Memoirist, Teacher & Bookseller

Tina Ontiveros

author of

rough house: a memoir

in conversation with series host

Michael N. McGregor

author of The Last Grand Tour and

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

6:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 3

(Note: This is a different time and day than most events in the series)

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

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

Tina Ontiveros is a writer, teacher, and bookseller based at the foot of Mt. Hood, where she teaches writing and literature at Columbia Gorge Community College. A first-generation college graduate, she earned her BA in Literature at Marylhurst University and her MFA in Nonfiction from Goddard College while raising her children. Her memoir rough house—a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book Award winner and Indie Next Great Read selection—explores themes of poverty, class, and generational hardship, drawing from her upbringing in Oregon’s timber towns.

I read Rough House in a single sitting, unable to break loose from the tension of what might happen next. It is the story of a childhood gone wrong in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, twisted and tangled, before it is finally set to rights….rough house chronicles a past that haunts a young girl who, like her father, is filled with a legacy of anger, but like her mother, is determined to reshape how her own story will end.

—Deborah Reed, author of Pale Morning Light With Violet Swan

You can read more about Ontiveros and her work at tinaontiveros.com.

Click here to read Michael N. McGregor’s review of rough house.

You can purchase Tina Ontiveros’s book online at the Edmonds Bookshop.

~~~~~

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 showcases the wealth of writing talent in the Pacific Northwest by featuring 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 are also featured on WritingtheNorthwest.com.

The series offers 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 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.

Michael N. McGregor is Seattle-based author whose book Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award. After living his early life in Seattle, he spent 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, he holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Oregon and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in New York. His first novel, The Last Grand Tour, and his first memoir, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, were published earlier this year.

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.

---

---