PORT ANGELES — Dates are set and tickets are available for the Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher Creative Writing Festival April 25-27 in Port Angeles.
The festival includes keynote readings, a film screening, conference-style lectures and presentations, pie and poetry at Carver’s grave and optional writing workshops led by Northwest writers. Selected Shorts Radio from Symphony Space in New York and National Public Radio will bring actors and deliver a performance of work by Carver, Gallagher, Collins and Boyle.
Keynote guests include Tess Gallagher, Billy Collins, TC Boyle and Selected Shorts Radio.
All-access festival passes are available for $400 at EventBrite or the festival page on the Raymond Carver Podcast website at https://raymondcarverpodcast.pencol.edu.
Individual tickets for keynote readings, including Tess Gallagher, Billy Collins and TC Boyle, will be available at $15 each plus processing fees and can be purchased through Field Arts & Events Hall. Tickets for Selected Shorts will be available from Field Hall.
Festival events will be held on the Peninsula College campus in Port Angeles, at Ocean View Cemetery and at Field Hall.
To maintain an intimate setting in which to interact with writers, this event is limited to 200 all-access festival passes. Field Hall can accommodate an additional 300 seats for various events.
Those wishing to brush up on their writing skills can register for a workshop in poetry, fiction or nonfiction with regional authors Jonathan Evison, Tim McNulty, Alice Derry, Holly Hughes, Lawrence Matsuda, Anna Quin, Charlotte Gould Warren, Kate Reavey, Carmen Germain or Lisa C. Taylor.
Writing workshops are $120. Each workshop meets Thursday and Saturday for two hours each day. View a list of instructors and workshop topics on the Workshop Authors 2024 page.
Peninsula College designed the festival to honor local poets and short story writers Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher, and to bring an international audience of readers and writers to the Olympic Peninsula. The Peninsula College Foundation provided advice and a one-time gift of financial support to breathe life into the project, which it hopes will take on a life of its own.
Raymond Carver lived the last 10 years of his life in Port Angeles and is buried in Ocean View Cemetery. Gallagher, a local resident, was born and raised in Port Angeles. Gallagher brought Carver to the Olympic Peninsula in 1978. The couple authored roughly two dozen books and have been translated into more than 20 languages.
The event was made possible through a National Endowment for the Humanities American Rescue Plan (ARP) grant that supports humanities faculty, staff and projects impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
To learn more about the festival, contact Michael Mills, faculty with Peninsula College’s English department, at MMills@pencol.edu.
