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Freelance: Joe Kurmaskie
Dubbed the "Metal Cowboy," Joe Kurmaskie, who wrote a book of the same name, has traveled more than 104,000 miles by bicycle. The Portland resident has been a contributing writer to Bicycling magazine, Details, Midwest Bike and the San Francisco Chronicle. ERIKA-LEIGH GOODWIN. Oregon Stage.
Short Stories: Gina Ochsner and Geronimo Tagatac
Gina Ochsner lives in western Oregon with her husband and four children and is the author of two collections of short stories, including The Necessary Grace to Fall. About her more recent collection, People I Wanted to Be, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Ochsner knows that vindication and inspiration often come from unlikely places, and she can capture this contradiction gorgeously." Geronimo Tagatac, recipient of a Oregon Literary Fellowship in 1997, works as a business system integration analyst for the State of Oregon and began writing fiction when that white-collar job left enough time to reflect on a life of decidedly blue-collar experiences. His first book of short stories, The Weight of the Sun, was published in 2005 by Portland State University's Ooligan Press. KARLA STARR. Portland Stage.
James Bertolino, Barbara LaMorticella
Barbara LaMorticella (co-host with Walt Curtis of KBOO's Talking Earth and a vital core of the PDX poetry scene) shares the bill with Washingtonian James Bertolino. Bertolino's poems, which have a knack for modified magical realism à la Charles Simic, have appeared in many publications including Ploughshares and Vowel Hollering in a Mob of Consonants. TIM DUROCHE. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
FBI Daughter: Maura Conlon-McIvor
"I have figured it out," writes Maura Conlon-McIvor in She's All Eyes: Memoirs of an Irish-American Daughter, a book inspired by her relationship with her father, which was originally published under the title FBI Girl: How I Learned to Crack My Father's Code. "The world is full of criminals, and it is the job of my father, Special Agent Joe Conlon, to keep them out of our house." Conlon-McIvor divides her time between Portland and New York City. PAIGE RICHMOND. Multnomah Stage.
Kate Horsley, Garth Stein
Kate Horsley's Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel follows said nun during Ireland's transition from paganism to Christianity during the Dark Ages. Intriguing. Garth Stein's How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets follows a different sort of personal journey, that of an epileptic single father introduced to his teenage son for the first time. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Benson Hotel Stage.
The Rise, Fall and Redemption of Brian Wilson: Peter Ames Carlin
Ah, Brian Wilson. The man made for Vb's Behind the Music. A true genius, who changed the face of pop music with the Beach Boys, Wilson hit his creative peak with Pet Sounds and then slid down a mountain slick with drug abuse and mental illness to the gutter, where he became a national punch line. Of course, it's all much more nuanced than that, which Oregonian TV critic Peter Ames Carlin demonstrates in Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. I'll let the ending be a surprise, but here's a hint: It's in the title of the book. MARK BAUMGARTEN. McMenamins Stage.
J. California Cooper
"I was telling stories before I could write." First finding acclaim as a playwright, J. California Cooper, whose 17 plays include the hit Strangers, began turning her storytelling into fiction at the encouragement of Alice Walker. Since then, for the past 20 years, Cooper has produced a diverse and moving body of work in both short stories and novels; her characters are everyday people whose simple stories often contain profound moral underpinnings. Her third and latest novel, Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns, has just been published. LISA HOASHI. Borders Stage.
Chris McKinney
Called "Hawai'i's most unfairly under-read writer working today" by Honolulu Weekly, Chris McKinney chronicles the darker (and perhaps more realistic) side of Hawaiian life in his novels The Tattoo (1999), Queen of Tears (2001) and Bolohead Row (2005). A half-Korean native Hawaiian and teacher, McKinney explores themes of addiction, class conflict, poverty and racism in his work. SARAH DOUGHER. Powell's Stage.
