The Raymond Carver Writing Festival takes place annually in Clatskanie, Oregon, the birthplace of Raymond Carver. The day-long event strives to celebrate the regional writing community through readings, a generative workshop and writing prompts, poetry contest award ceremony, and culminating in a community dinner and pie potluck.
All efforts have been made to keep events free and open to the public, thanks to the contributions of organizations, businesses, and a volunteer committee of organizers. The festival is held at venues downtown Clatskanie, in walking distance from one another and from centrally located lodging.
Read about the Raymond Carver Mural on the historic hospital building, and more about the revival of the Raymond Carver Writing Festival.
Get in touch with questions or to receive festival updates.
FAQ
The festival is held at venues in downtown Clatskanie, Oregon, in walking distance from one another and from centrally located lodging. Clatskanie is located between Portland and Astoria on Oregon Highway 30, along the Columbia and Clatskanie rivers. It is a short distance from Longview, Washington and I-5.
While we appreciate registration for the writing workshop ahead of time, registration is not required to attend festival events. The exception is that dinner reservations are required ahead of time. Visit the Clatskanie Cultural Center (festival headquarters) to pick up a program, or join in the scheduled events anytime.
All efforts have been made to keep events free and open to the public, thanks to the contributions of organizations, businesses, and a volunteer committee of organizers. If you are able to make a donation at the door ($20 suggested), we appreciate it.
Dinner reservations and tickets must be made ahead of time so that we can order catering service for the right amount of people. If there are last minute cancellations, we may sell those tickets at the door, but there are no guarantees.
The open mic happens after the dinner, and is free and open to all. It’s in the same space, so dinner guests may still be finishing up their plates, but you can come right in. The open mic is accompanied by a pie potluck (Carver’s favorite dessert), and all are welcome to dig in.
Festival organizers have done their best to leave space for writers to participate as both unscheduled readers and in generative writing activities at various sites (Parking Lot Poetry, Steal Time to Write, Open Mic). Have a proposal for a workshop or reading? Get in touch.
Help spread the word about this small but growing annual gathering in Raymond Carver’s birthplace. We depend on word of mouth — forward this newsletter or share the link to the website.
The Clatskanie River Inn in downtown Clatskanie is offering a discounted room rate for the weekend when you tell them you are visiting for the Raymond Carver Writing Festival.
About Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet who identified Clastkanie, Oregon as his home town. He published his first collection of stories, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, in 1976. His breakout collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), received immediate acclaim and established Carver as an important figure in the literary world. It was followed by Cathedral (1983), which Carver considered his watershed and is widely regarded as his masterpiece. The definitive collection of his stories, Where I’m Calling From, was published shortly before his death in 1988. In their 1989 nomination of Carver for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the jury concluded, “The revival in recent years of the short story is attributable in great measure to Carver’s mastery of the form.”