Free public reading series to open in Port Townsend

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 8, 2026

PORT TOWNSEND — A cadre of nationally known writers — journalists, novelists and poets — will be in Port Townsend not only to teach classes at Centrum’s Writers Conference, but also to give a full week of free public readings starting July 12.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tessa Hulls and Washington State Book Award recipient Claudia Rowe are among the Port Townsend Writers Conference faculty who will share their work in the series. So is Erica Bauermeister, the best-selling author who lives in Port Townsend.

“The organizers do a great job of mixing up the readers, so every night feels like a literary kaleidoscope,” Bauermeister said.

“As for what I’m going to read — I think it might be time to take the plunge and read from the novel that is due out June 2027,” she added, referring to her next book.

After five novels, this one’s a departure from her previous subject matter.

All seven of the free readings take place inside the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden State Park, 200 Battery Way, and each will start at 7 p.m. Information is available at centrum.org.

Also set to appear are Oregon writer Lidia Yuknavitch, whose memoir “The Chronology of Water” was made into a movie in 2025, and Jamie Ford, whose “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” spent 2½ years on The New York Times bestseller list.

Writers Conference program manager Eric Greenwell said this year’s faculty reflects a conscious effort to maintain the caliber of previous years while inviting new voices and writers who haven’t been to Port Townsend in a long while.

“We encourage and invite the public to come and enjoy,” Greenwell said. “It’s a great opportunity to hear writers who have never read in Port Townsend before.”

The free faculty reading series schedule includes:

• July 12: Novelist Jamie Ford, Roger Reeves; poet-memoirist Maya Jewell Zeller.

• July 13: Author Bryan Fry, poet Matt Morton and novelist-memoirist Lidia Yuknavitch.

• July 14: Poet-memoirist Alice Anderson, poet Brian Gilmore and journalist and novelist Kristen Millares Young.

• July 15: Poet and nonfiction writer Dawn Pichón Barron, novelist-memoirist Erica Bauermeister and journalist Claudia Rowe.

• July 16: Essayist, author and educator Sayantani Dasgupta, author Michael McGriff and author Jacinda Townsend.

• July 17: Novelist Jonathan Evison, artist and writer Tessa Hulls and poet A. Van Jordan.

• July 18: Cookbook writer and essayist Kate Lebo, novelist Sam Ligon and Port Townsend Writers Conference Artistic Director and poet Gary Copeland Lilley.