50 Portland Writers We Admire

Poets, memoirists and novelists who have shaped the city in the last half century.

Anis Mojgani IMAGE: Megan Gex.
By WW Staff

In celebration of 50 years of Willamette Week, we’re taking a look at 50 writers we admire who have made Portland what it is.

  1. Anis Mojgani for The Feather Room
  2. Beverly Cleary for the Ramona Quimby books
  3. Blake Nelson for Girl and Paranoid Park
  4. Brent Walth for Fire at Eden’s Gate
  5. Brian Doyle for Mink River, The Plover, Martin Marten
  6. Cari Luna for The Revolution of Every Day
  7. Charles D’Ambrosio for The Dead Fish Museum
  8. Chelsea Cain for Heartsick, Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, and The Man-Eaters
  9. Cheryl Strayed for Torch, Wild, and Tiny Beautiful Things
  10. Chuck Palahniuk for Fight Club
  11. Colin Meloy for Wildwood
  12. Courtenay Hameister for Okay Fine Whatever
  13. Craig Lesley for Winterkill, River Song, and The Sky Fisherman
  14. Dale E. Basye for Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go
  15. David F. Walker for The Hated
  16. Diana Abu-Jaber for Arabian Jazz
  17. Don Berry for Trask
  18. Emily Chenoweth for Hello Goodbye and the Klawde series
  19. Floyd Skloot for In the Shadow of Memory
  20. Jean Auel for The Clan of the Cave Bear
  21. Jennifer Lauck for Blackbird
  22. Joe Sacco for Palestine, Footnotes in Gaza, and Safe Area Gorazde
  23. John Callahan for Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
  24. Jon Raymond for The Half-Life and Rain Dragon
  25. Karen Karbo for the Kick Ass Women series
  26. Katherine Dunn for Geek Love
  27. Ken Bilderback for Law and Order at the End of the Oregon Trail
  28. Kesha Ajose-Fisher for No God Like The Mother
  29. Kim Stafford for As the Sky Begins to Change
  30. Larry Colton for Goat Brothers and Counting Coup
  31. Leni Zumas for Red Clocks
  32. Lidia Yuknavitch for The Small Backs of Children
  33. Lydia Kiesling for Mobility
  34. Matt Groening for Life in Hell
  35. Mitchell S. Jackson for The Residue Years and Survival Math
  36. Molly Gloss for The Jump-Off Creek
  37. Monica Drake for Clown Girl
  38. Omar El Akkad for What Strange Paradise
  39. Patrick deWitt for The Sisters Brothers
  40. Peter Rock for My Abandonment
  41. Philip Margolin for Gone, But Not Forgotten
  42. Rebecca Skloot for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  43. Rene Denfeld for The Enchanted
  44. Tom Spanbauer for The Man Who Fell in Love With The Moon
  45. Ursula K. Le Guin for The Left Hand of Darkness
  46. Vanessa Veselka for Zazen and The Great Offshore Grounds
  47. Walt Morey for Gentle Ben
  48. William Stafford for An Oregon Message
  49. Willy Vlautin for The Motel Life, Northline, and Lean on Pete
  50. Becky Ohlsen for all those great guidebooks

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