The Michigan Hemingway Society (MHS) is delighted to co-host the Walloon Lake Writers Retreat at Hotel Walloon March 4th - 6th, 2022, featuring Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, the great-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway and the author of Ernest’s Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway's Life (2019) and The Smallest of Entryways (2012). The MHS had the chance to talk with Cristen about her upcoming visit to Walloon Lake.

MHS: Your book Ernest’s Way takes readers on a journey all over the globe to some of the most significant places in your great-grandfather’s life, and yet it feels incredibly intimate as you describe his favorite foods, drinks, and even the barstools and tables of cafes and restaurants he preferred. This is your first time visiting his northern Michigan haunts. What are you most excited to see?

CHJ: The [original family] cottage, Windemere. I love At the Hemingways by Marcelline (Hemingway Sanford) [Ernest’s sister] because it gives such detail of what my family’s life was like when they were growing up, what their summers were like up there. And I can’t wait to see it, to imagine them all there.

I also was so lucky to grow up with my Uncle Les (Ernest’s brother, Leicester) who told me family stories and resembled Ernest, so I feel like I knew him in some way.

MHS: I was reading an article you wrote for Poets and Writers about the personal and sacred nature of old-fashioned letter writing. You have volumes and volumes of correspondence that your great-grandfather left behind. Do you feel like this also helped you to get to know the man behind the legend?

CHJ: Letters feel like a gift, they slow you down and make you feel like you are with the person when you write by hand and send that letter through the mail. It’s more personal and so appreciated. So yes, that’s how you really get to know someone, a letter is a window to their personality.

MHS: Do you feel that the urge to write, to travel, is part of your family?

CHJ: I feel a sense of adventure, an outdoor spirit. I love being in nature. Yes, I think so many people in my family feel called to write, but we’re also huge appreciators of art in all of its forms. And, like Ernest, we’re a bunch of romantics - that definitely runs in our family, too!

MHS: What are you hoping is the biggest takeaway from the Writers Retreat at Hotel Walloon?

CHJ: I really want people to get that one-on-one time, to get feedback on their writing, from me, from the other writers, and to make connections with each other. These last couple of years have been so hard, I’m excited to be connecting over art. Stories give people a way to connect. 

The Village of Walloon Lake invites the public to hear from Cristen Hemingway Jaynes during a free event at the Talcott Venue in downtown Walloon Lake on Saturday, March 5. Doors will open at 7 PM with the presentation beginning at 7:30 PM. A book signing will follow.

For more information regarding the Walloon Lake Writers Retreat, please contact Hotel Walloon at (231) 535-5000.