What is Hedgebrook?

For many years, Hedgebrook was a "best kept secret," quietly supporting the creative process of women writers at their Whidbey Island retreat.

Several years ago, they had an epiphany: Hedgebrook is not just a place, it's an idea. Wherever alumnae gather, whenever their work is being heard or seen or read, Hedgebrooks' mission lives and breathes in the world. Out of this revelation, they manifested a new vision: to engage their alumnae globally and promote their work, and in doing so, to exponentially expand the audience for work by women writers.

They offer exciting Master Classes each year; the first one for 2011 is led by playwright and actress, Ellen McLaughlin. Ellen's workshop, The Myth at the Heart of the Matter, focuses on exploring the use of myths, folktales and other ancient narratives to provide structure to any writing project. It is open to writers in all genres and will be offered March 15 - 22nd.

Other upcoming Master Classes include a class by Ruth Ozeki on Retraining the Author's Mind, June 10 - 17th and one led by novelist Victoria Redel, A Writer's Opportunity, November 3 - 10th. Please visit their website to view more upcoming events.

Bringing words to life!

Are you a poetry slammer? Would you like to participate in a workshop with the best slammer in the world??? The North Idaho College is hosting a free poetry slam presentation from two-time individual world poetry slam champion Buddy Wakefield on February 24, 2011 at 8:30 pm in their Student Union Building! They are also looking for local slam poets to open for Buddy! If you are interested, please contact Haley McDaniel at asnic_events@nic.edu.

Brenda Peterson - "I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth"

Brenda Peterson's agent pronounced that her new book I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth was "Deep ecology meets fundamentalism. And you must be a bridge. Find the common ground."

She writes in The Huffington Post, March 19, 2010, "Oh, yes, the easiest thing in the world: Finding that middle path that all the politicians and mystics seek. I am the first liberal in generations among my southern, conservative Christian family. Far-flung from them here on the Left Coast, I also firmly resist some of my relatives' End Times survival strategy: Expecting any minute to be Raptured up the heaven away from this "skewed" or "fallen earth.

As one of my relatives remarked, "There are no drowning polar bears and melting ice caps where I'm going."

How did I survive fundamentalism and still love the earth? One way is through humor. I mean this book as a dark, divine comedy of family, faith, and country. My book begins on our backyard beach as my neighbor George and I sit watch over a newborn seal pup while his mother is fishing out in the Salish Sea. He is part of our local Seal Sitters citizen naturalists. George firmly believes in the Rapture and, like my family, would like to take me with him to escape Tribulations here below.

"Why are you so cheerful about the end of the world?" I ask him.

"We true believers have waited thousands of years for our reward," he tells me.

"You're a really good neighbor," I offer. "We'd all miss you if you zipped up to heaven. We'd say,'Well, there goes the neighborhood!'"

Humor seems to me the highest form of intelligence; it also defuses fundamentalists of every stripe. Either on the Far Right or Far Left. As an environmental writer, I see parallel between religious End Timers and increasingly apocalyptic Greens. Original sin among fundamentalists is easily translated into pollution among environmentalists. In the Biblical story, we eat of the forbidden tree and are fallen; in the Green story, we cut down the sacred tree and are self-doomed. Biblical Armageddon parallels Mass Extinction.

The comedy and personal stories in this book have a purpose: To ask us all to take a step back from any dogma and listen to each other - as if we were all one very diverse family. As if we shared the same home, or habitat. For example, sometimes my inbox feels like it's been invaded by Fox News from relatives telling me that climate change is a "liberal plot." On the other hand, I get Greenpeace alerts that the living earth is "under attack." Times like these I wonder, is there such a thing as a fundamentalist OR and environmentalist stand-up comic?

In this book I make a list comparing fervent environmentalist to fundamentalists and see they are often mirror images:

• Enraptured by doom
• Apocalypse Now
• Righteous Anger
• Holier than Thou
• Humorless
• Blame, shame, judgment
• Evangelical

Fear and doom constrict our ability to imagine a future. Humor and openness to all opinions involves imagination. An antidote to all this doomsaying is finding what I call Reasons to be Left Behind. On my website and blog I focus on what gives me rapture here on earth - everything from music to other animals to food. All are manna in the wilderness. I want to make a bumper sticker that says "Apocalypse Never" or "In case of Rapture, can I have your car?"

The stories we tell ourselves have a way of coming true. My story is more about what my friend the literary ecologist Joseph Meeker calls, "The Comedy of Survival." In this new book I've come to see myself as a comic, or picaresque, character. Taking myself and the world less seriously, taking evasive action, and most of all adapting to a changing world. Fundamentalists of all kinds resist adapting because change is the enemy. To be lighter on our feet, on our world, and to find reasons to be left behind. That's my strategy for survival. It sure beats duck and cover drills, endless orange alerts, and terror as the only teacher. And it's much more fun."




Brenda Peterson will be participating in the Get Lit! Festival. She will be part of a University panel on Friday, April 15th from noon - 1:30 at North Idaho College discussing nonfiction books. She will be reading on Saturday, April 16th at the Riverpoint campus and will be participating in a panel on Saturday, April 16th at the Riverpoint campus on "The Art of Nature Writing."

In addition to I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, she has also written Animal Heart, Duck and Cover, Face to Face, Between Species, Sightings, Build Me an Ark, and The Sweet Breathing of Plants.

Ani DiFranco in Concert

Ani DiFranco has written hundreds of songs, played thousands of shows, captured the imaginations of legions of followers, and jammed with folkies, orchestras, rappers, rock-and-roll hall-of-famers, jazz musicians, poets, pop superstars, storytellers, and a martial arts legend. She's "fixed up a few old buildings" and minimized her carbon footprint before it was trendy - from installing a geothermal heating and cooling system in the renovated church that her label calls home to using organic inks on all the t-shirts she sells.

DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York. She started her musical career at an early age, beginning by playing Beatles' covers at local bars. In 1989, she created her own record company, Righteous Records (renamed Righteous Babe Records in 1994), and her self-titled debut album was issued on the label in the winter of 1990. Later, she relocated to New York City, where she took poetry classes at The New School and toured vigorously.

Since DiFranco bucked the major label system in the early '90's by opting to release her music on her own terms, the self-described Little Folksinger has been the subject of all kinds of hyperbole. She's been called "fiercely independent" (Rolling Stone,) "inspirational" (All Music Guide,) and "the ultimate do-it-yourself songwriter" (The New York Times.).

Conceived, sculpted, and refined over the course of two years, her new album, Red Letter Year. is an impeccably crafted, multi-layered sonic achievement. And while the extra time spent crafting this album is a big reason for Red Letter Year's captivating musical depths, the people in DiFranco's life play an even bigger part - people like her partner and co-producer, Mike Napolitano and her one-year-old daughter, Petah Lucia. Love, family and home are three of the album's most prominent muses, resulting in a doze songs that exude warmth and renewed vigor.

DiFranco will be playing at the Bing Crosby Theater on Friday, April 15th. Doors open at 7:00 and the concert begins at 8:00. Tickets are available through TicketsWest. The cost is $37 advancea dn $39 at the door. As of today, there are still a few festival passes left that include an Ani ticket for $60!