GREAT WRITERS ON GREAT LAKE TAHOE FIND THEIR VOICE

“To breathe the same air as the angels, you must go to Tahoe” -Mark Twain Emerald Bay, CA side

That’s how it feels on the wild side in the time of Twain.

Readers will have a much deeper appreciation for Mark Twain and the Lake Tahoe region, a place where he found his voice as a writer and humorist and went on to become one of America’s greatest authors.

Finding your writer voice is no small thing.

That’s what the search is all about, with every writer hunting.

Lake Tahoe gives voice, even while it takes your breath away.

John Muir agrees:

“Tahoe is surely not one but many. As I curve around its heads and bays and look far out on its level sky fairly tinted and fading in pensive air, I am reminded of all the mountain lakes I ever knew, as if this were a kind of water heaven to which they all had come.”

Lake Tahoe waterfall on California side during the melt.

What writer(s) from here should we read?

John Muir, Isabella Byrd, and Mark Twain all mention Lake Tahoe in their writing, but not from the point of denizens but as travelers. Sarah Winnemucca, known for publishing the first autobiography written by a Native American woman, discusses the surrounding area in Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims.

We have quite a lively literary scene, and contemporary writers from around the lake include June Sylvester Saraceno, Krista Lukas, Gayle Brandeis, Jeremy Evans, and Ann Marie Brown. We also have a number of interesting writers not far from here in Reno, such as Laura Wetherington, Gailmarie Pahmeier, Ann Ronald, and Michael Branch.

What would make Lake Tahoe a literary destination like, say, Asheville, North Carolina?

A great literary star like Thomas Wolfe who influences generations of writers after his passing would help.

A writer who jump started a counter culture like Ken Kesey.

Yosemite has it’s fans, but Tahoe Writers Works on facebook aim for the lake.

For any writer searching for their voice, start in Lake Tahoe.

Get in there and write it out.