Robert Stubblefield
Robert Stubblefield, who teaches writing at the University of Montana, Missoula, has published fiction and personal essays in Dreamers and Desperadoes: Contemporary Short Fiction of the American West, as well as in numerous other regional and national journals. SARAH DOUGHER. Mountain Writers Stage.
Bart King, Patrick Carman
Portland writer, middle-school teacher and professional goofball Bart King wrote The Big Book of Boy Stuff, a formidable tome of jokes and general silliness, to fight against the video-gamification of American youth. He also has written An Architectural Guide to Portland and apparently owns a shrimp boat. Former businessman Carman began writing children's books when he got carried away telling bedtime stories to his kids. His Elyon trilogy has since been published in 19 languages. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Target Children's Stage. Patrick Carman reads 10-10:30 am, Bart King reads 10:40-11:10 am.
Saturday, 11 am
Oregon Historical Society Press:Kristine Olson, David Sarasohn, William Robbins
Former U.S. Attorney for Oregon Kristine Olson is the author of Standing Tall: The Lifeway of Kathryn Jones Harrison, a biography of the former chair of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Sarasohn is a managing editor at The Oregonian and the recent author of Waiting for Lewis and Clark. Robbins is the Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History at Oregon State, and his newest book is Oregon: This Storied Land. JON WEATHERFORD. Oregon Stage.
Emerging Voices: Erin Ergenbright (moderator), Matt Briggs, Cheryl Strayed, Justin Tussing
Erin Ergenbright, co-director of the Loggernaut reading series, and the co-author of The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook, will moderate this panel featuring up-and-coming authors (see also 3 pm, page 8). Seattle's Matt Briggs, the recipient of a 2004 Stranger "genius award," is the author of Shoot the Buffalo, a gorgeously written novel that's been called "an earnest, muscular indictment of the dropout counterculture." After being excerpted in The Best American Essays 2003, Portlander Cheryl Strayed's debut novel, Torch, was published earlier this year to great acclaim. Justin Tussing—who, color us impressed, holds an MFA in fiction writing from Iowa—teaches creative writing at Lewis & Clark College. His gorgeously written debut novel, The Best People in the World, was published earlier this year. KARLA STARR. Portland Stage.
Marianne Klekacz, Paulann Petersen
Paulann Peterson is a busy bee with a number of collections of poetry under her belt, most recently A Bride of Narrow Escape, from Cloudbank Books. She is joined by a fellow Friend of William Stafford, Marianne Klekacz, who lives and writes poetry in a remote location somewhere in Oregon's Coast Range mountains. ELIANNA BAR-EL. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
History & Maps:Hugo Kugiya, Jack Nisbet
A national correspondent for Newsday, Hugo Kugiya won the paper's 2001 Publisher's Award for his series on the sinking of the Arctic Rose, which became the basis for his book, 58 Degrees North: The Mysterious Sinking of the Arctic Rose. Jack Nisbet, often described as a naturalist with the heart of an artist, has taught human and natural history in public school, college and elderhostel programs. His latest book, The Mapmaker's Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau, further explores the famed historian and mapmaker. ERIKA-LEIGH GOODWIN. Multnomah Stage.
Western Writing:Rick Steber, John Rember
Rick Steber is one of those prolific writers whose work immediately conjures images of a high noon shootout at the local saloon; his latest novel, Buy the Chief a Cadillac, is his 27th. Steber is as much a historian as he is a novelist, giving us the often dark stories of the western frontier during the first half of the last century. John Rember, on the other hand, explores western writing with a more modern angle. His memoir, Traplines: Coming Home to Sawtooth Valley, has garnered much critical acclaim for its elegant writing and philosophical exploration into how the land has lost the magic it once had. LAURA PARISI. Benson Hotel Stage.
