the impact of this important but flawed Northwest writer’s work. You can read it here.
- [The Powell's Books List of 40 Books Set in the Pacific Northwest](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/05/27/the-powells-books-list-of-40-books-set-in-the-pacific-northwest/): A new post on WritingtheNorthwest.com looks at a list of 40 books set in the Pacific Northwest, compiled by the staff at Powell’s Books. If you’re looking for a summer read or just to see a range of writing about the Northwest, check it out: The Powell’s List of 40 Books Set in the Pacific Northwest
- [The Beauty and Care of Children](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/05/26/the-beauty-and-care-of-children/): Yesterday morning, I heard the sound of children’s voice, and when I looked out the window, a preschool teacher was taking a picture of her students with our ridiculously large rhododendron as the background. Those sweet faces and smiles were exactly what I needed to see after the awful news out of Texas the day before. Leaving aside, for a moment, the discussion of guns and gun violence in this country, we need to do everything we can to protect our children in every way, not only from killings but also poverty, neglect, and abuse. If we aren’t willing to […]
- [My Review of ROUGH HOUSE, a Memoir Set in the Pacific Northwest](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/05/06/my-review-of-rough-house-a-memoir-set-in-the-pacific-northwest/): New on WritingtheNorthwest.com: my review of Tina Ontiveros’s rough house (Oregon State University Press, 2020), a difficult but moving memoir about growing up in the damp forests of the Pacific Northwest and the dry brown land around The Dalles, Oregon. Here’s an excerpt: “Contrary to popular belief, you can sometimes tell a lot about a book by its title. In addition to the double meaning of physical fun and difficult circumstances, it’s significant that rough house is printed in lower case. Ontiveros is shining a light on minor characters whose stories, though filled with poverty and violence, are worth telling—and […]
- [Still There Is Much That Is Fair...](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/05/03/still-there-is-much-that-is-fair/): I took this picture after a fierce deluge battered our just-blooming dogwood tree yesterday. It seems a good illustration of the Tolkien quote below–the kind of reminder I need with all that is going on these days. “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
- [A Unique and Wonderful Book on Traditional Life Along the Columbia River](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/04/29/a-unique-and-wonderful-book-on-traditional-life-along-the-columbia-river/): My latest post on WritingtheNorthwest.com celebrates a unique and wonderful book about the history, customs and daily life of Native American tribes along the Columbia River. Click here to read: “When the River Ran Wild!–Excavating the Memories, Customs and Ways of the Mid-Columbia Tribes.”
- [New on WNW: Norman Maclean and the Real Northwest](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/04/05/1827/): "Stories with Trees in Them: Norman Maclean and the Real Northwest." An author who wrote only two books, both when he was in his 70s, just might be the quintessential Northwest writer. Check out why.
- [Memento Mori](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/04/04/memento-mori/): I hope you’ll take a moment to read this honest and moving piece by Robin Bartlett, a writer I worked with last year at Collegeville: Memento Mori. Here’s what Robin wrote when she posted it on Facebook today: I am a preacher and not a writer, but today my writing is published in a magazine. The writing teacher that I worked with at Collegeville Institute, Michael N. McGregor, really pushed me to stop sermonating and start sharing more of myself. As a result, this essay is much more personal than what I typically preach, so it feels a little bit […]
- [Human Being. Be Kind.](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/03/27/human-being-be-kind/): I was pleased to see this important reminder on this young man’s back the other day. It’s a shame, though, that we have to be reminded to be kind to those who might struggle more than we have to. Maybe we should all wear signs that say simply: “Human being. Be kind.”
