A rising tide lifts all boats, but for 13 writers who will participate in the Writers Read Celebration at the Cannon Beach Library on March 7, a rising tide is the theme flowing through their stories and poems.
From shipwrecks to wrack lines, the pieces to be read by Oregon, Washington and Canadian writers explore the meanings and metaphors of “rising tide,” this year’s theme for the library’s annual writing project.
The seventh annual Writers Read Celebration will begin at 7 p.m.; admission is free. People can attend in person at the library, 131 Hemlock St., or online; the link will be on the library’s website, cannonbeachlibrary.org.
Fifteen pieces to be read include stories, poems and haikus. Topics include a woman who lifts a whale off the beach, flowers floating from Ukraine, a body to be buried, a morning and evening spent at Haystack Rock and a nod to political currents.
This is the seventh year that the library’s NW Authors Series Committee asked writers from everywhere to submit works on a specific theme. Writers could submit up to three entries in any format limited to 600 words per entry.
Of the 85 entries, the committee, after a blind reading, selected 15 pieces to be read by 13 writers. One of those writers is from Alberta, Canada.
Those invited to read this year were:
John Ciminello, Naselle, WA, poem: King Tides at Cape Disappointment
Deanna Duplechain, Seaside, OR, short story: Seeing Saturday
Christie Ellis, Astoria, flash fiction: All at Sea
Kristi Lund, Nehalem, OR, poem: Heeding the Tide
Mimi Maduro, Cape Meares, OR, haiku, Three Haiku
Colleen Medlock, Portland/Seaside, OR, flash fictions: Shifting Tides and A Light in a Storm
Russell Myers, Vancouver, WA, flash fiction: The Body
Jennifer Nightingale, Astoria, OR, poems: She Knows the Tide is Rising and Gifts from the Wrack Line
Grace Page, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, poem: An Evening Walk to Haystack
Robert Michael Pyle, Gray’s River, WA, poem: All Boats Rise
Florence Sage, Astoria, OR, poem: But Never Mind
Phyllis Thompson, Manzanita, OR, poem: The Tides
Evan Morgan Williams, Portland, OR, flash fiction: The Great Black Shape
A quiet, relaxing atmosphere to unwind, reflect, and get creative. 
