LAKE COUNTY – Former Lake County Poet Laureate Mary McMillan, with the support of the Lake County Arts Council, was again awarded a grant to fund her work as leader of the Writers Circle.

The grant supporting the Writers Circle comes from Poets and Writers Inc., through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

The Writers Circle is a free public writing workshop held at the Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery, 325 N. Main St. in Lakeport, at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.

The Writers Circle attracts many emerging writers as well as more seasoned authors. Some people come only a few times, and others show up every month.

Many participants have been sharing parts of books and other long works they've been writing; others share short stories, memoirs, essays or poems.

The writers are between 16 and 80 years old, and come from all over the county.