An Interview with Midori Evans
I’ve been a part of the Westport Writers Group since its inception, and I wanted to take the opportunity to kick off some interviews of local authors by speaking to Midori Evans, the group’s founder. My hope is to inspire other members to use the Write With Community blog platform to begin discourse with other writers and artists in their lives, highlighting their talents and accomplishments. I know Midori has been an inspiration to many folks on the South Coast, so I thought it would be fun to delve a little deeper into the evolution of her personal creative process.
Krista: As the founder of the Westport Writers Group and a small business owner, you’re obviously inherently a creative person. Even your name, Midori, helps you stand out! Have you always fashioned your identity around your artistic endeavors?
Midori: I’ve definitely always been creative and am certainly in the artistic part of my family! So that you understand that reference: there are seven children in my family of origin; the older four siblings work in the fields of law, banking, and public policy. My two younger sisters and I are the ones working as artists - Katherine as a trumpeter and singer in Vancouver, Canada, Laura, a fine art painter who lives in New York City, and me with my various creative pursuits.
I spent many years running Fantastic Tutor and I still do tutoring part-time. It’s also a creative endeavor in its own way as I help awaken the joy of learning in students and expose them to enriching experiences.
Krista: Tell me about why you started the WWG. How long has it been in operation?
Midori: The Westport Writers Group grew out of an offshoot of the Westport Writes Together project which started in the fall of 2022. We got some grant funding to do a community writing experience across the town of Westport, based on seasonal prompts. A few of us came to the writing sessions which were part of that and it naturally grew into a more regularly scheduled group. In the spring of 2023, we booked the rest of the year of space at the Macomber House and voila! The Westport Writers Group was born.
Krista: How has your work with the WWG branched out to the greater community? What other projects has it inspired?
Midori: So many other projects, it’s almost hard to think about! The most recent project has been the publication of our two local anthologies: The Landscape About Us published in spring 2024 and Waterscapes published in spring 2025. Each respectively had twenty-five and thirty writers and photographers’ contributions from around the South Coast. We wanted to capture our love of where we live through our work; we shared them through readings at the Westport Library, the Westport River Watershed Alliance, Allen’s Neck Quaker Meeting, the Rotch Duff Jones house in New Bedford, as well as launching them both with celebratory readings at Davoll’s Bookstore.
In addition, Westport Writers Group members will be participating in an upcoming FarmCoast Conversation Series which explores “What is Our Relationship to Land and Water” at the Westport Grange in January and February.
This continues our thematic work on the connection between the environment and art and how writers and artists have a role to play in stewarding our natural landscapes. In September of this year, we held an event that brought together environmental stewards and writers who contributed to Waterscapes. Land, Water, and Spirit – held at the Allen’s Neck Quaker Meeting in Dartmouth – asked, “How can we develop a land ethic that becomes second nature to our daily thinking, living and creative expression?” So we are writing and making community connections through our work in a really incredible way!
Krista: How do you combine/cross-pollinate your writing and your photography?
Midori: I love being both a writer and a photographer. Sometimes my work is directly connected, like in my book that will be coming out next year which features both of those mediums. Other times it's about the people and artists I have met here on the South Coast. As both a writer and a photographer, I find myself able to easily shift from one to another and use my skills in both to influence my work. For people used to working in only one medium, it can be revolutionary to explore a viewpoint and method of creating that is completely different. In 2022, Midori Creativity held the first of three yearly exhibitions titled Meditations on Landscape at Dedee Shattuck Gallery, featuring local photographs and written pieces celebrating our home landscape.
Those gallery pieces were not separate creations, nor exhibited separately. The writers and photographers interacted with each other, talked about where they had done their work, and reflected ideas as varied as creative process, land meaning and use, and the anthropomorphization of nature. The resulting works held the seeds of artistic diversity. I contributed as well as both a photographer and writer. I found myself writing unique pieces I loved and visualizing angles and photographic approaches I had not seen in my mind’s eye before. By the third year of our festival of community, creativity, and art, we had artists, writers, farmers, students, and more all coming together to showcase the myriad ways that we are inspired by our natural environment.
