"La Finca" talk with Corky Parker

Pink House Meeting Room

Wednesday, May 10

6:00 pm

For those daydreaming of summer and sunny days, join us at the Port Townsend Public Library's Pink House for an amazing talk with local author, Corky Parker! Her most recent work, La Finca, is the Book Lover's Cafe read for the month of June. Get a sneak preview here!

Corky Parker will lead a book reading and discussion in person, about her book La Finca; which is the 2022 Nancy Pearl Award Winner for Memoir. "La Finca is the story of my inn, on Puerto Rico’s Vieques Island, a special little corner of the world, and how much it taught me over 20-odd years. "

Corky Parker will discuss her experiences as an author, her life in Puerto Rico, the line between artist and author, and following your dreams.

Corky Parker grew up in Northern California; Sonoma County and Berkeley in the 60's. And although she never went to a traditional high school, she was given a scholarship to Bennington College, where she studied environmental economics and served on its Board of Trustees after graduating in 1977.

For much of Parker's career she was creative director for a small creative team she started in Seattle, writing and designing environmental public awareness and corporate marketing films. In 1996 she started La Finca Caribe, an offbeat, "eco-inn" on Puerto Rico’s Vieques Island, which she and her family ran for nearly 25 years. Around that She has also been on air public radio announcer, helping KSKA, the public radio station in Anchorage, Done corporate sustainability work in the online retail world, had a small gelato shop in Fremont and owned a small organic sheep farm on Marrowstone. 

But, Writing and creative design has been integrated into all of her work, which (whether in film, corporate carbon footprint reduction programs or eco-hospitality) has received accolades in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Seattle Times, Outside, Lonely Planet, Gourmet and China’s People’s Daily, and won various national and international awards. her website is corkyparker.com 

Her book, La Finca is a lively graphic memoir about a woman creating a new life amid countless challenges, including hurricanes that led her to reconsider everything. It is a story about trusting oneself, self-discovery, accepting disappointment and loss, and falling in love with a place. 

At age forty, Parker surrendered to her Swept Away meets Swiss Family Robinson fantasy of running an inn far from her home on Vashon Island . For the next twenty-plus years Corky lived out her dreams of running  La Finca Caribe, — an eco-lodge in Vieques, Puerto Rico. What started as a rough-and-tumble dream grew into a destination enjoyed by guests from around the world. 

Sketchbook in hand, Parker chronicled her daily adventures living with the land. Years later went on to write and illustrate how many more which was was recent Winner, of the  Nancy Pearl Award for Memoir, and the University Presses Book &  Cover Design Award

La Finca is available to borrow as a Book Club Kit from the Port Townsend Public Library.