Near the US-Canadian border in Washington state, the college city of Bellingham hosts a good number of cultural events, including the writers conference I’ll be attending this coming weekend, June 28 to 29.

The Chuckanut Writers Conference is named after a famous scenic byway leading into Bellingham called Chuckanut Drive, the term “chuckanut” being a local tribal phrase meaning “long beach far from a narrow entrance.”

(That sounds far more beautiful and intriguing than Bellingham’s inauspicious nickname, the “city of subdued excitement.”)

If that sounds a bit like a reference to hippie or granola culture, you’d not be too far off. Things are pretty chill up in that neck of the woods… but it’s also quite pretty. Some of the most iconic images coming out of the PNW are from this part of the state.

Perched on Bellingham Bay, the city ports the easternmost end of the Strait of Georgia just north of the San Juan Islands. On the west side of Bellingham, it’s a pastiche of long sunsets, lifting fog, and salty spray off the gorgeous seascape there. Yet, hovering over the city along its east side is the Mt. Baker wilderness area in the upper Cascades. This is the kind of gorgeous playground that an outside sports nut will inhabit gleefully 365 days a year.

It’s also a great literary oasis, with Village Books and Paper Dreams in B’ham’s Fairhaven District a destination for book lovers.

I’ll be meeting a friend of mine, the author Jan Keller, at the event. We are linked by our beloved connection to the North Seattle Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup group. Having only ever seen each other in Zoom, it will be fun to visit face to face!

The presenters list and schedule of events is a pretty good one for a smaller conference, a nice reminder that not all awesome literary happenings take place in Seattle (the “inland empire” of Spokane also has an active and talented writing community).

Some of the folks I anticipate hearing from include Brooke Warner, Erica Bauermeister, William Kenower, and Grant Faulkner, among others.

This will also a wonderful opportunity to see old friends and peers also presenting for the conference.

I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Priscilla Long via Field’s End (so, so long ago!) and Sati Mookherjee (via MoonPath Press at AWP ’23 in Seattle).

Paul Hanson and I go way back to his days at Eagle Harbor Books (his leaving there was Bainbridge Island’s loss and Bellingham’s gain).

I’ve also worked with The Narrative Project founder Cami Ostman (who delivers the opening address at the conference) and her project’s associated publishing partner, Sidekick Press, run by Lisa Dailey, so that will be a nice homecoming of sorts as well.

I expect to run into even more folks I haven’t seen in a while, so this will not only be a learning opportunity, but a bit of a (re)meet and greet.

There appears to be a Saturday night open mic, so I’ll have to break out a copy of Cul de Sac Stories and read a passage, if that’s the case! Forget about subdued excitement, I’m stoked! I’ll take pics, I promise!