- [Feeling Wild and Lyrical: Jack Kerouac Spends a Night in Seattle](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/03/17/feeling-wild-and-lyrical-jack-kerouac-spends-a-night-in-seattle/): Jack Kerouac by Tom Palumbo circa 1956 (image from Wikipedia) There’s a new post on my WritingtheNorthwest.com site: “Feeling Wild and Lyrical: Jack Kerouac Spends a Night in Seattle.” It’s focused on Kerouac’s still-fresh description of Seattle in the summer of 1956, when he passed through on his way to working as a lookout on Desolation Peak in the N. Cascades. Kerouac, of course, was a friend of Robert Lax, the subject of my book Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax. You’ll find a post here about a letter from him to Lax in which he laid out […]
- [New Posts Explore the Role of Writers in Creating the Myth of a New Eden and a Gateway to Riches](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/03/10/new-posts-explore-the-role-of-writers-in-creating-the-myth-of-a-new-eden-and-a-gateway-to-riches/): Image from aype.com Two new posts on my WritingtheNorthwest.com site look at the role of writers in creating the myths that brought the Pacific Northwest attention and population growth in the 19th century. The first one, called “How Writers Helped Shape the Myth of a New Eden,” explores the mythologizing of the Oregon Trail and the Eden at the other end of it, leading to growing settlements in what was called the Oregon Country. Image from nps.gov The second one, called “How One Man Made Seattle by Selling It to the World,” examines the role of a man named Erastus […]
- [Why I Love My Northwest Neighbors...](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/02/20/why-i-love-my-northwest-neighbors/): Between rain showers today, I did a very Northwest thing: scraped moss off this roof. I was halfway through when my neighbor came along, looked from one half to the other and said, “Moss–no mas.” Then she walked on.
- [A Beautiful Woman in Every Way](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/02/18/a-beautiful-woman-in-every-way/): My mother on her wedding day. Today would have been her 100th birthday. She’s always alive in my .
- [Celebrating Black Newspapers in the Pacific Northwest](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/02/15/celebrating-black-newspapers-in-the-pacific-northwest/): There’s a new post up on my WritingtheNorthwest.com site. It looks at the history and vitality of Black newspapers in the Northwest and includes links to the actual pages of some of the oldest ones. Although there were few African Americans in Seattle in the 1890s, that decade produced 7 new Black newspapers, and while there were almost no African Americans in Portland in 1896, an enterprising young man named Adolphus D. Griffin started a weekly called The New Age for the Black community there that year. You can read more here.
- [Writing About Northwest Wine](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/02/01/writing-about-northwest-wine/): The latest post on WritingtheNorthwest.com focuses on writing about the history and incredible growth of the wine industry in the Pacific Northwest. It offers a wealth of links to sites that give fascinating facts about NW wines, interviews with wine makers, and books that take a deeper dive into the lives of those who make wine in this rich region. Click here to check it out.
- [Escaping the Winter Blues](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/01/31/1750/): A few of my favorite shots from an unusually sunny midwinter jaunt to the Oregon coast. Three photographers prepare to shoot the sunset near Haystack Rock. Found art. More found art. Enjoying the day’s end.
- [A New Essay of Mine Is Online: How an Oregon Basketball Coach Taught Me to Pay Attention to the Little Things in Coaching, Teaching and Life](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/01/19/a-new-essay-of-mine-is-online-how-an-oregon-basketball-coach-taught-me-to-pay-attention-to-the-little-things-in-coaching-teaching-and-life/): (photo from Oregon Quarterly) I have a new essay up online–in Oregon Quarterly, the University of Oregon alumni magazine. It’s about the Oregon Ducks and going to college and coaching basketball and teaching and learning to focus on the little things in life that make success possible. You can read it here.
