Festival History
In 2009 when a small group of local writers and supporters of literary arts got together to talk about putting on a creative writing festival in Yamhill County, we didn’t know whether there would be broader interest in such an event. The Arts Alliance of Yamhill County agreed to sponsor the festival, and the Yamhill County Cultural Coalition gave us a grant to help fund the project. A variety of other local groups and individuals stepped up to make contributions of money and goods. We were off and running.
We named it the Terroir Creative Writing Festival, borrowing a French word (pronounced ter-wahr) from the wine industry that means “the combination of factors including soil, climate, and sunlight that gives wine grapes their distinctive character” (Merriam-Webster.com). We thought the term could be applied to writers, too, whose works are also influenced by the place where they are developed.
Registrations for the first festival far exceeded our expectations with more than 150 people attending at the McMinnville Community Center in April 2010. (It probably helped that we had a terrific line-up of well-known authors, including Ursula K. Le Guin!) A small committee of volunteers has produced the one-day writing conference every year since, except for a three-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022).
After three years at the McMinnville Community Center, the event moved to the beautiful campus of the Yamhill Valley Branch of Chemeketa Community College in McMinnville, where it was held from 2013 through 2019. The college was unable to accommodate us post-pandemic, so we moved to the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg for 2023 and 2024, then to the Experience Center at Stoller Family Estate in Dayton for 2025 and 2026.
The primary aim of the festival is and always has been to build a stronger literary community in our area by encouraging and spotlighting local writers while making connections with the larger writing and publishing community. You don’t have to be a writer to attend. Anyone interested in writing, reading, and the literary life will find something to enjoy.
Terroir Writing Festival Speakers
Since the first Terroir Creative Writing Festival in 2010, we have hosted both emerging and established writers from all over Oregon and a few from Washington. With 10 to 18 speakers
each year, many outstanding authors have shared the secrets of their craft, offered encouragement, and read their work. In addition, many editors, publishers, and literary agents have shared advice on getting published.
[Bold indicates keynote speaker]
2010: Larry Colton, Barbara Drake, Molly Gloss, Ellie Gunn, Ursula K. Le Guin, Carlos Reyes, Lex Runciman, Bill Siverly, Laura Whitcomb, and Marilyn Worrix (book artist)
2011: Jean Auel, Robin Cody, Barbara Drake, Monica Drake, Christina Katz, Craig Lesley, Lex Runciman, Pauls Toutonghi, Elizabeth Woody, Anne Zimmerman and editors Mary Braun, Casey Bush, Jessica Lamb, and Dennis Stovall
2012: Chelsea Cain, Barbara Drake, Charles Goodrich, Leanne Grabel, Evelyn Hess, Molly Johnson, Linda Kuhlman, Matt Love, Michael McDowell, Phoebe Newman, Lex Runciman, Bill Siverly, Mary Slocum, Willy Vlautin, and Marilyn Worrix (book artist)
2013: M.L. Buchman, Peter Ames Carlin, Monica Drake, Nicole Georges, Anna Keesey, Stephen W. Long, Lex Runciman, Penelope Scambly Schott, Heather Sharfeddin, Marilyn Worrix (book artist); and Stephanie Lenox, Anita Sullivan, and Dawn Diez Willis (publishers)
2014: Maggie Chula, Barbara Drake, Emily Grosvenor, Lisa Ohlen Harris, Karen Karbo, Stephen W. Long, Paulann Petersen, Lex Runciman, Juniper White (letterpress printer), Joe Wilkins, and Marilyn Worrix (book artist)
2015: Rene Denfeld, Barbara Drake, Adam Gallardo, Emily Grosvenor, Harold Johnson, Sean Jones (publisher), Stephanie Lenox, Paulann Peterson, Peter Sears, Stephanie Shaw, Samuel Snoek-Brown, Juniper White (letterpress printer), John Sibley Williams, and Marilyn Worrix (book artist)
2016: Susan Blackaby, Kate Carroll de Gutes, Barbara Drake, Ed Edmo, Gina Fluharty, Emily Grosvenor, C. Morgan Kennedy, Yvonne Kohano, Shawn Levy, Stephen W. Long, David Mason, Lisa Ohlen Harris, Josiah Phillips, Terri Reed, Kate Ristau, Sam Snoek-Brown, William Sullivan, and Brian Tibbets (agent)
2017: Sean Davis, Kathleen Dean Moore, Barbara Drake, Steve Duin, Harry Fuller, Emily Grosvenor, Ed Higgins, Anna Keesey, C. Morgan Kennedy, Lisa Ohlen Harris, Lynn Otto, Chip MacGregor (agent), Andrea Stolowitz, Daniel Wilson, and Lidia Yuknavitch
2018: José Angel Araguz, Heather Arndt Anderson, Tracy Daugherty, Debby Dodds, Barbara Drake, Emily Grosvenor, Henry Hughes, Fonda Lee, Gina Ochsner, Lisa Ohlen Harris, Matthew Robinson, Marjorie Sandor, Laura Stanfill, Ellen Summerfield, and Lolly Ward
2019: Kim Stafford, Barbara Drake, Courtney Hameister, Alice Derry, Lynn Otto, Peter Nathaniel Malae, Susie Sweetland Garay, Keith Rosson, Bette Lynch Husted, Michael Copperman, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Kristina McMorris, Buddy Lamorey
2023: Laura Stanfill, Leah Sottile, Barbara Drake, Emily Grosvenor, Cindy Williams Gutiérrez, Melissa Hart, Michelle Ruiz Keil, Katie Kulla, Stephen W. Long, Rebecca Minifie, Sylla McClellan (book seller), Liz Prato, Ellen Summerfield, and Joe Wilkins
2024: Omar El Akkad, Molly Gloss, Kim Stafford, Valerie Blaha, Barbara Drake, Steve Duin, Miriam Gershow, Emily Grosvenor, John Hamilton, Kim Hogeland (publisher), Brooke Jackson-Glidden, Bethany Lee, Sonja Thomas, and Emmett Wheatfall
2025: Ellen Waterston, Judith Barrington, Mike Chasar, David Ciminello, Tove Danovich, Angela Grace Merritt (publisher), Emily Grosvenor, Erin Hall, Stephanie Lenox, Christopher Luna, Chip MacGregor, and Laura Stanfill
Financial Support
Over the years, the festival has received grants from the Oregon Community Foundation, Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation, Oregon Cultural Trust, Oregon Arts Commission, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Yamhill County Cultural Coalition, First Federal, and 99 GAL Friends. We received monetary donations from the Nicholson Library and English Department at Linfield University and Roth’s Fresh Markets for many years. Numerous individuals have been generous donors, as well.
