Meet Local Author Teresa Janssen

Join local author Teresa Janssen as she reads excerpts from her debut novel, The Ways of Water, a thrilling tale of pioneer life based on the stories her grandmother told her through the years. The event will include time for audience Q&A and books will be available for sale and signing.

A career educator, Teresa Janssen studied history and French at Gonzaga University and earned an M.A. in linguistics from the University of Washington. She taught for over 20 years in refugee programs, higher ed, and Jefferson County high schools. Her prose has appeared in anthologies and literary journals, including Zyzzyva, Chautauqua, Parabola, Under the Sun, and the L.A. Review and her essays have twice been notables in Best American Essays.

The Ways of Water, inspired by her grandmother’s early life in the Southwest, won the 2024 Best Book Award for Western Fiction and the Western Heritage Center’s Lariat Award for the 2024 Outstanding Western Novel. Teresa lives in Port Townsend.