SEQUIM — Writers on the Olympic Peninsula are seeking recognition in the community by publishing a new anthology of written work.
Editors of the anthology, Linda B. Myers and Heidi Hansen, along with local author and publisher Michael Bunnell, recruited 14 authors from Forks to Sequim to be included in the anthology, “In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors.”
A book launch party for the anthology is planned at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Olympic Theatre Arts in Sequim at 414 N. Sequim Ave.
Twelve of the anthology authors will read short selections of their work. Socializing will begin at 6:30 p.m., and the program will begin with readings at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served.
The anthology is a 300-plus-page book that includes short stories, essays and poems by authors who are award-winning, published and newly recognized. The anthology is published through Bunnell’s publishing company, Skookum Bay Publishing.
“Writers in general have not been as successful as other artisans have been,” Myers said. “It’s hard to publish a book on your own.”
The writers featured in the anthology also come from a group called Olympic Peninsula Authors (OPA), formed by Myers, Hansen and Bunnell in January.
“The whole drive behind Olympic Peninsula Authors is to help publicize the fact that there are some dandy writers here,” Myers said.
She said OPA is a partnership that consists of an estimated 20 to 25 authors from Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim.
In the future, Myers said she would like to reach out to more communities such as Quilcene.
“We’re very open to writers’ ideas at this point,” Myers said.
“If an author would like to contact us and give us ideas, such as workshops, education on the newest in self-publishing, we try to work that into an overall group here to serve the writing community as best we can,” she added.
She said the authors in OPA pay a small amount of money to help fund events such as book signings and have the opportunity to make a little money from books that are sold.
For this first anthology, writers were included by invitation.
“We invited writers who we had heard of and those we had met in the critique groups,” Myers said.
She added that in the future, the group would like to publish more focused anthologies, such as a poets edition, and see what sells best.
The featured writers in the anthology include Bunnell, Myers, Hansen, Jan Thatcher Adams, Craig Andrews, Cheryle Hoskins Bigelow, Judith R. Duncan, Jon Eekhoff, Dianne L. Knox, Ruth Marcus, Elizabeth K. Pratt, Linda Sharps, Charlie Sheldon and Eva Stanfield.
The anthology will be available on Amazon and in area gift shops, bookstores, festivals and markets on or around the Olympic Peninsula.
Books will be available for purchase at the reading for $19.95 each.
For more information, contact OlympicPeninsula Authors@gmail.com.
Heidi Hensen, left, and Linda B. Myers are editors and contributors to a new anthology, “In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors.”
Heidi Hensen, left, and Linda B. Myers are editors and contributors to a new anthology, “In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors.”
A new writers group called the Olympic Peninsula Authors will celebrate the release of a new anthology, “In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors,” including the work of 14 local authors.
