{"id":1606,"date":"2024-08-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2024-08-10T15:31:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-10T22:31:47","slug":"first-cascadia-writers-in-conversation-evening-with-sharma-shields-a-huge-sucess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/?p=1606","title":{"rendered":"First Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Evening with Sharma Shields a Huge Sucess"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Michael N. McGregor in conversation with Sharma Shields at the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, WA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The inaugural Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation<\/a> evening <\/strong>took place on Thursday, August 8, with the eminently charming Sharma Shields<\/a><\/strong> as the first featured author. In a beautiful museum setting, with Z. Vanessa Helder\u2019s magnificent watercolors<\/a><\/strong> of Eastern Washington on the walls, 60+ people had the great fortune to listen to a terrifically talented writer talk in depth about her life and her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attendees called the evening “wonderful” and “thoroughly entertaining.” One marveled at how “emotionally open and revealing” Shields was, while another praised her for being “so engaging,” with “her love of literature on full display.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shields and McGregor chat with audience members after their conversation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the topics Shields discussed were: how she became a writer, how fairy tales can help us find an alternative path to a deeper reality, the source of her ability to write funny, a writer\u2019s relationship to the serious issues of our times, and the importance in her life of Hans Christian Anderson<\/a><\/strong> (the subject of her next novel).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also talked at length about the development and \u201cweirdness\u201d of her three books\u2013Favorite Monster<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, The Sasquatch Hunter\u2019s Almanac<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, and The Cassandra<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. One of the evening\u2019s many treats was Shields\u2019 reading of three short stories about witches that showcased her humor and love for tales as well as the unique blend of edginess and tenderness that characterizes much of her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The audience waits for the conversation to begin, surrounded by Helder\u2019s watercolors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, September 12<\/strong>, McGregor will be interviewing the second featured writer in the monthly series: Debra Magpie Earling<\/a><\/strong>, author of Perma Red<\/a><\/em><\/strong> and The Lost Journals of Sacajawea<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. The conversation begins at 6 and lasts until 7:30. Click here<\/a> for more information and a link to purchase tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writers-in-Conversation<\/strong> events take place on the second Thursday of each month at the Cascadia Art Museum<\/strong><\/a> in Edmonds, WA, and are sponsored by the Edmonds Bookshop<\/a> and the Holman Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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McGregor kicking things off with thank yous and the story of how the Writers-in-Conversation series came to be.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photos by Gene Openshaw and Rod Ralston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: I\u2019m an affiliate of Bookshop.org, where your purchases support local bookstores. If you buy a book through a click on this website, I\u2019ll earn a small commission that helps defray the costs of maintaining<\/em> this website.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The inaugural Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation evening took place on Thursday, August 8, with the eminently charming Sharma Shields as the first featured author. In a beautiful museum setting, with Z. Vanessa Helder\u2019s magnificent watercolors on the walls, 60+ people heard a terrifically talented writer talk about her life and her work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_swt_meta_header_display":false,"_swt_meta_footer_display":false,"_swt_meta_site_title_display":false,"_swt_meta_sticky_header":false,"_swt_meta_transparent_header":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,99,103],"tags":[115,428,447,440,448,430,441,424,10],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibits-events","category-latest-posts","category-nw-people","tag-cascadia-art-museum","tag-cascadia-writers-in-conversation-series","tag-conversations-with-writers","tag-edmonds-bookshop","tag-hans-christian-anderson","tag-michael-n-mcgregor","tag-northwest-literature","tag-sasquatch","tag-sharma-shields"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605.jpeg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605.jpeg",640,480,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605-300x225.jpeg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605.jpeg",640,480,false],"large":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605.jpeg",640,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605.jpeg",640,480,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605.jpeg",640,480,false],"mailpoet_newsletter_max":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8605.jpeg",640,480,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"michael n. mcgregor","author_link":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The inaugural Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation evening took place on Thursday, August 8, with the eminently charming Sharma Shields as the first featured author. In a beautiful museum setting, with Z. Vanessa Helder\u2019s magnificent watercolors on the walls, 60+ people heard a terrifically talented writer talk about her life and her work.","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1620,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions\/1620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}