Celebrating the publication of “In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors”

When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 22, for socializing, program and readings at 7 p.m.

Where: Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave. in Sequim

Contact: OlympicPeninsulaAuthors@gmail.com.

Writers on the Olympic Peninsula are looking to get recognition in the community with a new anthology of written work by local authors.

Editors of the anthology, Linda B. Myers and Heidi Hansen, along with local author and publisher Michael Bunnell, recruited 14 local authors from Forks to Sequim to be included in the anthology, “In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors.”

There will be an official book launch party for the anthology starting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 22, at Olympic Theatre Arts in Sequim at 414 N. Sequim Ave.

The anthology is a 300-plus page book including short stories, essays and poems by local authors who are award-winning, published and newly recognized for their talent. The anthology is published through Bunnell’s publishing company Skookum Bay Publishing.

“Writers in general have not been as successful as other artisans have been,” Myers said. “It’s hard to publish a book on your own.”

The writers featured in the anthology also come from a group called Olympic Peninsula Authors (OPA), formed by Myers, Hansen and Bunnell in January.

“The whole drive behind Olympic Peninsula Authors is to help publicize the fact that there are some dandy writers here,” Myers said.

She said OPA is a partnership that consists of an estimated 20-25 local authors from Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim. In the future, Myers said she would like to reach out to more communities such as Quilcene.

“We’re very open to writers’ ideas at this point,” Myers said.

“If an author would like to contact us and give us ideas, such as workshops, education on the newest in self-publishing, we try to work that into an overall group here to serve the writing community as best we can,” she added.

She said the authors in OPA pay a small amount of money to help fund events such as book signings and have the opportunity to make a little money from books that are sold.

For this first anthology, writers were included by invitation.

“We invited writers who we had heard of and those we had met in the critique groups,” Myers said.

She added in the future the group would like to publish more single and focused anthologies, such as a poets edition and see what sells best.

The featured writers in the anthology include Jan Thatcher Adams, Craig Andrews, Cheryle Hoskins Bigelow, Michael Bunnell, Judith R. Duncan, Jon Eekhoff, Heidi Hansen, Dianne L. Knox, Ruth Marcus, Linda B. Myers, Elizabeth K. Pratt, Linda Sharps, Charlie Sheldon and Eva Stanfield.

The anthology will be available on Amazon, in local gift shops, bookstores, festivals and markets on or around the Olympic Peninsula.

Interested readers can hear 12 of the anthology authors read short selections of their work at the book launch party on Thursday, June 22, at Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave., Sequim.

The event begins with socializing at 6:30 p.m. and the program begins with readings at 7 p.m. at OTA.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase at $19.95 each.

For more information, contact OlympicPeninsulaAuthors@gmail.com.