Midge Raymond

Midge Raymond received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction for her short-story collection, Forgetting English (Eastern Washington University Press, 2009). Her work has appeared in American Literary Review, Ontario Review, North American Review, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. She is on the editorial board of the literary journal Green Hills Literary Lantern. Midge taught communication writing at Boston University, as well as creative writing at Boston’s Grub Street Writers and San Diego Writers, Ink, where she served as vice president of the board of directors. She currently teaches at the Richard Hugo House. Raymond’s Everyday Writing: Tips and Prompts to Fit Your Regularly Scheduled Life was published by Ashland Creek Press in July of 2012, and Everyday Book Marketing: Promotion Ideas to Fit Your Regularly Scheduled Life was published by the same press in 2013.

As part of her Fellowship’s Meet the Artist requirements, Midge offered a writing workshop at King’s Books in Tacoma to a crowd representing a range of ages and writing interests: poets, fiction and memoir writers, and a screenwriter. The workshop, Writing About Place, focused on how writers can best accomplish setting vivid scenes in their writing. Midge discussed how to research places we’ve never been but wish to write about, as well as how to go above and beyond when writing about places we know well. The group did writing exercises aimed at using verbal images and sensory details to create vivid landscapes; participants wrote and shared their work, and asked a broad array of questions. Afterwards, Midge read from her Forgetting English and chatted with participants. Several of the attendees expressed appreciation and gratitude for the availability of a workshop in Tacoma; one writer sent Midge an email a few days later: “Wanted to thank you for coming to Tacoma to make an interesting presentation. You handled the diverse questions with authority and grace. The exercises you presented were well considered—simple yet wonderfully instructive. I’m glad to have made your acquaintance and to have learned a bit of craft. I’m always impressed with good teaching. Good luck on the novel.” Midge states, “I enjoyed the event and am grateful for this Artist Trust requirement—I loved visiting a new city, meeting a few of its artists, and spending an afternoon sharing ideas about the craft of writing.”