- [Two New Posts on WritingtheNorthwest.com: The Pacific NW Through the Eyes of Rudyard Kipling and Ursula K. Le Guin](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/01/13/two-new-posts-on-writingthenorthwest-com-the-pacific-nw-through-the-eyes-of-rudyard-kipling-and-ursula-k-le-guin/): Over the past week I’ve put up two new posts on my recently launched WritingtheNorthwest.com website, one by me and one by a former student of mine, David Naimon, the host of the popular podcast Between the Covers. My post is on a visit Rudyard Kipling made to Oregon in the 1890s, when he fished for salmon on the Clackamas River and visited a salmon cannery. You’ll find what he had to say about each of them by clicking here. David Naimon’s post talks about the importance of Ursula K. Le Guin‘s connection to the Pacific Northwest (and especially Portland) […]
- [The Myth of the "Other Place" in Films Set in Oregon](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2022/01/04/the-myth-of-the-other-place-in-films-set-in-oregon/): A great new guest post just went up on WritingtheNorthwest.com. It’s by my former student Michael Schepps and explores the myth of the “Other Place” and the Hero’s Journey in Films Set in Oregon. Check it out here.
- [New Award: 2022 Donald J. Sterling, Jr., Senior Research Fellowship in Pacific Northwest History](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/12/09/1707/): I learned this week that I’ve been awarded the 2022 Donald J. Sterling, Jr., Senior Research Fellowship in Pacific Northwest History. The fellowship, given by the Oregon Historical Society, will fund research in the OHS archives for my next book (a biography of a prominent NW figure–details to come) and 1-2 articles for publication in the Oregon Historical Quarterly. I’m extremely grateful to the people at OHS for this very welcome encouragement as I move more fully into writing history.
- [Where or What Do We Mean When We Say "the Pacific Northwest"--New Post On WNW Site](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/12/05/where-or-what-do-we-mean-when-we-say-the-pacific-northwest-new-post-on-wnw-site/): If you haven’t had a chance yet to check out my new website, WritingtheNorthwest.com, you might find the latest post interesting. It attempts to answer the question of where and what exactly is the “Pacific Northwest.” The post offers a number of interesting links, including one to the area covered by the culture of the Coast Indian tribes and one to details about the 9.2 earthquake centered in SW Alaska in 1964 that set Seattle’s Space Needle swaying. Click here to check out the post.
- [Audio Version of PURE ACT Released on Audible Today!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/11/23/audio-version-of-pure-act-released-on-audible-today/): TODAY’S THE DAY the audio version of my book, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, is being released on Audible! If you click here, you can listen to a short sample. I’m excited my book will be available to people who need or prefer to listen rather than read, but it’s strange to hear someone else read words I wrote about my own experiences.
- [New WritingtheNorthwest.com Post: Nature, Stereotypes and the White Default](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/11/05/new-writingthenorthwest-com-post-nature-stereotypes-and-the-white-default/): Fishing, ca. 1920, Asahel Curtis, General Subjects Photograph Collection, 1845-2005, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov, accessed: 11-4-21 The photograph here is the illustration for my second post on the new website, WritingtheNorthwest.com. The post is called, “Visions of NW Writing: Nature, Stereotypes and the White Default” and addresses the relative lack of writing by people of color in what we think of as “Northwest writing.” You can read it by clicking here: “Visions of NW Writing: Nature, Stereotypes and the White Default”
- [My New Website, Dedicated to Writing about the Pacific Northwest--Check It Out!](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/11/01/my-new-website-dedicated-to-writing-about-the-pacific-northwest-check-it-out/): I just launched a new website: WritingtheNorthwest.com. The first post is about a conference held 75 years ago at which writers first discussed what the Pacific NW is and how it should be written about. I’m hoping the new site becomes a forum for discussing literary, historical and contemporary writing about the NW. Check it out!
- [Halfway Through My Pandemic Project: Reading the Entire Bible in German](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/10/19/halfway-through-my-pandemic-project-reading-the-entire-bible-in-german/): In early April 2020, when we were less than a month into the pandemic shutdown, I was going through some old books and found a copy of the Bible in German a friend had given my wife years before. The cover said the writing inside was in “heutigem Deutsch,” which means contemporary German. I’d never read the entire Bible before and I’d been wanting to improve my German, so I decided to make reading that Bible my pandemic project. I figured if I could average two chapters a day, I could read the whole thing in about three years. That […]
- [What You Find When You Look in Old Boxes](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/10/18/what-you-find-when-you-look-in-old-boxes/): You never know what you’re going to uncover when you look in old boxes. I found these wrapped in tissue paper in a plastic bag…some forgotten trip to Hawaii? The visit to South Carolina a few years back? That time on the beach in Zanzibar? I’m reminded of the old Dan Fogelberg song, Souvenirs.
