MANZANITA — Oregon author Anna Keesey will lead a historical fiction writing workshop and do a reading from her book Saturday, March 21.

From 1 to 3 p.m., Keesey will lead the workshop “Writing Before You Were Born: How to Create Lively Historical Fiction.” Keesey will talk about what historical fiction is, share strategies for research, and provide participants some on-the-spot practice in telling a historical story. Held at the Hoffman Center, the workshop is $30. Register and pay online at hoffmanblog.org or download a workshop form, complete and mail it in along with payment to the Hoffman Center, PO Box 678, Manzanita, OR 97130.

Keesey will then read from her novel, “Little Century,” at the Manzanita Writers’ Series event at 7 p.m. at the Hoffman Center. Admission to the evening event is $7.

Written in the tradition of “My Antonia” and “There Will Be Blood,” “Little Century” follows 18-year-old orphan Esther Chambers homesteading in the lawless town of Century, Oregon, in 1900, a time of a battle for water and rangeland between sheep and cattle owners.

“Little Century” won the 2013 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, awarded each year by the Susan B. Anthony Institute for the best work of fiction by an American woman published in the preceding year. The award calls attention to the work of a promising but less established woman writer. Previous winners include Anne Patchett, Toni Morrison and Ursula K. Le Guin before they achieved fame.

Keesey is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and has held residencies at MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Yaddo, and Provincetown. Keesey teaches English and creative writing at Linfield College in McMinnville.

Following Keesey’s reading and question-and-answer session, the Hoffman Center will host its popular Open Mic, where up to nine local writers will read five minutes of their original work. The suggested theme for Open Mic is “Frontiers and Pioneers.”