An Evening with John Larison

Please join us in the Carnegie Reading Room for an evening discussion with authors John Larison and Annie Bartos. John was the Port Townsend Library's 2020 Community Read author of Whiskey We're  Dry. He has since written The Ancients, "A richly imagined, intricately woven novel of hope, love, and adventure set in the unforgiving world of our own descendants." The event is co-sponsored by Imprint Bookshop the made possible by the Friends of the Port Townsend Library. 

John Larison was born in 1979 in Philomath, Oregon.  The son of National Geographic filmmakers, he spent much of his childhood on-assignment. He attended the University of Oregon and studied philosophy and literature, and stayed to earn a Master’s of Education. While learning to write fiction, he worked as a fly-fishing and whitewater guide in the Pacific Northwest. In 2007, he earned a MFA at Oregon State University.

His first book was a how-to text on fly-fishing, The Complete Steelheader (Stackpole 2008). He went on to publish two fishing-related novels Northwest of Normal (Barclay Creek 2009) and Holding Lies (Skyhorse 2011).

His 2018 novel, Whiskey When We’re Dry, was a Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times bestseller, an Indie Next Pick in hardcover and paperback, a finalist for the Ken Kesey Award and the Gold Crown Award (UK), and winner of the Will Rodgers Medallion. It was named a Best Book by O Magazine, Goodreads, Entertainment Weekly, Outside Magazine, Powell's, The Times (United Kingdom), the BBC, and others. It was featured on NPR's All Things Considered.

His 2024 novel, The Ancients, was selected a Buzz Book by Publishers Marketplace and an Indie Next Pick by independent booksellers across the country, and was featured in People Magazine, Scientific American, and elsewhere, and was selected as a best book by Barnes and Noble.

Annie Bartos' creative writing appears in The Rumpus, The Bellingham Review, The Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. She has a PhD in Geography and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She’s an alum of summer workshops at Bread Loaf, Tin House, and Kenyon Review. Her debut essay collection is forthcoming with the University of Georgia Press. Prior to the pandemic, she was a professor in Aotearoa New Zealand.