2 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
‘Sold on a Monday’ author to
speak at Cannon Beach Library
CANNON BEACH — New York
Times bestselling author Kristina
McMorris will read from and discuss
her latest novel, “Sold on a Monday,”
at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, in the
Cannon Beach Library, 131 N. Hem-
lock St.
The talk is part of the library’s
Northwest Authors series.
McMorris began writing “Sold on
a Monday” when she stumbled upon
an old newspaper photograph of four
young siblings huddled on the steps
of an apartment building, their mother
shielding her face from the camera
“The sign in the foreground
stunned me,” McMorris writes.
The sign said, “4 CHILDREN FOR
SALE, INQUIRE WITHIN.”
The photo had fi rst appeared in
FACEBOOK.COM/
COASTWEEKEND
Sou’Wester
Garden Club
plant
sale
Saturday,
May 25
9am-Noon
Seaside
Convention
Center
OUTSTANDING
PLANTS
Raffle and
Silent Auction
The Vidette-Messenger newspaper in
1948 and, in a brief caption, claimed
to exhibit the desperation of a family
in Chicago.
“As a mom myself, I wondered
what could have possibly pushed
a parent to that point,” McMorris
added. “In the direst of times, I could
fathom perhaps having to give up my
children for the sake of their well-be-
ing. But why on earth ask for money
in return? Possible answers to that
question soon became the foundation
of “Sold on a Monday.”
McMorris’s writing career started
with a recipe book of her grand-
mother’s favorite recipes, “Grandma
Jean’s Rainy Day Recipes,” a collec-
tion that she published herself to ben-
efi t the Oregon Food Bank. The pro-
cess of collecting the recipes led to
the discovery of her grandfather’s let-
ters to his sweetheart during his naval
service in WWII, which she used to
inspire her fi rst novel, “Letters from
Home.”
Since then, McMorris has writ-
ten several novels and novellas,
which have received 20 national liter-
ary awards honoring her subtle inter-
mingling of history and fi ction. Her
works include: “Bridge of Scarlet
Leaves,” “The Pieces We Keep” and
“The Edge of Lost.”
McMorris has a background in
children’s television programming
and media and public relations. She
was named one of Portland’s “Forty
Under 40” by The Business Journal.
This is a free event.
“Sold on a Monday” by Kristina McMorris
‘Finding Humanity Behind Bars’
MANZANITA — Authors
Lauren Kessler and Nancy
Miller Gomez discuss the
transformative power of
words for prison inmates,
“Finding Humanity Behind
Bars,” at the Manzanita Writ-
ers’ Series, at the Hoffman
Center for the Arts in Manza-
nita at 7 p.m. Saturday, May
18.
The U.S. has the high-
est rate of incarceration in the
world. Listen to two authors
who spend time with some of
the inmates — Kessler with
“Lifers” in a maximum-secu-
rity prison and Gomez with
men and women in Santa
Cruz, California, county jails
and prisons. They’ll talk about
the ways writing can heal,
redeem and give meaning to
life in prison, as well as how
the experience has made a dif-
ference in their own lives.
Kessler will read from “A
Grip of Time: When Prison
is Your Life,” based on three
years of running writing
workshops inside the Oregon
State Penitentiary.
Kessler says her mission
was to “learn about this hid-
den world. So that we all
could. I could teach these men
to craft stories. They could
educate me about prison life.
I needed to know — I thought
we all needed to know —
who these people were that
we put away, far away from
us, in a country that puts more
people in prison than any
other coun-try on earth.”
Gomez will read from her
poetry chapbook “Punish-
ment,” a 2018 Rattle Poetry
Chapbook Selection. Gomez
teaches poetry workshops to
inmates at Salinas Valley State
Prison. These workshops fos-
ter creativity and self-expres-
sion, providing an opportu-
nity for inmates to transform
personal suffering into a
shared experience through
poems and stories. The work-
shops help participants heal
emotional wounds and make
meaning of their lives.
Kessler will also teach a
writing workshop on Mak-
ing Characters Come Alive
during the day from 10 a.m.
to 12:30 p.m. Fee is $60. The
workshop requires a min-
imum of six attendees so
register soon at http://bit.
ly/2UParad.
Admission for the evening
reading is $7. Doors open at
6:30.