Notes for Writers

The National Writers Union will be hosting a reading and open mic on Monday, June 15, starting at 6:00 p.m. at 2955 E. Broadway in Tucson. 

This month our featured reader will be Peter Bourque, who will be reading from and discussing his recently published book, A Path Wide and Narrow, A Memoir (2025). Peter, who grew up in an intensely Catholic working-class family in Flint, Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan (English), has lived in Tucson since 1978. After graduating from college, he spent 27 months in the Peace Corps in Ivory Coast, where he met his wife Suzy, and then directed the Tucson Hunger Action Center from 1981 to 1986 before returning to West Africa (Mali). He finally settled in as a high school English and French teacher, participating in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange to the French island of Guadeloupe in 2001-02. Since 2009, he has taught English as a volunteer through Literacy Connects.
Path is his second book, having published Tarnished Ivory, Reflections on Peace Corps and Beyond in 2011. A Path Wide and Narrow offers a blend of autobiographical details and thoughtful insights on subjects including religion, parenting, guns, and the author's experience of sustaining a spinal cord injury in 2019 that resulted in paraplegia. In his presentation, he additionally hopes to address the issues of “voice”; the inclusion and exclusion of information; deadlines; distribution; and the joys and disappointments of reactions to the book. 

The open mic is for spoken word only, but is open to all forms of spoken word (fiction, essays, poetry, articles, polemics, etc.). So bring something to read!

The event will be held at the UFCW Union Hall at 2955 E. Broadway. This is on the north side of Broadway, immediately west of the large and fancy Chase Bank, which is on the northwest corner of Broadway and Country Club Road. Parking and entry are from the rear.

There will not, unfortunately, be a Zoom option this month.