Poet Tess Gallagher, with many fellow writers and readers gathered at Raymond Carver’s grave Saturday during the Raymond Carver & Tess Gallagher Creative Writing Festival. The event celebrated the works of Carver, who lived the final 10 years of his life in Port Angeles, Gallagher, who was born and raised there, and a cadre of visiting writers.
“It is so amazing to be each other’s heroes,” Gallagher said, reading from a 2021 letter she wrote to Carver, her late husband. The letter had been kept in a box beside his grave at Ocean View Cemetery in Port Angeles.
“I’ve had occasion to realize again and again how good and full of respect and kindness your love for me was. So I turn it into an ‘is,’ to let the sun shine on me, even when things aren’t how I like,” Gallagher read.