Sassy Stories: Curtis Sittenfeld, Thisbe Nissen, Vendela Vida
Cue the voice of the late, great Phil Hartman: Did somebody say "sassy"? Vendela Vida's first book, Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations, grew out of her MFA thesis in creative nonfiction from Columbia University. She has since published an acclaimed novel, And Now You Can Go, and is the editor of the literary magazine The Believer. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, an obscure writer named Dave Eggers, and her daughter, October Adelaide Eggers Vida. Curtis Sittenfeld now makes her home in Philadelphia. Her debut novel, Prep, was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times. Her sophomore follow-up, The Man of My Dreams, will be published in May. Thisbe Nissen is the author of a short-story collection, Out of the Girls' Room and Into the Night, and two novels: The Good People of New York and Osprey Island. She now lives in Iowa City, where she received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. KARLA STARR. McMenamins Stage.
Baseball: Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Jim Bouton, Donald Hall
Former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee has written three books on baseball, including Have Glove, Will Travel: Adventures of a Baseball Vagabond, and remains one of the most eccentric and quotable voices in the game. After a career with the Yankees, Jim Bouton wrote Ball Four in 1979, a controversial glimpse into the lives of players. His latest book is Foul Ball. Poet and baseball writer Donald Hall has written more than 30 books and is a three-time nominee for the National Book Award. JON WEATHERFORD. Borders Stage.
David Lehman
David Lehman, a poet of the New York School (cf. Ashberry, Koch, O'Hara), has recently published When a Woman Loves a Man, his sixth book of poetry. He founded The Best American Poetry in 1988 and continues as the series editor. Lehman's poems are formally intricate but also very funny, touching points of contemporary culture and history in a compact quest for meaning. He is also the editor of The New Oxford Book of American Poetry, published this April, a gigantic must-have that was 30 years in the making. SARAH DOUGHER. Powell's Stage.
Taylor Mali, Kim Stafford
Not many professional poets have a website that's as flashy as Taylor Mali's (taylormali.com): Scrolling down the menu—from "Bio & Mission Statement" to "Booking Info"—reveals a flipbook-style series of photos of Mali taking his sunglasses off at a baseball game. Oooh, baby. Then again, performance and inspiration have always been the man's thing: He's appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, and his "Teacher! Teacher!" won the jury prize for Best One Person Show at the 2002 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival; not bad for a man who started out studying drama at Oxford. Poet and essayist Kim Stafford has taught and directed the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College since 1979. The son of William Stafford, he is also an accomplished teacher, his style loose and inspired. Stafford writes in his essay collection Among the Muses, "When I write I am a secretary to a wisdom the world has made available to me. The voices come from the many around me, and I need to be more alert than wise." KARLA STARR & LISA HOASHI. Mountain Writers Stage.
Saturday, noon
International Fiction:Thrity Umrigar, Laila Lalami
Bombay-born, Ohio-based Thrity Umrigar is author of the memoir First Darling of the Morning and the novel Bombay Time. Her most recent novel, The Space Between Us, examines class through the relationship between a woman and her servant; it was hailed by The New York Times as "perceptive and often piercing," and selected as a No. 1 Book Sense pick. Moroccan-born Portlander Laila Lalami's debut, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, follows the journeys of four Moroccans being smuggled across the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain. Thankfully for everyone involved, Umrigar is a fan of Lalami's; she reviewed Hope last year for The Boston Globe. KARLA STARR. Portland Stage.
Bill Siverly, Joseph Stroud
A retired teacher of creative writing at Portland Community College, Bill Siverly has published three books of poems (Parzival, Phoenix Fire and most recently The Turn) and since 2002 has been co-editor with Michael McDowell of the biannual Windfall: A Journal of Poetry and Place. A 2006 Wittner Bynner Fellow, Joseph Stroud has taught writing and literature classes at Cabrillo College for 35 years. He has published four books of poems, including the widely applauded Below Cold Mountain (1998), which was featured in the Los Angeles Times and on public radio's The Writer's Almanac. BEN WATERHOUSE. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Cultural Stories—Fiction and Nonfiction: Chikodi Anunobi, Linda Dalal Sawaya
Chikodi Anunobi, a descendent of Nri from Enugwu-Ukwu Nri in Anambra State, Nigeria, is the author of Nri Warriors of Peace: A True Story of Young Men and War; it's set in the Nri kingdom of southeastern Nigeria and chronicles generations of Nri in the 11th century. Joining her is Linda Dalal Sawaya, Portland illustrator, writer and daughter of Lebanese immigrants, whose most recent work is Alice's Kitchen: My Grandmother Dalal and Mother Alice's Traditional Lebanese Cooking. SARAH DOUGHER. Multnomah Stage.
