Tags
beer, books, breweries, Faith Sullivan, Grand Marais, Judith Guest, literary festivals, Lorna Landvik, Minnesota, readers, writing, writing conferences
Your daily view if you attended the North Shore Readers & Writers Festival Nov. 5-8.
I looked forward to this for months: the first North Shore Readers & Writers Festival in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Grand Marais is my among my favorite spots in the state, situated on Lake Superior in far northeastern Minnesota (the Canadian border is just 35 miles away).
This was an excellent festival, organized very well and attracting some of the state’s top literary talent (Lorna Landvik, Faith Sullivan, Judith Guest, Heid Erdrich, Kate Kysar, Peter Geye, Bill Durbin, should I go on and on?). If you are interested in attending in the future, please, please, please contact the Grand Marais Arts Colony and let them know you’re interested! The organizers will let future interest guide them in making decisions whether to continue.
I’ve known Faith Sullivan (left) for a few years, but had never met Judith Guest (Ordinary People) until this week. What a delightful pair of friends! This picture accurately captures them as they were during the entire festival 🙂
Bad me, I know: I had not yet read Ordinary People. I corrected this problem immediately, buying a copy at Drury Lane Books. I read the first 100 pages on my ride back home. Loving it, and can’t wait to get back to it.
The sign for my Friday workshop. Fifteen people graciously agreed to spend three hours with me. Our room overlooked Lake Superior. Heaven!
Lorna Landvik (Patty Jane’s House of Curl and Best to Laugh) delighting a packed house on Friday night with a sing-a-long.
Lorna, Pamela Klinger-Horn, Tom Munkeby, me, Peter Geye (in the back).
Friday night! Time for Books n’ Brew at Voyageur Brewing. Somehow Kate Kysar, Peter Geye, and I ended up in charge of the literary trivia event.
Me with Peter and Kate. I’m glad Kate is sitting and Peter is crouching; it’s not too often I’m the shortest person in the picture!
This is really, really rare: me with a beer! I’m not a beer person; I don’t like malt in general (ice cream parlor malts, malted milk balls, etc.–ick!). But a craft brew, light and fruity, from a local brewery — not bad! I even drank the whole thing 🙂
Lorna won the literary trivia — she knows her Minnesota literature! And she chose as first prize my book. I hope she likes it!
Again, I can’t recommend this festival enough. Wonderful sessions (I attended an informative session by Linda White about using social media as a book lover), great places to eat, a view that can’t be beat, and fun, fun, fun with writers! Please let the Arts Colony know that you’d be interested in a second annual North Shore Readers & Writers Festival. This first one was popular: 130 people attended. I kept hearing over and over from attendees that they want to see it again, so let’s make it happen! They would especially appreciate volunteers, so if you have skills to offer, let them know!
If You Have Five Seconds to Spare 
Rachael, thank you, thank you for your wonderful workshop. Your memory that sticks and items you’ve kept in your life opened a gate in the fence of obstacles I allowed to delay my writing commitment to the memoir that has been building inside my head for too many years. I feel freed to pull all of the pieces together finally and you gave us so many helpful prompts. I hope there is a 2nd annual gathering and that you will continue to inspire and encourage us with your knowledge and experience. Again thank you and I look forward to more opportunities to spend time with you.
Thank you so much for attending! Now you have the “simple” task of sitting down to write!
I was there, too, and it was great! Your photos really capture how much fun people were having. (I would have introduced myself but you always seemed to be in a crowd! Maybe next year…)
I’m glad you had a good time, Katherine! I really loved it there. I hope they do it again.
So bummed I missed it…glad it was fabulous!
Maybe next year 🙂
Just wrote an email to the Grand Marais Arts Colony, asking to get on their email list so I’ll know about the next writer’s festival. I don’t want to miss another!