- [What Happens When a Writer Spends Years Writing One Book?](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/10/17/what-happens-when-a-writer-spends-years-writing-one-book/): I found this article while going through some old papers recently. Poets & Writers Magazine commissioned me to write it ten years ago but never ran it. So it’s appearing here for the first time. I hope you enjoy it. The Patient Novelist © Michael N. McGregor, 2011 There are dozens of books about it but none reveal how crippling it can be or the worst of its many symptoms, the most secret one: the shame.  Evasion and deflection become part of your personality.  You begin to answer questions with a single syllable or a vacant stare, until the questions […]
- [Actor Joe Knezevich Will Read the Audio Version of PURE ACT](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/10/07/actor-joe-knezevich-will-read-the-audio-version-of-pure-act/): I just found out an actor named Joe Knezevich is doing the reading for the forthcoming audio version of my book, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax.   Here’s a link to Joe’s website, which includes trailers showing him in movies and commercials as well as snippets from audio books he’s done: http://www.joeknezevich.com/demo.html. Among his many credits is a recurring role on the long-running TV series The Vampire Diaries. Joe has a great voice. I’m excited he’s doing the book.
- [There Are Always Two Perspectives in Writing Memoir...](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/09/29/there-are-always-two-perspectives-in-writing-memoir/): Today’s writing lesson: Remember when writing memoir that there are always two perspectives in your story.
- [German Translation of Lax Book Published](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/09/03/1592/): I’m pleased to be listed as a contributing editor for the first German translation of my favorite collection of Robert Lax’s poems, 33 Poems. My German isn’t terribly good but I speak fluent Lax and was able to help improve the translations. The book, called 33 Gedichte, was just published. To read more about it (in German) or purchase a copy, click here.
- [A Busy Summer of Online Teaching](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/08/09/a-busy-summer-of-online-teaching/): I’m just coming up for air after leading several workshops this summer, all online and all for the Collegeville Institute. Few people would prefer Zoom to gathering in person on Collegeville’s beautiful campus, but all of the workshops had a pleasing feeling of camaraderie and purpose. (Pictured above is the view I would have had if I’d been able to go to Collegeville this year.) In addition to the workshops, I finished my work with three emerging writers I’d been mentoring throughout the past year. Now, it’s time for my own writing! Here are pictures of the groups, with the […]
- [A Strange Beauty](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/07/26/a-strange-beauty/): While walking yesterday, I saw these mushrooms bubbling out beside the sidewalk and felt drawn to look more closely. They reminded me how important it is for a writer–or anyone, really—to remain aware of and sensitive to the world around you. That sensitivity can be painful at times but it also can bring moments like this: when something some would consider unsightly suddenly shines with strange beauty.
- [The Three Bin Approach to Staying Alive as a Writer](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/07/05/the-three-bin-approach-to-staying-alive-as-a-writer/): One of the biggest obstacles the writers I work with as a writing consultant face is a loss of confidence or spirit when the things they’ve been writing haven’t been published. Although editors have sometimes solicited work from me, I’ve never been a writer who knows where each piece will go when I write it. As a result, I’ve experienced this loss of confidence or spirit myself—many times. And over the years I’ve developed a process for countering it I call The Three Bins. Here’s how it works: Most of the writing I fret over is writing I think should […]
- [My Former Student, Mitchell S. Jackson, Wins Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/06/11/my-former-student-mitchell-s-jackson-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-feature-writing/): My former student, Mitchell S. Jackson, was just announced as the winner of a 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing for his incredible piece on Ahmaud Arbery for Runner’s World. And last night he received a National Magazine Award in Feature Writing for the same piece! I gotta brag here: Mitchell’s first published piece of journalism was written in one of my classes back in the early 2000’s. I’m so very proud of all he has done since then. You can read the Pulitzer citation here. And you can read the incredible article Mitchell won the awards for here.
