- Christina Basor
- Posted On
Greenlee shares experiences during Big Read event
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Author Carolyn Wing Greenlee was featured in a Lake County Big Read program sponsored by the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College and the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, affiliates of the Mendocino College Foundation.
Held last Sunday, Oct. 27, at the Mendocino College Lake Center in Lakeport, the event was one of many offered during October through the auspices of the National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest in cooperation with the Lake County Office of Education and the Literacy Task Force.
Greenlee discussed the power of books to change lives and how everyone’s story is important.
She is a third-generation Chinese-American who has spent more than two decades interviewing six generations of family and friends, publishing 13 books and has edited and brought to print more than 20 books, some of which she has illustrated, also.
Greenlee’s publishing company, Earthen Vessel Productions, also has published history booklets for the Lake County Museum to preserve local history and ensure that the books can be reprinted when needed.
In researching the early documents, records and artifacts at the museum she discovered that there was history of Chinese people working in the quicksilver and borax mines in early Lake County.
A resident of Lake County for 36 years, Greenlee has enjoyed contributing to the activities and culture of the area.
She has taught writing, art, singing and drama to all ages. For six years, she co-produced the Lake County Arts Council Summer Theatre Workshop, a teen musical theater group, and co-authored two of its full main stage productions.
She received the Lake County Arts Council’s Artie Award for her support of the arts, and the Lake County Stars award for best professional artist of the year.
In 2004, she was named Lake County’s Poet Laureate and served for two years.
Greenlee said she values each individual experience, and the ability of a person to overcome adversity in difficult circumstances or catastrophic loss.
Her personal heritage and circumstances have inspired Greenlee to give a voice to those who are not often heard.
These include her mother’s memoir of childhood growing up in a Chinese laundry in the 1920s, “Inside the Oy Quong Laundry;” her parents’ escape from Confucian slavery and how they changed the world with their freedom, “Eternal River” (volumes I, II and III); and Greenlee’s own descent into blindness and the surprising healing that happened during her month at guide dog school several years ago, “Steady Hedy.”
Her latest book in the Eternal River series details how her father, Dr. Thomas W. Wing, invented microcurrent machines that revolutionized health care, and how chance meetings often change the direction of our lives.
The Lake County Arts Council will host a reception and book signing at the Main Street Gallery for Greenlee’s new book on Sat., Nov. 9, at 2 p.m.