Author, Essayist, Journalist & Biographer

Michael N. McGregor

author of

Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, The Last Grand Tour, and An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life

in conversation with host

Sally Ralston

Executive Director, Cascadia Art Museum

6 p.m., Thursday, May 8

Cascadia Art Museum, 190 Sunset Ave, Edmonds, WA 98020

(To order tickets through the Cascadia website, click here)

Note: I usually host this series, but for the last event in our inaugural year, the museum has asked me to be the featured author instead. This will be the first opportunity to learn about and purchase my new book, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, which officially goes on sale next Tuesday, May 13.

Michael N. McGregor is a Seattle-based author whose first book, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award and several other prizes. After living his early life in Seattle, he earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University and taught both there and at Southern Illinois University before spending 17 years as an award-winning professor of creative writing at Portland State University, where he helped found the MFA in Creative Writing program.

A former member of the Advisory Committee for the Oregon Book Awards and Fellowships, McGregor holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Oregon and considers both Washington State and Oregon to be home. His first novel The Last Grand Tour, published earlier this year by Portland publisher Korza Books, features characters from both Seattle and Portland.

McGregor’s latest book is An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, coming May 13 from Monkfish Publishing. He has published shorter works in over 300 publications–including Tin House, Poetry, StoryQuarterly, and Orion–and his writing has been cited in both the Best American Essays and Pushcart Prize series.

You can read more about him at michaelnmcgregor.com.

You can purchase Michael N. McGregor’s books online at the Edmonds Bookshop.

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About the Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Series

On the second Thursday of each month, host Michael N. McGregor brings one Northwest writer in front of an enthusiastic audience for a brief reading, a discussion of the author’s work, and a question-and-answer session with engaged literature lovers.

The series is intended to showcase the wealth of writing talent in the Pacific Northwest. To that end, it will 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 be featured on WritingtheNorthwest.com.

This is 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 Northwest artists in literature as well. The series is sponsored by the Edmonds Bookshop and Holman.

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 WritingtheNorthwest.com.