- [An Audio Version of PURE ACT Is Coming Soon](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/06/01/an-audio-version-of-pure-act-is-coming-soon/): I’ve just learned that an audio version of my book, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, is in the works–five and a half years after the book was published. This rarely happens this late in a book’s life, so I’m very pleased. It should bring the book to a whole new audience. I’ll pass on more information when I have it. 🙂  
- [It's Wonderful!: Don't Miss the Chance to Live Stream the New Philip Glass Circus Opera](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/2021/05/29/its-wonderful-dont-miss-the-chance-to-live-stream-the-new-philip-glass-circus-opera/): I just watched the live stream of the premiere of new Philip Glass circus opera based on Robert Lax’s poems. Wow! It is a wonderful show! If you haven’t bought tickets for one of the performances, you should do so now. It runs through June 13, with all of the shows live streamed for just $12. You’ll never be able to see this show again for that price. If you love Lax, Glass, the circus, opera, theater, spectacle, life, order your ticket now: https://www.malmoopera.se/circus-days-and-nights-in-english

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- [Press Kit: AN ISLAND TO MYSELF: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/press-kit-an-island-to-myself/): All photos are high resolution. Author image credit: Brian McDonnell Book Information Contact Information Book description The power of solitude to change a life. In his twenties, Michael N. McGregor traveled to the remote Greek island of Patmos to spend two winter months alone, 6,000 miles from home. It was a time before cellphones and the internet, when even a phone call was costly. Although he expected his solitude to be meaningful, he wasn’t prepared for how it would change him. Before his island days, McGregor had spent years reporting on the world’s poor and months on the road. As […]
- [Press Kit: THE LAST GRAND TOUR](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/press-kit-the-last-grand-tour/): All photos are high resolution. Author image credit: Brian McDonnell Book information: Book description: American tour guide Joe Newhouse wants nothing more than to reach Venice. Since moving to Munich after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he’s watched his business fail, his wife leave him, and his love for Europe diminish. Now he faces one last ten-day tour with a surly group that doesn’t want to be there. As he leads them through the mythic lands of Europe’s Romantic past, he grows increasingly disturbed by their stories of earlier lives, puzzled by their desire to be with a man […]
- [AN ISLAND TO MYSELF](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/an-island-to-myself-the-place-of-solitude-in-an-active-life/): An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life (Monkfish Publishing) is now out! Click on the cover or title above to order it on Bookshop.org, or ask for it at your favorite bookstore. It is also available from Amazon. Advance praise: “In this inspiring and hope-filled journey into the heart of solitude, McGregor takes us to the hinterlands of grace, and in the healing silence of a still heart and mind, we discover the antidote to a loneliness that plagues many of us these days, fed by consumption, competition, and a tendency to commodify relationships.” —Patrick […]
- [Privacy Policy](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/privacy-policy/): Who we are Our website address is: https://michaelnmcgregor.com. Comments When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. Media If you upload images to […]
- [THE LAST GRAND TOUR](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/the-last-grand-tour/): “A captivating exploration of the promise and burden of passionate love.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review) On January 28, 2025, Korza Books published my first novel, The Last Grand Tour. The book has received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and the praise of a number of popular authors. Kirkus calls it, “An entertaining, deeply felt story of giddy hopes straining against harsh realities.” And the Kirkus editors have selected it to be a Book of the Month for January 2025. Willamette Week named it one of four “Standout New Books by Pacific Northwest Writers.” Chelsea Bieker, bestselling author of […]
