About Us
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Mission
Field’s End serves the writers’ community and nurtures the written word through lectures, workshops and instruction in the art, craft, and profession of writing.
Our primary offerings are writing classes, the annual writers' conference, our special fall events, and the monthly Roundtable series that features local authors. Field's End is proud to be affiliated with the Bainbridge Public Library.
Our History
Directions
Kitsap Regional Libraries
Bainbridge Public Library
Friends of the Library
Our History
In early 2002, Bainbridge Island resident and aspiring writer Nichole Vick approached the Bainbridge Public Library board with a proposal for an organization, to be affiliated with the library, which would offer professional-quality writing classes.
The entire board enthusiastically voted to support the concept and to provide the initial seed money. PEN/Faulkner award-winning novelist David Guterson, then a library board member, immediately volunteered not only to help organize the ongoing series but also to teach one of the first classes.
Within two weeks, an initial core team of volunteers met under the co-leadership of Vick and Guterson. The team wrote a mission statement focusing on the craft of writing and chose the name Field’s End. Team members divided up the myriad of administrative tasks the start-up “writers’ community” demanded.
When classes first opened that September, every seat was full. Only two months later, Field’s End launched its ongoing monthly Writers’ Roundtable series as the next addition to its repertoire of offerings. Also that fall, National Book Award winner Charles Johnson offered the first of Field’s End’s series of guest lectures.
Since then, Field’s End has not only continued offering top-quality writing classes, but it also offers a variety of programs and events. Free programs open to all include the monthly Writers’ Roundtable series. Field’s End also organized both a half-day workshop and an authors’ panel at Northwest Bookfest 2003, further defining itself as a regional presence serving literary writers.
In September 2003, a lecture by award-winning scholar and author Dr. Charles Johnson initiated what would be an ongoing lecture series. Since then, Field’s End has offered lectures by Michigan poet Diane Wakoski, Massachussetts neurologist and author Dr. Alice Weaver Flaherty, Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times author Tim Egan, authors Andrew Ward and Ivan Doig, and most recently, author Dorothy Allison.
The name Field’s End derives from the title poem of Theodore Roethke’s posthumously published "The Far Field," winner of a National Book Award in 1965. Roethke, a poet of enormous influence and stature, spent much of his life in the Pacific Northwest. He died on Bainbridge Island in 1963.
For more information about Roethke, click here.
Field’s End is an affiliate of the nonprofit Bainbridge Public Library Board, which supports the library as a community center for life-long learning.
Directions
Unless specified otherwise, all Field’s End activities take place at the Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Avenue N., Bainbridge Island, WA 98110. The library has free parking on its north and south sides. Additional parking is available in the Commodore School parking lot at the northwest corner of Madison and High School Road. View a Google map.
Coming from Seattle
Bainbridge Island is a 35-minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle. The ferry terminal is located at Alaskan Way and Marion. Bus routes #16 and #66/67 stop directly in front of the terminal. The #10/12 bus stops at First and Marion. For the latest schedule information, go to these links:
* Washington State Ferries
* Sound Transit
The Bainbridge Public Library is about one mile from the ferry terminal:
* To walk, exit north from the ferry terminal to Winslow Way. Turn left (west) into downtown Winslow. At Madison Avenue, turn right (north), and continue about 1/2 mile to the library.
* To catch a taxi, look for a cab waiting outside the ferry terminal. To reserve a cab in advance, call Bainbridge Taxi (206)842-1021 or Taxis & Tours (206)842-7660.
* To bike or drive from the ferry, exit onto Olympic Way. At the second traffic light, turn left (west) onto Winslow Way, continue to Madison, and then turn right (north). Continue about 1/2 mile to the library.
* To bus (daytime only), board a #100 Kitsap Regional Transit bus in the transit zone just west of the ferry terminal along Olympic Way. Disembark on the Madison Avenue near the High School.
Coming from Kitsap Peninsula
To get to the Bainbridge Public Library, drive south on Highway 305 to the traffic light at High School Road. Turn right (west) and continue about 1/2 mile. The library is on the corner of the traffic roundabout. Otherwise (daytime only), ride a Kitsap Regional Transit bus to the ferry terminal, and then transfer to a #100 bus.