Another cross-pollination project I’ve been running is Artists Share! in New Bedford, a monthly gathering ongoing now since 2020. As artists of all types, we gather to explore our artistic journeys and help each other with a mixture of support, inspiration, and critique.
In October of 2025, we held our first exhibition at Groundwork Gallery in New Bedford: Creative Catalysts: A Celebration of Artistic Cross Pollination. Talk about the power of cross-pollination!
From quilts that map the city of New Bedford to seaweed art, the exhibition showcased wonderfully unique pairings. As one visitor said, “it was a full sensory journey through creativity and nature. Each collaboration showed us that when artists work together, they create new ways of seeing and understanding our environment.”
I also really enjoy exploring text and image; I’ve been lucky enough to take several classes on text and imagery with one of my favorite photography teachers, Joanne Dugan. Linking text and image really is an art form of its own. Combining, connecting, growing, seeding – all are integral parts of the creative journey.
Krista: What is your preferred writing genre, personally?
Midori: I write a lot of flash fiction. I love seeing the stories that arise when I sit down at WWG and just wait. It’s like there are these characters running around in my head or somewhere nearby and they come and tell their stories through me. I am frequently asked: where did that come from? Is that something you have experience with? Most of the time the answers are “I don’t know” and “no.” Neither I nor the writing group members who are there that month ever quite know who we are going to meet!
Krista: Do you have a favorite author? Tell me about an author’s work that has inspired you.
Midori: I love the work of Natalie Goldberg. And of UK nature writer Robert MacFarlane. And then a book I recommended we read in my book club, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler, is a tour de force.
In it, Lawrence recounts the artistic journey of Robert Irwin as he explores space, light, and meaning. It’s absolutely fascinating.
Krista: Was there a writing experience in your childhood (or later) when you remember first feeling like “a writer”?
Midori: So maybe now is the time to tell the May Sarton story…
When I was in elementary school, I was part of an enrichment group and we began writing letters to authors as early as second grade. It wasn’t just authors – we wrote to presidents, musicians, state politicians. Mostly, though, we wrote to authors whose books we had enjoyed. May Sarton wrote one children’s book, Punch’s Secret, about a lonely parrot who has a secret friend and, of course, we all loved Charlotte’s Web. We ended up having long correspondences with both E.B. White and May Sarton starting in third grade and continuing for years. If you read carefully enough, you’ll find references to us in the books in the links…
So even if I didn’t yet really understand the concept of an identity as a writer, I think I already had one!
Krista: What advice would you give to others who are on the fence about whether they should try attending a writing group? How can it help?
Midori: I think all of us who have been going to the WWG for a while recognize that it’s a different experience writing there than writing on our own. The energy is different when you are with a group of people who are all asking the writing muses to come for a visit. A number of writers have shared with me that they have produced different work when in WWG – work that surprised them and made them happy. One writer found herself discovering that she is a poet; another said the voice in the work she writes at group isn’t the same one she recognizes. So the advice? There is really nothing to lose. Come on by!
Krista: The WWG has transformed over the years. In January 2026, it will be changing location. Will anything else about the group be changing? What are your hopes for its purpose and its members?
Midori: We love being a place where writers of any level and identity come together to write. We’re moving to the North Dartmouth library to be more geographically accessible to people. Beyond that, the group is really about creating a space where people can explore their writing, their belief in themselves as writers, and their inner writing voices. None of that will be changing. What I hope for its purpose is to remain true to its mission to be open to all while maintaining a safe space.
Krista: Do you have any personal projects you’re working on that you’d like to share?
Midori: I am working on a new book and my forward movement has been jumpstarted by the Fine Arts Work Center’s writing accountability group that meets once a week. It’s getting me writing again! I’m also always – constantly – dreaming of new ways to create and produce work I can share. So I don’t know what will come next. Maybe an exhibition of my photos from my trip to Japan last year? We’ll see!
Krista: Wow, Midori, thank you for taking the time to elaborate on your creative journey. It’s been delightful participating and assisting in the writing groups, as well as your many local workshops and other events. I’m excited for some of your upcoming projects! I’m also off to pick up a copy of one of May Sarton’s works, since reading is one of the best ways for us writers to find inspiration.
