Spokane native, English instructor, newspaper editor, beekeeper and novelist Eileen Garvin’s fourth book — and her third novel — was released Tuesday.Next Wednesday, she returns to the Lilac City to discuss her latest, “Bumblebee Season” at a Spokesman-Review Northwest Passages event.
Spokane's Eileen Garvin
Eileen Garvin was born and raised in Spokane.
She graduated in 1992 with a degree in English from Seattle University and taught English in American Samoa. She then taught English at the University of New Mexico while working on a master’s degree there.
In 2001, she became managing editor of New Mexico Business Weekly in Albuquerque.
In 2005, she moved to Hood River, Oregon, and worked on a series of freelance projects, concentrating mostly on outdoors, health, business and travel.
Her work has appeared in the Oregonian, the Portland Business Journal, the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico magazine, Alaska Airlines magazine, Psychology Today, Medium, and Creative Nonfiction magazine.
Garvin’s official bio says she “shares her backyard with four chickens, wild birds of all kinds, and about 120,000 honeybees.”
Garvin's Four Books
How To be A Sister,
April 1, 2010
Garvin’s first book was a memoir about her relationship with her sister, who was diagnosed with severe autism at age 3.
After living for several years in New Mexico, 1,600 miles away from her sister, Garvin had to learn how to reconnect with her and to work out what role Garvin would play in her sister’s future, as their parents age.
“There is nothing gentle or elegiac about the tone of Eileen Garvin’s ‘How to Be a Sister,’ and while there’s self-awareness, there’s a welcome lack of extended self-analysis,” wrote the Washington Post. “Garvin’s storytelling abilities are strong, and her fierce, protective love for Margaret, whom she brings to stinging life on the page, gives this book real power.”
“How to Be a Sister,” was named an IndieNext Pick by IndieBound and was chosen as a Book of the Month by Target and by Kindle.
It was re-released as an audiobook in September 2022.
The Music Of Bees,
April 27, 2021
Garvin’s first novel was released as the pandemic was winding down. Ron Sylvester of The Spokesman-
Review wrote the book “is a story for this unique time about three people trying to mend their broken lives ... ‘The Music of Bees’ tells of the power inside each of us that builds the sweet life we want even if we don’t get there the way we had dreamed ... It’s exactly the book we need after a year of uncertainty.”
The Washington Post wrote that it was “a sweet story and a nice reminder that ‘flaws’ can actually be strengths.” It was “genuinely touching” wrote Publishers Weekly.
The book was a “Good Morning America” buzz pick, a Good Housekeeping book club pick and was also selected for praise by IndieNext, People and Woman's World magazines, the Washington Post, the New York Post and the Christian Science Monitor.
Crow Talk,
April 30, 2024
“Garvin’s writing power is her empathic approach of giving strength to what some might consider character flaws,” Sylvester wrote about “Crow Talk.” “Garvin can find power in the fear of broken dreams and the self-doubt of a parent ... Garvin makes us aware that the crows are trying to tell us something, if only we are wise enough to listen.”
“This novel did more than just engage me as a reader, it completely transported me,” wrote novelist Jonathan Evison. “ ‘Crow Talk’ is keenly observant, highly atmospheric, and full of hope. Garvin writes with great warmth and pathos about the majesty of the natural world, as well as the untamed wilds of the human heart.”
“This is my first Eileen Garvin read, and I am not really sure what I have been doing with my life,” wrote Allyson Bales of Chick Lit Central, “but adding the rest of her backlist to my TBR is first on my to-do list this week!”
Bumblebee Season,
April 21, 2026
Garvin’s new effort follows another trio of characters: A beekeeper who uses a wheelchair and who finds it difficult to hire farmhands at honey harvest time, a young migrant from Mexico and a woman whose intent to study bees blinds her to other humans.
The meeting of these three takes place while a local political candidate threatens immigrants and a commercial development threatens to change the nearby environment forever.
“Garvin is a master at creating hive-like communities vibrating with characters readers will enthusiastically embrace,” wrote Booklist in a starred review. Bumblebee season is “a heart-wrenching yet uplifting story,” writes Publishers Weekly. “Readers will cheer on the heroes of this winning story.”
“The writing is engaging and speeds along compellingly,” writes the Library Journal.
In Spokane With Her New Book
Garvin will be the guest of The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages book club at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Bing Crosby Theater at 901 W Sprague Ave. in Spokane.
For general admission tickets, reserved seat book bundles and free tickets for students: https://www.spokesman.com/northwest-passages/events/eileen-garvin-returns-with-bumblebee-season/