Cara Stoddard presents 'Spirography'

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,, 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!

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This event is free to attend. Registration is recommended in advance.

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.

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.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.

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