PORT ANGELES — It might seem an adventure in irony or at least an interesting juxtaposition: Writer, editor and mountain guide Charlotte Austin will host a mountain adventure writing workshop at sea level in the Feiro Marine Life Center on Saturday.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Austin will host the workshop with discussions about how to get adventure writing projects published and provide written feedback to aspiring writers.
Participants and non-participants can meet Austin at a kick-off evening at Barhop Brewing Co. in Port Angeles tonight from 7 to 10, where she’ll share photos and stories from her adventures.
For information about the cost of the workshop at Feiro, 315 N. Lincoln St., go to www.charlotteaustin.com or contact Laura-Ann Grieser of the Outdoor Women’s Alliance at 503-939-8798 or [email protected]
A portion of the proceeds from the event will support the Alliance, a nonprofit media and adventure collective that encourages, educates and engages women through adventure sports worldwide.
All writers are welcome, said Austin in a news release.
The Outdoor Women’s Alliance, Grieser said, is a national organization based in Salt Lake City. Its mission is promoting outdoor activities for women.
She is a team leader for Washington state, working to organize runs, climbing nights and other activities for women.
The workshop is for writers of all experience levels — published authors, part-time bloggers or curious novices.
Austin wants to hear writers’ goals, help them hone their skills and ask the questions that will help them move their writing forward, she said.
Door prizes from Vasque, Rite in the Rain, and Granite Gear will be awarded both during the slide show and the writing workshop.
Austin — whom Grieser said was on an expedition earlier this week — will likely have workshop participants write to interactive prompts she will supply.
From her broad experience in the adventure writing world, Austin might be able to provide participants with connections to publications she has worked for.
Austin’s work has been published in The Alpinist, Misadventures Magazine, Stay Wild, Seattle Magazine, Women’s Adventure Magazine, Mountain Magazine and Seattle Met.
When she’s not writing, Austin works for International Mountain Guides, where she leads climbing, mountaineering and hiking expeditions around the world. She is also a Wilderness EMT, Leave No Trace trainer, and holds a Level 2 certification with the American Institute for Avalanche Training and Education.
Among her adventures are a 146-mile kayak expedition along the Lower Columbia River Water Trail, seven days of paddling between the Bonneville Dam and the Pacific Ocean; leading an expedition with dentist Jeff Phillips of the Silverdale Dental Center as he provided dental care to families in the Khumbu Valley of northeastern Nepal; an expedition to 22,841-foot Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina, the tallest mountain in South America; and a 2016 expedition to the Kenku Valley of Nepal.
On her website, Austin said she did undergraduate work at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland, and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington. She also attended the master of fine arts program at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.
She has also spent time as a writer-in-residence at the Oregon State University’s H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest as part of the Long-Term Ecological Reflections (LTER) program.
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Assistant Managing Editor Mark Swanson can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55450, or [email protected].
