Clatskanie’s claim to fame as the birthplace of world-renowned writer Raymond Carver will be celebrated May 17-18 during the annual Raymond Carver Writing Festival, an event which honors the craft of writing and supports the community of regional writers. The Raymond Carver Writing Festival is free and open to the public.
“Where I’m Calling From,” the title of both a short story and a collection of stories by Carver, is the theme of this year’s festival which will begin Friday, May 17, at 5 p.m. at the Clatskanie Cultural Center (CCC), 75 S. Nehalem Street, with a publishers and writers fair. Visitors can explore local writing resources, meet presenting authors and purchase their work, as well as learn more about Carver’s life and writing. There will also be opportunities to meet fellow fans and scholars of Raymond Carver’s writing including representatives from The Raymond Carver Podcast, and The Raymond Carver Review.
A reception begins at 6 p.m. featuring Chad Wriglesworth a writer and literature professor at St. Jerome’s, University of Waterloo, Canada. Wriglesworth is also an associate editor of The Raymond Carver Review. Keynote speaker for the evening will be Kim Stafford, founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, Poet Laureate of Oregon 2018-2020, and the son of the late William Stafford, also a renowned poet and a U.S. Poet Laureate.
After the reception, readings at multiple venues in Clatskanie will commence. Fultano’s will host Michael Mills, Ben Parzybok, Scott MacGregor, and Mac Stripling for a prose and story-telling event at 7:30 p.m. A simultaneous poetry reading featuring Robert Michael Pyle, Joseph Green, and Marianne Monson will be held at 7:45 p.m. at Flowers ’n Fluff. The evening concludes with a line-up curated by Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, with readings from Ed Skoog, Justin Taylor and others at Colvin’s Pub & Grill starting at 8:45 p.m.
Stafford will open the second day of the festival, Saturday, May 18, with “The World According to You” a morning writing conversation and warm-up at 10 a.m. at the CCC, followed by writing workshops from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. organized by The Writer’s Guild of Astoria. The three generative writing workshops will be facilitated by Vicki Lind, Asher Finch, and Nancy A. Cook.
Attendees and participants of the free writing festival are encouraged to “Explore Carver in Clatskanie” at several locations around the community on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. A list of times and locations is available at https://www.clatskaniearts.org/raymond-carver-writing-festival. Each location will host brief readings and presentations. Festival-goers are encouraged to bring a story or poem to share.
Parking Lot Poetry features participatory readings of Raymond Carver poems and other works on the theme “Where I’m Calling From” at the Evergreen Shopping Center/Safeway parking lot from 12 to 2 p.m. The Clatskanie Library will host 15 minute writing prompts at quarter to the hour at 11:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. for those who wish to steal a little time for writing.
An award ceremony and readings of their poetry by the youth winners of the Raymond Carver Writing Festival Poetry Contest held in April is set for 4:30 p.m. in the Birkenfeld Theatre at the Clatskanie Cultural Center. Awards will be presented by Clatskanie Mayor Robert “Bob” Brajcich, assisted by Joseph Green (poet) and Maryanne Hirning (librarian).
The Festival Finale “Poetry and Pie” event will be held at 6 p.m. at the Clatskanie Food Hub at 80 NE Steele Street. A seasonal Farm-to-table dinner featuring a menagerie of locally grown savory pies will be hosted by the Clatskanie Farmer Collective. Cost is $20 per plate, reservations are required, and can be made at https://www.clatskaniearts.org/shop/rcwf-dinner Dessert will be a community desert potluck of pies—Carver’s favorite dessert. There will be a friendly competition, with taste-test voting and a prize for best pie.
After dinner, winners of the adult poetry contest will be introduced and asked to present their poems, followed by an open mic poetry session hosted by Longview poet and Lower Columbia College professor emeritus Joseph Green.
Carver, who was called by novelist Stephen King “surely the most influential writer of American short stories in the second half of the 20th century,” was born on May 25, 1938 in the brick building on Clatskanie’s North Nehalem Street which served at the time as Dr. James Wooden’s hospital. Named Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr., after his father who was employed as a saw filer at the Wauna paper mill, Ray spent only the first two years of his life in the Clatskanie area before his parents moved to Yakima, Wash.
Carver returned to Clatskanie only once, in 1984, the same year he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Accompanied by Tess Gallagher, who would become his second wife, Carver stopped at the Clatskanie Library where he signed copies of his book; visited the Flippin Castle and signed the Dr. Wooden Baby Book; lunched at Hump’s Restaurant; then he and Tess read some of their poems aloud in the Evergreen Shopping Center/Safeway parking lot. Carver died of lung cancer in 1988 at the age of 50.
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