Family Stories—Historical Fiction and Biography: Debra Dean, Karen Spears Zacharias
Seattle-based Debra Dean is the author of The Madonnas of Leningrad, her recently published debut novel that juxtaposes the horrors of the World War II siege of Leningrad with the fractured world of an Alzheimer's sufferer 60 years later, recalling the beauty of the works in the Hermitage. Karen Spears Zacharias, a contributing columnist for The Veteran, the magazine for the Vietnam Veterans of America, divides her time between Oregon and Georgia. She is author of After the Flag Has Been Folded: A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost to War—and the Mother Who Held Her Family Together. KARLA STARR. Benson Hotel Stage.
Mary McGarry Morris
National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award finalist Mary McGarry Morris' fiction depicts compelling characters who deal with the complexities of everyday American life—no wonder she's been compared to John Steinbeck. Her sixth and most recent novel, The Lost Mother, has just been released in paperback. PAIGE RICHMOND. McMenamins Stage.
Chuck Barris
Chuck Barris' status as an iconic cult figure skyrocketed after 2002's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, the movie based on his "unauthorized autobiography" of the same name. Before that, he was merely known as the creator of The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show. His somewhat autobiographical novel, You and Me, Babe, originally published in 1974, was newly reissued last year after being largely revised. Barris is the only Wordstock participant who has killed a man, finished a novel, met George Clooney and seen a representation of himself make out with Julia Roberts on the big screen. KARLA STARR. Borders Stage.
Colson Whitehead
See Q&A, page 4. KARLA STARR. Powell's Stage.
Kiss Tomorrow Hello:Kim Barnes, Claire Davis, Karen Karbo
Kim Barnes is best known for her memoir In the Wilderness, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Claire Davis is best known for her novel Winter Range. Together, the Idaho-based women have recently edited Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women over Forty, a collection of essays from notable baby-boomer women. It's being hailed as a new version of The Bitch in the House, a notable collection to which Portlander Karen Karbo—whose latest book is the young adult novel Minerva Clark Gets a Clue—was a featured contributor. KARLA STARR. Mountain Writers Stage.
R.L. Stine,Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
"Orego-Rican" Carmen T. Bernier-Grand has published several books of Puerto Rican folklore as well as César: ¡Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!, a biography of César Chavez in poems. She also gives presentations, school visits and writing workshops for adults and children. Says the author of her beloved adopted home: "God sends the baby angels that are not toilet trained to Portland, Oregon. That's why it rains for nine months." R.L. Stine needs no introduction, but here goes: He's the best-selling children's author of all time. His books, including the Goosebumps and Fear Street series, have sold more than 300 million copies. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Target Children's Stage. Stine reads noon-12:30 pm, Bernier-Grand reads 12:40-1:10 pm.
Saturday, 1 pm
Hawthorne Books Feature: Scott Nadelson, Michael Strelow
Hawthorne Books presents some of its most popular and inventive writers. Scott Nadelson won the 2004 Oregon Book Award for short fiction with his collection Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories. His latest collection is The Cantor's Daughter. He is joined by Willamette University English professor Michael Strelow, first-time author of the lyrical Northwest fable The Greening of Ben Brown. LISA HOASHI. Portland Stage.
