Tonasket writers share work with crowd

Curtiss Howard read some of his pieces and performed emcee duties at the reading. He read biographies, written by each writer, before they took to the mike. Many of the bios were, he said, t
Photo by Amy Veneziano
Curtiss Howard read some of his pieces and performed emcee duties at the reading. He read biographies, written by each writer, before they took to the mike.

TONASKET – Nine brave writers stepped up to breathe life into words on paper before a crowd of about 30 people at the Community Cultural Center in Tonasket Feb. 15. In addition to reading some of his own work, group member Curtiss Howard had emcee duties that evening.

The CCC also had a dinner attendees could purchase to support the building fund.

The readers, including Howard, his wife Suzanne Daily Howard, Karen McGuire, Margaret Lange, Dawna Nagye and Tom Keller, read poems, monologues and short stories, themes crossing oceans and jungles, summer and winter. Many of the pieces came back to life in the Okanogan Valley, from mountains to the elusive snow snake.

Local musician/comic Bud McSpadden also joined in, strumming about hippies in Tonasket and being stuck in the snow. Three community members also read their work, including one story about crossing paths with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis during a motorcycle ride on Virginia’s Skyline Drive.