About this Event
Priscilla Long presents the third edition of her beloved and bestselling The Writer’s Portable Mentor, a comprehensive writing guide that has been a game changer for thousands of writers, and a new collection of essays, On Spaces and Colors, combining memoir and science to explore the spaces we live in, the spaces we go to in our imagination, and the colors that surround us.
Registration is not required, but helps us anticipate audience size.
About The Writer's Portable Mentor
From writing the virtuoso sentence to structuring your story, essay, or book, The Writer’s Portable Mentor offers deeply craft-oriented guidance to writers at all levels, from beginner to advanced. Readers of this new edition will find thoroughly revised chapters on structure and two new structures, the enumeration and the abecedarian; new model sentences and model paragraphs throughout the book; and the final section, “Getting Your Work Into the World,” completely rewritten and updated to account for the continuing changes in the publishing and blogging world. Priscilla Long trains the prose writer to write with a poet’s ear and to observe with a painter’s eye and offers extensive strategies for remaining happily productive and for navigating the current publishing industry to get the work out into the world. The Writer’s Portable Mentor remains a must for every writer’s bookshelf!
About On Spaces and Colors
In On Spaces and Colors, Priscilla Long reflects on the spaces we inhabit and the colors that surround us. The essays occur in threes: space (such as a garden, an alley, a living room); color (does pink really stink?); and gallery (a type of space we enter via the imagination—a painting, a book, a map, the past—whether accessed through personal memory or written history). The essays embrace both memoir and science and explore aspects of environment, architecture, and interior design. At the core of Long’s approach is the notion that the way we arrange our spaces strongly affects our well-being—a particular space can contribute to healing or to harm. No matter where you live or what your lifestyle, these essays will lead you into your own rich thoughts and reflections . . . and you may find yourself rearranging the furniture in your living room.
Priscilla Long is author of nine books including Cartographies of Home: Poems (MoonPath Press, 2026) and On Spaces and Colors (University of New Mexico Press, 2026). Her how-to-write guide is The Writer’s Portable Mentor. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, and The American Scholar. Her awards include a National Magazine Award and ten of her essays have been honored as “notable” in various years of Best American Essays. She has an MFA from the University of Washington. To learn more, go to www.priscillalong.com.
Event venue & nearby stays
The Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, United States
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