Writing from ten years after her father's death, she traces her experiences of becoming a stepparent, carrying on her dad's legacy, and, in unimaginable ways, bringing him back to life.
Third Place Books and the North Cascades Institute present Cara Stoddard as part of our Spring 2025 Nature of Writing series! Stoddard will be discussing their debut memoir, Spirography: A Memoir of Family, Loss, and Finding Home, a coming-of-age memoir about the bond between a father and daughter, their intertwined illnesses, and the enduring love that persists even after death. This memoir follows Stoddard's intersecting experiences of cancer, grief, and sexuality, rooted in the suburban Midwest of the late twentieth century—where idyllic lake life, water sports, NASCAR, Christian rock, and a willful ignorance around queerness define the landscape. This event is free and open to the public.
This event is co-sponsored by the North Cascades Institute, a nonprofit conservation organization working to inspire environmental stewardship through transformative learning experiences in nature. Learn more at ncascades.org.
For important updates, registration is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!
About Spirography. . .
Writing from ten years after her father's death, she traces her experiences of becoming a stepparent, carrying on her dad's legacy, and, in unimaginable ways, bringing him back to life.
Spirography is a coming-of-age memoir about the bond between a father and daughter, their intertwined illnesses, and the enduring love that persists even after death. This memoir follows author Cara Stoddard's intersecting experiences of cancer, grief, and sexuality, rooted in the suburban Midwest of the late twentieth century—where idyllic lake life, water sports, NASCAR, Christian rock, and a willful ignorance around queerness define the landscape. Set in the author's childhood home on a lake in Michigan, this lyrical archive of a family navigating crisis is an elegy not only for the memory of her father but also the end of her childhood spent outdoors.
Stoddard takes the reader intimately through the checkpoints of her coming-of-age story—including working at a summer camp, moving to Colorado, falling in love, coming out—each leg of the journey backdropped by her father's declining health and the author's own incremental acceptance of this impending loss. Writing from ten years after her father's death, she traces her experiences of becoming a stepparent, carrying on her dad's legacy, and, in unimaginable ways, bringing him back to life.
Praise for Spirography. . .
"Spirography is the rare, wonderful book: as alive with its own weathers as the lake around which Stoddard's childhood life revolves. An elegy to a father lost to cancer; a childhood-cancer-survival memoir that refuses any easy definition of survival; a story of gender and sexuality, of water skiing and downhill skiing, of Michigan and the West, and what it means to be family, this is a radiant, restless search for answers and overlaps, all traced with such grace and intellectual and emotional power. I couldn't put it down."
—Alexandra Teague, author of Or What We'll Call Desire: Poems
"Spirography is a moving love story, richly layered: a daughter's love for their father spirals outward to include family, friends, lovers, a daughter of their own, and love for place, too—from one small lake in Michigan to the Great Lakes generally to mountains in Colorado and Washington. Cara Stoddard is a generous narrator, ever in motion—skiing, skating, hiking, swimming, boating—with a curious mind, ever searching, questioning. Their voice brims with wisdom and grace and warmth most of all, welcoming the reader at every turn."
—Ana Maria Spagna, author of Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre
"Stoddard's stunning debut memoir, Spirography, strands together their and their father's cancers, his death, and their attempts to rebuild their world. It is written the way herons peer into dark lakes: unflinchingly gazing 'beneath the surface all the way down to the bottom.'
—Sean Prentiss, author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave
This elegant memoir explores the loss of a father and the rearing of a daughter through the shifting lenses of place and memory.
—Mary Clearman Blew, author of All But the Waltz: A Memoir of Five Generations in the Life of a Montana Family
About the Nature of Writing Series. . .
A deep appreciation for the transformative power of literature and art has been at the heart of North Cascades Institute since the very beginning. The humanities provide important lenses through which we inhabit and understand our shared landscapes. Our Nature of Writing Speaker Series celebrates the creative minds illuminating the natural world with the turn of a page.
For nearly 20 years, North Cascades Institute has worked in partnership with independent booksellers and community organizations to bring leading authors on environmental issues, natural and cultural history, poetry, art, wellness and adventure together in celebration and appreciation of nature. Past speakers have included Terry Tempest Williams, Gary Snyder, David B. Williams, Richard Louv, Peter Wohlleben, Brenda Peterson, Tim McNulty, Mary Oliver, Barry Lopez and Molly Hashimoto. By bringing our community together in conversation at these events, we aim to support authors, poets and artists and amplify their voices to promote lifelong stewardship through better understanding of the world around us.
Cara Stoddard is a Seattle-based creative nonfiction writer and poet. Their poems and essays have appeared in Fourth Genre, The Gettysburg Review, Terrain.org, and Ninth Letter. Currently, they work as a grant manager for the University of Washington.
Want a signed edition of the featured book, but can't make it to the event? Order through our website or over the phone, and write your request for a signature or personalization in the comments field at checkout. Please call the hosting store if you're placing your order within 24 hours of the event.
Third Place Books Events Code of Conduct: Third Place Books is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of event attendees and guest authors, during both online and in-store events. By registering for this event, you are agreeing to refrain from engaging in inappropriate behavior and harassment of any kind throughout the course of this event (i.e. racial slurs, profanity, hate speech, spam comments, etc.). Please note that any participants who engage in inappropriate behavior or harassment of any kind will be immediately ejected from the event.
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