Western Frontier: Karen Fisher, Ronald B. Lansing
Spinning fiction out of documents and mythology of the frontier brings Ronald B. Lansing and Karen Fisher together on this panel about 19th-century Oregon. Frontier justice and the details of this state's first widely reported murder trial are the subject of Lansing's latest, Nimrod: Courts, Claims, and Killing on the Oregon Frontier. Joining Lansing is Karen Fisher, author of the novel A Sudden Country, based on actual events of the 1847 Oregon migration. She has lived in the West as a teacher, wrangler, farmer and carpenter. SARAH DOUGHER. Portland Stage.
Martha Silano, Kevin Craft
Kevin Craft's unsettling images and whimsical meditations on language have garnered praise from Northwest critics and poets. His first collection of poems, Solar Prominence, won the Samuel and Rhea Gorsline Prize from Cloudbank Books. His work has appeared in countless publications, including Poetry Northwest and Antioch Review. Martha Silano's personal, visceral poems have been published in two volumes: Blue Positive and What the Truth Tastes Like. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington. BEN WATERHOUSE & SHOSHANNA COHEN. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Anne Taylor Fleming
The versatile and talented Anne Taylor Fleming is known as a television and radio commentator and writer, having appeared on CBS, CNN, NBC and PBS. Published this year, Fleming's second novel, As If Love Were Enough, follows the family history and relationship of two sisters. LISA HOASHI. Multnomah Stage.
Music: Robert Dietsche, Dick Weissman
This duo of musicians-turned-music-historians hit a couple sweet spots in the pastiche of American popular music. Robert Dietsche, a local jazz treasure trove, will be talk about Portland jazz's post-WWII golden age, writ in great detail in his recently published social history Jumptown: The Golden Years of Portland Jazz 1942-1957. Dick Weissman tackles a larger beast in Which Side Are You On?, a cultural anthropology of the folk movements of the 20th century. And the man knows what he's talking about, especially since he spent the '60s in folk-revivalist underdogs the Journeymen. Bring your vinyl, music geek. MARK BAUMGARTEN. Benson Hotel Stage.
Comedy: Marc Acito, Mary Guterson, Taylor Mali
Mary Guterson is a contributor to The Believer who makes her home on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. Amy Tan called her debut novel, We Are All Fine Here, "laugh aloud hilarious"; it was just published in paperback. Marc Acito, a Portland-based humor columnist, is the author of How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater, which was awarded the 2005 Oregon Book Award. For Taylor Mali, see Saturday 11 am listing, page 5. KARLA STARR. McMenamins Stage.
Meg Wolitzer, Hilma Wolitzer
Meg Wolitzer's most recent novel, The Position, is about a couple who write a sex manifesto that includes illustrations of themselves doing that marvelous, dirty deed. Recently long-listed for the Orange Prize, the book follows the impact of the sex manual on the couple and their teenage children. Meg's mother, Hilma Wolitzer, published her first novel at the age of 44, and is the recipient of Guggenheim and NEA fellowships. After speaking openly about her writer's block, she recently published her first book in over a decade. In its review of The Doctor's Daughter, The New York Times wrote that it "is that rare paradox, a fast-paced novel so well written you want to linger over it." KARLA STARR. Borders Stage.
Eric Blehm
Former TransWorld SNOWboarding editor, author of Agents of Change and gonzo adventure journalist Blehm spent eight years meticulously researching the life and mysterious disappearance and death of James Randall Morgenson in his latest book, The Last Season. ERIKA-LEIGH GOODWIN. Powell's Stage.
Vern Rutsala, Edward Hirsch
A Northwest native who graduated from Reed and taught writing at Lewis & Clark for 43 years, Vern Rutsala has long been a pillar of the Oregon poetry scene. After a half-century of exploring the frontiers of literary convention and shaping the work of countless young poets, Rutsala has finally received much deserved national attention. His 12th collection of poems, The Moment's Equation, was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award. It is worth the ticket price just to hear his remarkable voice. Edward Hirsch has written six books of poetry, including Wild Gratitude, which won the 1986 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the national bestseller How to Read a Poem (1999). He is now the fourth president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. BEN WATERHOUSE. Mountain Writers Stage.
