ESCANABA — Award-winning author, and Escanaba native, Suzi Banks Baum, will present a writing workshop and public reading at the Escanaba Public Library October 19 at 4 p.m. Writers and literary lovers alike will create short stories from true facts from their own lives. Banks Baum will lead a discussion about writing from life experience and read selections from her newly published story, Maxie and Her Camera, set in the Lakeview Cemetery in Escanaba. The main character, Maxie, is based on the author’s life, with details gathered from growing up in Escanaba. Banks Baum often hears new writers profess

they have no idea where to begin.

“Begin where you began,” says Suzi. For the past 15 years, Suzi has written and published creative non-fiction and short fiction. Her piece, Shoal, won third prize in the Doro Bohme Memorial Contest for Hypertext Literary Magazine based in Chicago in 2021. Her mixed media work appears in Storey Publications 2022 release, Collage Your Life! by Melanie Mowinski. An essay titled Connect/Disconnect, from her memoir-in-progress won The Honeybee Creative Nonfiction Award in July 2022. Banks Baum teaches both writing and book art workshops in her current hometown of Great Barrington, MA and around the US and internationally.

Library Director Carolyn Stacey states, “Suzi has led several writing workshops through the library and the participants come away with inspiration and momentum. We are excited to host her again in the spirit of celebrating local authors.”

At this free event, Banks Baum will read from her short fiction, including Maxie and her Camera, published by the Walloon Writers Review this past summer. Walloon Writers Review Eighth Edition is co-edited by Glen Young and founder Jennifer Johnston Huder, and can be purchased at Canterbury Bookstore in Escanaba, and Snowbound Books in Marquette, as well as online at Bookshop.org.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Escanaba Public Library, the event is open to the public, ages 12 years and up. Attendees are encouraged to bring a journal and writing instrument. For more information, contact the Escanaba Public Library at 906-789-7323 or email at epl@escanabalibrary.org. Check our website at www.escanabalibrary.org or Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more information.