UPCOMING EVENTS

• VIRTUAL EVENT: Join Martha and Steven Harvey, author of prize-winning The Beloved Republic, for a reading on Zoom on Thursday, August 21 from 4-5pm Pacific (7-8pm Eastern). The event is free, but does require registration. To attend, register at this link.

PAST EVENTS

• CORVALLIS: Grass Roots Book & Music hosted Martha on Thursday, April 24th for a reading along with Corvallis writer Jane Cigarran.

• EUGENE: Martha read from Broken Open at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, April 26 from 2-4pm. Following the reading she was interviewed by author and memoir writing coach Valerie Ihsan. More information on Tsunami Books’ website here.

• SALEM: Book Bin hosted Martha Gies in conversation with writer Geronimo Tagatac on Sunday, April 27 from 3-5pm. More information on Book Bin’s website here.

• CLATSKANIE: Martha was the featured presenter at the opening reception of the 2025 Raymond Carver Writing Festival on Saturday, May 3. She also led a generative writing workshop based on Carver’s poetry. For more information, visit the festival website.

• See photos from the 3/30/25 reading at Passages Bookshop in Portland, Oregon

• See photos from the 9/8/24 Broken Open book launch event at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon

• See photos and read a transcript or listen to audio from the 9/24/24 reading at Broadway Books in Portland, Oregon

• See photos and watch a video of Martha’s conversation with Vibha Akkaraju at the Mountainview, CA location of Books, Inc. on 10/25/24

• See photos from the 10/30/24 reading at Up Up Books

• Thanks to Annie Bloom’s Books in SW Portland for a lovely reading on 9/26

• Thanks to the Napa County Library for hosting a reading on 10/23/24.

• Thanks to the California Writers Club, San Francisco Peninsula branch, for inviting Martha to speak on publishing with independent and academic presses on 10/26/24.

• Thanks to Folio: Seattle Athenaeum, for hosting Martha for a reading and conversation about memoir on 11/1/24.

CLASSES

My 34-year teaching career ended in June, 2023, at a week-long workshop on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, with writers attending from Oregon, Washington and California. After twenty years of taking writers abroad, it was wonderful to be welcomed to a nation so close to home. There we met with elder Antone Minthorn, toured the amazing Tamástslikt museum with founder-director Bobbie Conner, and heard a stunning lecture on First Foods by Wenix Red Elk, meanwhile writing in the mornings and gathering for discussions in the late afternoons.

Having never expected to be a teacher, Jon Sinclair’s 1989 phone call inviting me to develop a creative writing class for Marylhurst College came as a surprise. I began as a part-timer, teaching short fiction and stayed for twenty years. Eventually, my classes ranged across three graduate writing programs, a writing certificate program that I designed for Portland State’s extension division (as we called it then), and lots of workshops, including Haystack and Sitka on the Oregon coast and, finally, Traveler’s Mind, my annual ten-day immersion in observation and a disciplined daily writing practice.

Although I appreciate the extra writing time, I do miss the classes that gave me such joy. I continue to stay in touch with my most committed students, almost all of whom are now publishing work of their own.