Thank you!
Writers & Wine 2024 is a wrap!
Thank you to over 80 library patrons and numerous fans of the Fern Ridge Library who attended this year’s Writers & Wine. The fundraising event for the Fern Ridge Library was a success. We shared a fun afternoon of humor, inspiration, and community highlighted by a reading by Bob Welch, as he told stories about his experience hiking the PCT and his newest book—Seven Summers (And a Few Bummers), wine from Silvan Ridge Winery, tasty appetizers from Broadway Grill, and raffle prize drawings completed the event. Congratulations to our winners and we look forward to seeing you next year.
Thank You Sponsors!
David Floyd & Bets Cole
Jack Gray & Mary Jo Wade
Many thanks to Lane Forest Products, Swanson Brothers Lumber Co., Territorial Vineyards and Wine Co., David Floyd and Bets Cole, and Jack Gray and Mary Jo Wade for their support.
Writers & Wine 2024 featured Oregon author,
Bob Welch
and his latest work, “Seven Summers (And a Few Bummers)”
About Bob Welch
Bob Welch, the 2024 featured author for Writers & Wine, has finished hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail with his brother-in-law, Glenn, which they did over a decade of summers. His latest work, published in 2023, Seven Summers (And a Few Bummers), is a refreshing and authentic telling of a deeply personal journey. It contains the true grit of this adventure, as well as the humor that is a hallmark of Welch’s writing.
Bob Welch is the author of more than two dozen books, including The Wizard of Foz, Track & Field Writers of America’s 2019 Book of the Year, and American Nightingale, an Oregon Book Award finalist and featured on ABC’s Good Morning America. As a columnist for The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, Welch twice won the National Society of Newspaper Columnist’s “Best Writing” award. Welch is an in-demand keynote speaker that brings his stories of courage, humility, and inspiration to professional organizations of all types.
Here are what reviewers are saying about this work:
“With Twain-like humor and humility, Welch reveals life on one of America’s greatest trails. Follow him along the annual human-powered conveyor belt of extremes in nature, the daily nitty-gritty, the surprise encounters, and the many triumphs of endurance. This is a book that makes you laugh out loud—and sometimes cringe in sympathy. A walk, and a read, well worth the trip.”
—James Meacham, co-editor, The Atlas of Oregon and The Atlas of Yellowstone
“Seven Summers is pure trail magic. Bob Welch is a relatable and humorous storyteller, and his decade-long Pacific Crest Trail quest—with its many twists and turns—is genuinely moving, as much about embracing relationships and ‘hiking your own hike’ as about reaching the Canadian border. I devoured this book like a fresh stack of pancakes, as will any reader who loves a grand adventure.”
—Noah Strycker, PCT thru-hiker who reached Canada in 2011 and author, Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World
Presented by the Fern Ridge Library Foundation, Writers & Wine has been held since 2012. Learn more about the Writers & Wine series here.
Make a Donation
Donations to the Fern Ridge Library Foundation help us continue our work to support the Fern Ridge Library. Make your gift online or mail your donation.
Thank you for your support of the Fern Ridge Library
The Fern Ridge Library is a hub for community activity, hosting programs for kids, teens, and adults, and an engaging makers space. You’re sure to find something going on at the Library.
The Friends of the Library is a tax-exempt organization, founded in 1991, that supports library events, programming, outreach, and services. Book sales are a major fund-raiser and involve many volunteers.