Lopez writers have been reading their work on the stage of Lopez Center since its grand opening in October of 1999.
On Friday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m., the 10th annual Writers Read, again sponsored by the Lopez Writers Guild, will kick off the first event of the year with Iris Graville, Leta Marshall, Helen Sanders, and Janet Thomas. Everyone in the group resides on Lopez, except for Thomas, who lives on San Juan Island. Admission is by donation.
All of those reading have been featured in SHARK REEF, the guild’s online literary magazine. Graville is in the current Spring 2008 issue, Thomas in the Fall 2007 issue, and Sanders and Marshall in earlier editions. Go to www.sharkreef.org to view the editions.
Graville will present an excerpt from her upcoming book, “Hands at Work: Portraits and Profiles of People Who Work with Their Hands.” It portrays, through stories by Graville and black-and-white photographs by Summer Moon Scriver, 35 people who are passionate about laboring with their hands. All but one are from Puget Sound, and most live on Lopez.
In September of 2004, Marshall flew from Seattle to Providence, Rhode Island, via Atlanta, and took the slower of two ferries out to Block Island to meet her friend Liz. Together they drove back across the U.S. on a three-week, island-to-island odyssey, ending their trip as they began it: aboard a ferry. As she always does on trips, Leta kept a travel diary. She will read parts of this story.
Sanders, who has a Bachelors and Masters degree in English/Creative Writing but spent her career in the corporate world, will be reading from her novel in progress entitled “Ringmaker,” a fantasy story about a woman who must ultimately face her tormentor.
Thomas has written plays about abortion, sexual abuse, nuclear war, the Vietnam War and the war against the environment. Her plays have been produced in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Portland and Hawaii. She has written travel books, was editor of SPA magazine and was a contributing editor to 2007 Northwest Best Places. Her book “The Battle in Seattle – The Story Behind and Beyond the WTO Demonstrations” was published in 2000. Thomas will read from her recently completed memoir, “The Dogs of Dharamsala – On the Trail of the Dalai Lama.”
