Loading…
Saturday April 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Writing and parenting are often viewed as incompatible endeavors, but these parents are here to put that idea to bed. In this open-hearted conversation, writers Ren Cedar Fuller, Uma Kukathas, Beth Alvarado, Lisa Laughlin, and Joe Wilkins will discuss drawing inspiration from their children, parenting from the heart, and the ways these two roles enhance, rather than inhibit, one another. Joe Wilkins and Lisa Laughlin’s work focuses on the influences of place and the environment on family. Ren Cedar Fuller, Uma Kukathas, and Beth Alvarado write about the unique experiences of parenting within diverse and multicultural households. Don't miss this important and heart-led conversation on parenting and writing. 

This event is free and open to the public.

Purchase the authors' books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Authors
avatar for Joe Wilkins

Joe Wilkins

Joe Wilkins is the author of two novels, The Entire Sky and Fall Back Down When I Die, both of which have garnered wide critical acclaim. Wilkins is also the author of a memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers, and five collections of poetry, including Pastoral, 1994 and When We Wer... Read More →
avatar for Beth Alvarado

Beth Alvarado

Beth Alvarado is the author of Anxious Attachments, which won the 2020 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and was longlisted for the Pen Art of the Essay Award. She has written extensively about marrying, as a young white woman, into her late husband’s Mexican American f... Read More →
avatar for Lisa Laughlin

Lisa Laughlin

Lisa Laughlin is the managing editor of Out There Outdoors magazine and has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the MFA at EWU. Her literary work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in High Desert Journal, Orion, River Teeth, Flyway, Hippocampus Magazine and e... Read More →
avatar for Ren Cedar Fuller

Ren Cedar Fuller

Ren Cedar Fuller's debut book Bigger: Essays won the Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize and was a finalist for the Iron Horse Prize and the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards Program. It was named a “Most Anticipated Fall 2025 Book” by The Millions.  Ren’s essays ha... Read More →
avatar for Uma Kukathas

Uma Kukathas

Uma Kukathas lives in Seattle, where she works as a writer for a nonprofit advocating and supporting unionized care workers. In her spare time, she writes creative nonfiction about four generations of her Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora family, who left their homeland during the British... Read More →
Saturday April 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

Sign up or log in to save this to your schedule, view media, leave feedback and see who's attending!

Share Modal

Share this link via

Or copy link