Writer-in-residence set for public events

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 12, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Former journalist James McGrath Morris still approaches biography like a reporter seeking out information and details that bring a life into focus.

“You’re looking for clues that will shed light on the person,” Morris said by phone from his home in Santa Fe, N.M.

But biography, he said, is more than just assembling facts.

“It is very similar to portrait painting,” he said. “The painter brings to the canvas their own acculturation, their own path, their own view of things.”

Morris will share insights on writing and narrative nonfiction this week as Peninsula College’s writer-in-residence, participating in readings, classroom visits and public discussions in Port Angeles and Port Townsend.

His most recent book, “Tony Hillerman: A Life,” published in 2021, will be the subject of a Studium Generale presentation at 12:35 p.m. Thursday in Peninsula College’s Little Theater, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.

Before turning to biography, Morris worked in newspapers, wrote for magazines and taught high school English.

His breakthrough came in 2000 with “The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism.”

“Every biographer has a doorstop book that gets good critical reception,” Morris said. “The book that broke through is ‘The Rose Man of Sing Sing.”

Its success led to “Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power,” which allowed Morris to begin writing full time.

“When I got the Pulitzer contract, that was big time in the sense that I could leave teaching,” he said.

The book chronicles the life of publisher Joseph Pulitzer, whom Morris described as a transformative figure in American journalism.

“He figured out how to make newspapers economically independent so they were not supported by political parties,” he said.

Morris said his approach to biography blends deep archival research with the pacing and structure of fiction while remaining grounded in fact.

“What I’m trying to do is write a story,” he said. “I’m taking somebody’s life as if they were fiction. But I’m not making up anything.”

That process can involve years of work, including retracing the paths of his subjects.

While researching Ethel Payne for “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press,” Morris walked the route she took to school through segregated Chicago neighborhoods where white children threw rocks at her.

“I wanted to know was it an eternity to complete that walk, or was it just a short block?” he said. “That’s what you look for.”

Morris said he researches and writes simultaneously, gradually shifting from the former to the latter as the book develops.

That process often changes his understanding of his subjects, particularly once he begins working through letters and other personal items in archives.

Morris’ perspective on Ernest Hemingway’s difficult and often self-destructive behavior shifted as he uncovered details about the writer’s troubled family life and mental health struggles for his book, “The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War.”

Tangling with the contradictions between Hemingway’s public image and private life was essential to capturing his complexity.

“When you learn the inside of a person, that makes a big difference,” he said.

Public events

James McGrath Morris, Peninsula College’s writer-in-residence, will be at the following events this week:

• 10 a.m. today, a reception with remarks by Peninsula College President Suzy Ames, Pirate Union Building, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., followed by a reading by Morris and faculty-led discussion with instructors Matt Teorey and Michael Mills.

• 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, reading and book signing, Pirate Union Building. Books available for purchase through community partner Port Book & News.

• 4 p.m. Wednesday, author presentation, Q&A and book signing, Port Townsend Public Library, 1220 Lawrence St.

• 12:35 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Studium Generale lecture, “Tony Hillerman: A Life,” Little Theater, Peninsula College.

• 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Screening of “Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People (PBS American Masters),” Little Theater, Peninsula College.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.