In 2025 we developed a sponsorship program to encourage local businesses and other organizations to support the festival. Sponsors so far include Dr. Adam Diesburg, DDS; the Delphian School; Effloro Pilates and Wellness Studio; Provender Press; Imprint Media Lab; Angela Grace Custom Publications; Stantec Consulting; Luminaire Press; and Big Box Returns of McMinnville.
Festival Committee Members
The founding planning committee members were Tayler Brisbin, Jean Caspers, Emily Chadwick, Barbara Drake, Steve Long, and Lisa Weidman.
Current committee members are Mary Adams, Barbara Drake, Emily Grosvenor, Erin Hall, Levi Laws, Steve Long, Melinda Moorefield, Josh Rice, and Lisa Weidman.
Additional members who contributed much over the years include Monica Setziol-Phillips, Lisa Ohlen Harris, Gail Watson, Patricia Angland, Diane McMillen, Deborah Voorhees, Lynn Otto, Tandy Tillinghast, Mike Santone, Sam Snoek-Brown, Buddy Lamorey, Angela Darrow, and Ed Gans.
Lisa Weidman, a retired professor of journalism, public relations and advertising, is a founding member of the Terroir planning committee who manages the budget and registrations, develops printed materials, and writes grant applications. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in mass communication from Syracuse University and a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from U.C. Davis. She served on the board of the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County from 2008 through 2012, including two years as board president.
Emily Grosvenor has served on the PR team for Terroir for twelve years and launched the festival’s fundraising program in 2025. She is a design journalist, essayist, and author of Find Yourself At Home: A Conscious Approach to Shaping Your Space and Your Life (Chronicle). Emily writes the Substack “I would do it differently.” Read more at emilygrosvenor.com.
Mary Adams has been the chief contact person for speakers at the Terroir Creative Writing Festival since 2023. She was publicity and promotion manager for two university presses (Iowa State University and the University of Illinois) that published both scholarly and general interest titles. She also worked with conference planning and promotion for ISU Continuing Education.
Melinda Moorefield plays a very important role in Terroir - she hosts the meetings! She also works on raffle baskets.
Barbara Drake has been publishing poetry and other works since she was a student at the University of Oregon in 1962. Her most recent poetry collections are Driving One Hundred and The Road to Lilac Hill, from Windfall Books. She has also published two collections of memoir Peace at Heart and Morning Light from OSU press, and various textbooks including Writing Poetry (HBJ) and high school literature textbooks. Now retired from Linfield College where she established the creative writing major and taught literature and creative writing for 24 years, she lives with her husband and assorted creatures on an old farm in Oregon’s Yamhill County.
Levi Laws has been a Lang and Lit teacher at McMinnville High School for the last 4 years. He won the Deb Bakner Teaching Award for Excellence in his second year of teaching. He also runs the school’s Poetry Club, one of the fastest growing clubs at the school where he helps students develop their craft and get their work published. His first poetry book, When We’re Awake at Night was published in 2020, which dealt with poems around a mental health journey. His second book, The Mirror and the Window, poems on healing from familial trauma is slated to be published late 2026.
Stephen Long is the author of the novels There’s a Somebody and All Hat, as well as the upcoming A Death in Felicity. He is the host of the long running interview show The Writing Life.
Erin Hall is the author of Dear Sylvia, Love Jane, as well as short stories and essays. She serves on the board of Gather Repertory Theatre and the planning committee for the Terroir Creative Writing Festival. Erin teaches writing and marketing classes and works a day job as a Marketing Content Strategist. Find her online at erinhallwrites.com
Josh Rice has served on the Terroir Planning Committee since 2024, acting as liaison to the Stoller Experience Center. He is a certified life coach and energetic healer, and launched his business, Awaken Inward LLC, this year. He is currently writing a memoir inspired by his travels through the national parks of the American West.