Debra Gwartney is the author of two book-length memoirs, Live Through This, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and I Am a Stranger Here Myself, winner of the RiverTeeth Nonfiction Prize and the Willa Award for Nonfiction. Debra has published in such journals as Granta, The Sun, Tin House, American Scholar, Creative Nonfiction, VQR, and others. She is the recipient of two Pushcart prizes and her essay, “Fire and Ice,” was recently selected for Best American Essays. She is co-editor, along with her husband Barry Lopez, of Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape. She lives in Western Oregon. [M] www.debragwartney.com
2020 Memoir Workshop Special Guests
Christine Hemp (’06) has aired her essays and poems on NPR; she has sent a poem of hers into space on a NASA mission to monitor the birth of stars; and her program Connecting Chord has united cops and youth offenders—in Britain and the U.S.—through poetry. She is a speaker for Humanities Washington; her talk, “From Homer to #hashtags,” addresses our rapidly changing language. Hemp’s debut memoir, Wild Ride Home: Love, Loss, and a Little White Horse was released this spring by Arcade/Skyhorse. Her work has appeared recently in the New York Times, Salon.com, and Psychology Today. She teaches at Hugo House Seattle and the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She lives on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula with two horses, two cats, and one husband. http://christinehemp.com/index.html
Amy Tan’s novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and Valley of Amazement. She is the author of two memoirs, The Opposite of Fate and Where the Past Begins; and two children’s books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. Tan served as co-producer and co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club and creative consultant for the PBS television series, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. She wrote the libretto for the opera The Bonesetter’s Daughter and is the subject of the American Masters documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir. Tan is an instructor of a MasterClass on Fiction, Memory, and Imagination. She is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her most recent book, The Backyard Bird a Chronicles (Knopf, April 2024) marks her debut as a nature journalist and bird artist. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Community of Writers.