‘The Big M’ comes to Manzanita
Celebrate Women’s History Month when the Manzanita Writers Series opens its 2026 season at the Hoffman Center for the Arts this Saturday, March 14.
Lidia Yuknavitch and Monica Drake, both award-winning authors, will read from the newly released anthology “The Big M: 13 Writers Take Back the Story of Menopause.”
The collection brings together writers reclaiming the story of menopause through essays that explore freedom, mortality, sexuality and the patriarchy, offering perspectives that are humorous, subversive, insightful and deeply human.
Following the reading, Yuknavitch and Drake will take questions from the audience.
Yuknavitch is the national bestselling author of the novels “Thrust,” “The Book of Joan,” “Dora: A Headcase” and “The Small Backs of Children,” which won the 2016 Oregon Book Awards Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and the Oregon Book Award Reader’s Choice Award. She has also published the critical work “Allegories of Violence,” the TED-based book “The Misfit’s Manifesto” and the short story collection “Verge.” Her memoir “The Chronology of Water” was a finalist for a PEN Center USA award and won both a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and the Oregon Book Award Reader’s Choice Award. Her newest memoir, “Reading the Waves,” was published in 2025. Yuknavitch is also the founder of the Corporeal Writing workshop series in Portland and holds a doctorate in literature from the University of Oregon.
Drake is the author of the novels “Clown Girl” and “The Stud Book” and the story collection “The Folly of Loving Life.” “Clown Girl” was a finalist for the 2007 Ken Kesey Award for the Novel. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times “Modern Love” column, The Rumpus, Longreads and Oregon Humanities Magazine. One of her anonymously published essays on Longreads went viral and sparked widespread discussion about divorce court, marriage and the experience of women writers. Drake earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona and received the John Weston Award.
Saturday’s event runs from 4:30 to 6 pm at the Hoffman Center for the Arts, located at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita. A book-signing reception will follow at 6 pm at Cloud & Leaf Bookstore, located at 447 Laneda Avenue. Tickets are $20. Advance registration is encouraged though walk-ins will be accepted as space allows. For more information, go to hoffmanarts.org.