Doug is a co-founder of the National Writers Series in Traverse City, Michigan.

The Writers Series of Traverse City, a nonprofit, believes in the power of story telling to enrich and transform lives and whole communities. We bring the country’s most beloved authors to the City Opera House stage and engage them in conversation about their writing life, their newest book, and the finer points of writing.

Today, the organization has evolved to serve three missions: enrich the community by providing a venue for nationally renowned authors to come and share their work and encourage appreciation of the written word;  support of aspiring writers; and support of college scholarships to aspiring writers.

NWS also offers several youth programs under the umbrella of “Raising Writers”: the Front Street Writers—a free, for-credit creative writing course offered in partnership with Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District; a Battle of the Books reading contest for area fourth and fifth graders; a poetry workshop at Traverse Heights Elementary; and writing classes for youth. Our guest writers often visit area classrooms and chat with students, a highly transformative experience for dozens of aspiring, young writers.

“Some observers believe that Traverse City’s growing reputation as a city of book lovers can also be attributed to the National Writers Series…” said Publishers Weekly.

The Writers Series was established in 2009 by New York Times bestselling author and Traverse City native Doug Stanton, his wife, Anne Stanton, a former journalist who now heads the Writers Series, and Grant Parsons, a civil rights attorney. The idea for the nonprofit came about after Doug began his nationwide book tour in 2008 for Horse Soldiers. He was startled to find several things: little face-to-face interaction between authors and the general public, a waning interest in young writers to pursue their craft, and a massive shift in the bookselling industry to online, anonymous sales. He created the Writers Series to spark meaningful conversation with authors and to support the next generation of writers.

For more information about The National Writers Series, to hear or watch past converations, or to purchase tickets, please head to www.http://nationalwritersseries.org/.