First Friday Free Literary Event

The 27th Annual Mendocino Coast Writers Conference (MCWC) invites the public to a free “First Friday” literary event from 5:30 to 7:30 PM on August 5th at Fort Bragg’s Town Hall (corner of Main and Laurel). Open to all ages and family friendly, the evening will include readings by visiting authors Les Standiford, Reyna Grande, Lori Ostlund and Laura Atkins. Refreshments will be provided courtesy of MCWC, North Coast Brewing Company and Frey Vineyards. Books available for purchase & autograph thanks to Gallery Bookshop.

Les Standiford has received the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Frank O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His most recent nonfiction title is Water to the Angels.

Reyna Grande’s memoir, The Distance Between Us, about her life before and after illegally crossing from Mexico to the United States as a child, was hailed by the L.A. Times as ‘the Angela’s Ashes of the modern Mexican immigrant experience.’ Grande’s first novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, received a 2007 American Book Award, and the 2006 El Premio Aztlán Literary Award.

Lori Ostlund’s novel After the Parade (Scribner, 2015) is a Barnes and Noble Discover pick. Her first book, a story collection entitled The Bigness of the World, won the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, and the California Book Award for First Fiction.

Laura Atkins is an author, teacher and independent children’s book editor. Forthcoming books include a light-hearted picture book Sled Dog Dachshund and a middle grade biography, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up about Japanese internment during WW2.