- [Honors and Awards](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/honors-and-awards/): Book of the Month (The Last Grand Tour), Kirkus Reviews, January 2025 Donald J. Sterling, Jr., Senior Research Fellowship in Pacific Northwest History, Oregon Historical Society, 2022 Kilian McDonnell Fellowship in Faith and Culture, Collegeville Institute, St. John’s University, MN, Spring 2019 Resident Writer, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, Fall 2018 Notable Essay (“The Story Catcher”), Best American Essays 2018 John Eliot Allen Outstanding Teacher Award, English Department, Portland State University, 2002-2003, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2011-2012, 2016-17 Contemporary Authors, vol. 400, Gale Group, 2017 Lenna Endowed Visiting Professorship, St. Bonaventure University, NY, Spring 2017 Finalist, Biography/Memoir, Washington State Book Awards, 2016 […]
- [Selected Publications & Interviews](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/other-publications/): Publications (Note: Most of my published writings are not available for free online, but here are a few that are.) The Ethics of Writing About Others, The Writer’s Chronicle On Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s The Everglades: River of Grass, Tin House Robert Lax: Master Minimalist, Poetry The Story Catcher, Notre Dame Magazine & Utne Reader A Gyroscope On the Island of Love, Image Poetic Man of God, Notre Dame Magazine Brian Doyle and the Language of the Stage, Oregon Arts Watch Goodness Gracious, Notre Dame Magazine The Hidden and the Tangible, Books Combined Links to many of my theater and book […]
- [PURE ACT](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/pure-act-book/): (To order Pure Act, just click the image above.) Excellence in Publishing Award, Association of Catholic PublishersHonorable Mention, Catholic Press Association Book AwardFinalist, Washington State Book Award New York Times: “A fond biography of an unworldly man…vivid and engaging.” Publishers Weekly: “Drawing on his friendship with poet Robert Lax (1915–2000) and his close readings of Lax’s writings, McGregor eloquently offers the definitive biography of a too often forgotten figure who influenced a number of writers and crafted spirituality out of his deep commitment to love, poverty, and justice.” Bookpleasures.com: “Pure Act is a book to own. Beautifully written, there is […]
- [Upcoming Events](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/appearances/): 2026 Thursday, January 8–6:00 p.m.–Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Series, Cascadia Art Museum, 190 Sunset Ave. S., #E, Edmonds, WA. The featured author will be Kim Fu. Thursday, February 12–6:00 p.m.–Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Series, Cascadia Art Museum, 190 Sunset Ave. S., #E, Edmonds, WA. The featured author will be Karen Fisher. Thursday, March 12–6:00 p.m.–Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Series, Cascadia Art Museum, 190 Sunset Ave. S., #E, Edmonds, WA. The featured author will be Mitchell S. Jackson. Tuesday, March 31–6:30-7:30–talk on solitude and reading from An Island to Myself, Kirkland Public Library, sponsored by the Notre Dame Club of Greater Seattle and the Kirkland library, 308 […]
- [A Little About Me...](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/contact/): I’m an author, essayist, biographer, fiction writer, poet, journalist, editor, teacher, writing consultant, and reading series host based in Seattle, WA. The things I’m most excited about right now are: Click on the cover images above to read about and order my books. Previous life Writing professor at Columbia University, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and Portland State University, where I taught for 17 years and helped found the MFA in Creative Writing program. I retired from full-time teaching in 2017 and am now professor emeritus in English and Creative Writing at PSU. Education MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia […]
- [Latest Posts](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/blog/)
- [Author of AN ISLAND TO MYSELF and THE LAST GRAND TOUR](https://michaelnmcgregor.com/): You’ve landed on the website for Michael N. McGregor, author of The Last Grand Tour (out now from Korza Books), An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life (coming from Monkfish Publishing on May 13, 2025), and Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax (Fordham UP, 2015). Click on any of the titles above to order or pre-order my books. For news on my new books, current projects, writing tips, recent photographs, and thoughts on various aspects of life–check out my latest Posts: For older posts, click on Archives. For a quick overview of my […]


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