Petoskey-Bay View, Michigan, October 6-8, 2017
This year the Michigan Hemingway Society is hosting its annual literary and history conference, Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, October 6-8, at The Terrace Inn in the Petoskey, Michigan, Chautauqua community of Bay View.
Founded on the shores of Lake Michigan in 1875, Bay View has maintained its historic buildings, homes and charm. Hemingway was very familiar with this community when he lived in Petoskey for that last time. Throughout the weekend, attendees will tour some of the old Victorian buildings and cottages, exploring their architecture and learning the detailed history of the community.
There is a plan for a special event on Sunday afternoon, with attendees recreating an infamous party that Hemingway attended in one of the Bay View cottages.
This year’s keynote speaker is Steve Paul, the author and edit or of several books including Hemingway at Eighteen: The Pivotal Year that Launched an American Legend, due out this fall. Paul recently retired from the editorial board of The Kansas City Star after 41 years. Starting out on the city desk, he was a longtime arts and culture editor, book critic, special assignment writer, projects editor and writer, mentor and coach to young writers and teachers, and producer of high-profile feature stories on culture, music, architecture, books, people and the city.
Hemingway himself started his writing career at The Kansas City Star. After graduating from Oak Park River Forest High School in 1917, he left the culturally-rich environment there in the Chicago suburbs, as well as the freedom of summers in Northern Michigan, when he moved to Kansas City to become a journalist. If all his trips to Kansas City were added together, he lived and worked in that town for a little more than a year—the longest stay, for six months, was when he was a cub reporter from October 1917 until April 1918.
From there he joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, returning the following year to the United States, and finally to Petoskey as a wounded and decorated war veteran. He then married his first wife, Hadley Richardson, in Northern Michigan, and the two moved to Paris. While there, Hemingway began freelancing for the Toronto Star, writing fishing sketches before becoming a foreign correspondent.
Membership in the Michigan Hemingway Society is $20 per calendar year, $30 for a family or $10 for students. Join online and register for the conference at MichiganHemingwaySociety.org. Benefits include a reduced fee for the annual conference, a printed copy of the MHS Newsletter and periodic updates of MHS News.
The Michigan Hemingway Society has been active since 1983 and was incorporated officially as a non-profit organization in 1993. Made up of university professors, writers, high school teachers, fly fishers, journalists and all kinds of other people who are interested in exploring the life and body of literature created by this Nobel prize-winning author, The Michigan Hemingway Society’s group volunteer energies have been focused ad hoc, on such events as its annual Hemingway weekend, the membership newsletter and maintaining the organization’s website and Facebook page.
Check out the Visit Michigan Up North website for more information on Hemingway’s Northern Michigan Connection.