Michael N. McGregor

Tag: Seattle

  • Upcoming Events to Celebrate ‘An Island to Myself’ Release

    Upcoming Events to Celebrate ‘An Island to Myself’ Release

    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.

    First up is the official release–at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13, at Third Place Books in Seattle’s Ravenna district (6504 20th Ave. NE). I’ll be talking about my experiences with solitude, going back 40 years, and how they became a book. We had a great crowd at Third Place for my previous book, The Last Grand Tour, in February. I’m hoping to see a lot of friends and readers there again.

    Next up will be another return: to the lovely Eagle Harbor Book Co. (157 Winslow Way E.)on Bainbridge Island, WA. I’ll be flying solo at that one two. It begins at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 15. Eagle Harbor is just a brief (and beautiful) ferry ride from downtown Seattle and then a short walk up the street.

    The third of my four kickoff events will be held at Broadway Books in Portland, OR, on Tuesday, May 20. This one begins at 6 p.m. I’m especially excited for this one because I’ll be conversation with David Naimon, host of the popular and fascinating literary podcast Between the Covers.

    This early flourish will end with an appearance at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 5, at Content Bookstore (314 Division St. S) in Northfield, MN. This one will be a special treat: I’ll be in conversation with the wonderful novelist and memoirist Kaethe Schwehn.

    I’ll take a short break from book events after that to lead a 10-day workshop at the Collegeville Institute in Minnesota and speak at the International Thomas Merton Society conference in Colorado.

    Then we’ll wrap up June with the following appearances:

    2 p.m., Sunday, June 22, at Tattered Cover Book Store in downtown Denver (2526 E Colfax Ave.). At this one, I’ll be in conversation with Judith Valente, talking about both of our new books. Hers is called The Italian Soul: How to Savor the Full Joys of Life.

    7 p.m., Wednesday, June 25, at St. Andre Bessette (601 W Burnside St.) in Portland, OR. In my return to Portland, I’ll appear in conversation with author, priest, and University of Portland professor Pat Hannon.

    4 p.m., Saturday, June 28, at Village Books (1200 11th St.) in Bellingham, WA. We had a great crowd when I appeared there with The Last Grand Tour too. This time I’ll be in conversation with Western Washington University English professor Laura Laffrado.

    Other events are coming in the fall. Check my Upcoming Events page for the latest news.

    I hope to see you at a bookstore somewhere!

    Read a review of An Island to Myself on the Foreword Reviews site.

    Here’s the publisher’s description:

    An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life

    The power of solitude to deepen 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 he settled into days of rigorous writing, evening walks through fierce wind, and nights full of memories, dreams and spiritual encounters, he learned that solitude can be difficult and even dangerous, but also awe-inspiring and life-altering.

    When he returned to his active life, McGregor sought solitude wherever he could—in nature, in libraries, in silent spaces—before returning to Patmos forty years later to repeat his youthful experiment.

    “Solitude is one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. Many of us would prefer to avoid being alone. But when we allow solitude to take us by the hand, we realize it is a guide, a doorway we step through to discover the most consequential person in our life: our self. As we follow along in this page-turner of a book—from the Greek island of Patmos to the San Juan Islands, Whidbey Island, and a myriad of other places McGregor has experienced solitude—we start to understand that being still is also a way to keep moving, to keep going deeper into the discovery of our true purpose and being.”

    —Judith Valente, former faith and values correspondent for PBS-TV, author of The Art of Pausing and How to Be

  • 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:

  • 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 his thoughts about Christianity and Buddhism.

    There are many pages about Kerouac and his friendship with Lax in Pure Act.

     

  • Celebrating Black Newspapers in the Pacific Northwest

    (image from Wikipedia)

    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.

  • Wisdom from the First Female Mayor of an American City

    Bertha K. Landes, Seattle mayor 1926-1928

    In doing research for a new project, I came across this quote from Bertha K. Landes, who was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926, becoming the first female mayor of any major American city:

    “I threaten to shoot on sight, without benefit of clergy, anyone calling me the mayoress instead of the mayor. Joking aside, I am fighting for a principle in taking that stand. Let women who go into politics be the real thing or nothing! Let us, while never forgetting our womanhood, drop all emphasis on sex and put it on being public servants.”

    Although Landes cleaned up the city and had the support of important elements such as the Seattle Times, she was defeated in her reelection bid. The man who beat her, a political neophyte named Frank E. Edwards, did all he could to make the election about whether the city wanted to be led by a woman or a man. Sadly, his cynical approach worked, even among women.

    I’m happy to say Seattle has a strong female mayor again (the first since Bertha)–and I hope that after November, we’ll have many more female public servants across this country. God knows we’ve had enough men who don’t know the meaning of “public” or “servant.”

  • PURE ACT a Finalist for a Washington State Book Award

    PURE ACT a Finalist for a Washington State Book Award

    Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax has been named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in Biography/Memoir.  You’ll find a full list of finalists and information about the awards ceremony here.

    If you live in the Seattle area and are interested in attending, the awards ceremony will take place 7-9 p.m. in the Microsoft Auditorium at the Seattle Public Library’s central branch (1000 Fourth Avenue).

    The ceremony is free and parking is $7 in the library garage.
    wsba_auditorium
  • Two Pacific Northwest Talks Coming Up: Seattle and Portland

    Two Pacific Northwest Talks Coming Up: Seattle and Portland

    I’ll be giving talks on Pure Act at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 4, and at the University of Portland bookstore at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6.  (See my Talks page for location details.)

    These talks are significant to me for different reasons:

    Seattle: Having grown up in Seattle, I’ve long dreamed of giving a book talk at Elliott Bay, the top bookstore in the city.  And the talk is being co-sponsored by Image literary journal, which published my essay A Gyroscope On the Island of Love and named me its Artist of the Month in March of 2012.  The other co-sponsor is Wave Books, which put out a great collection of Lax’s later poetry in 2013: poems (1962-1997), edited by my Portland State University colleague John Beer.

    Portland: The University of Portland reading was arranged by my dear friend and former thesis student Fr. Pat Hannon, who teaches there.  Pat’s thesis was published last year by Ave Maria Press as a book called Sacrament: Personal Encounters with Memories, Wounds, Dreams, and Unruly Hearts.  Pat will be introducing me.  This will also be my first reading in Portland since my book came out.

    I hope you’ll come to one of these talks if you’re in the area, and spread the word to your friends!