Saturday, 2 pm
Writing and Singing: Jennie Shortridge
Denver-raised and Portland-based, Jennie Shortridge has been working as a musician since the age of 16. Her first novel, Riding with the Queen, follows a bar musician in her 30s who returns home to Denver and attempts to reconcile her life with her dashed dreams. And yes, she says it's fiction. KARLA STARR. Oregon Stage.
Hawthorne Books Feature: Poe Ballantine, Kassten Alonso
Hawthorne Books presents another panel of its most popular and inventive writers. Award-winning short-story writer Poe Ballantine will publish his third book this July, a novel entitled Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire. Kassten Alonso's Core: A Romance was a finalist for the 2005 Oregon Book Award for fiction. LISA HOASHI. Portland Stage.
Gerald Costanzo, Scott Hightower
Since founding the Carnegie Mellon University Press 32 years ago, Gerald Costanzo has proven himself one of the most influential editors in America. Last year, his press published Blas Manuel De Luna's Bent to the Earth, which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Costanzo himself has published more than 300 poems and literary essays. Currently hard at work on translating the poetry of Spanish-Puerto Rican poet Aurora de Albornoz, Scott Hightower melds sensual Spanish undertones into his own poems, rousing the senses with equal parts visceral imagery and precise prose. BEN WATERHOUSE & ELIANNA BAR-EL. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Crime: Paul LaRosa
It's hard to forget the 2003 Gig Harbor murder-suicide of Crystal Brame and the Brames' three kids by her police chief husband in a crowded parking lot. The tragedy is the subject of Paul LaRosa's Tacoma Confidential: A True Story of Murder, Suicide, and a Police Chief's Secret Life. A television and print journalist with a career spanning three decades, LaRosa has worked as a producer at CBS since 1990. His honors include Peabody, Christopher, and Edward R. Murrow awards and two Emmys. SHANNON GREEN. Multnomah Stage.
Young Adult: Karen Karbo, Laura Whitcomb
Lively and likable Portlander Karen Karbo spent six months as the chief movie reviewer for The Oregonian. Somehow, she survived and to date is the author of three novels as well as a young adult novel, Minerva Clark Gets a Clue. Her next book in the trilogy, Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs, will be published in September. Laura Whitcomb also lives in Portland. Unlike Karbo, she plays a wench in the pirate re-enactment group BOOM. Her debut novel, A Certain Slant of Light (which takes its title from an Emily Dickinson poem), follows a disembodied spirit—sadly, a non-wench spirit—who is finally visible to someone on earth after 130 years. KARLA STARR. Benson Hotel Stage. Karen Karbo reads 2-2:30 pm, Laura Whitcomb reads 2:30-3 pm.
Women's Stories: Lisa Glatt, Cathleen Schine
Lisa Glatt is the author of the novel A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That and the short-story collection The Apple's Bruise. She began as a poet but has lately focused only on fiction. "I was looking for the story in the poem," she says of her poetry, "and now I am looking for poem in the story." Cathleen Schine is the author of six novels, most recently, She Is Me. Her work has also appeared in The New York Review of Books and The Best American Essays 2005. She is also a muse: After being married to New Yorker film critic David Denby for 18 years, she left him. The aftermath of that divorce became a central topic in his recent memoir, American Sucker. LISA HOASHI & KARLA STARR. McMenamins Stage.
Writing about Iraq: Mike Francis (moderator), Laurie Becklund, David Oliver Relin, Stacy Bannerman
These three author-activists shed light on various aspects of the Iraq conflict. Stacy Bannerman's When the War Came Home: An Inside Account of Citizen Soldiers and the Families Left Behind is the memoir of a woman who fights for balance between her opposition to the war and her husband's National Guard service in Iraq. David Oliver Relin is co-author with Greg Mortenson of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations, One School at a Time, which outlines Mortenson's work promoting education in remote, often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he set up over 55 schools through the Central Asia Institute. Laurie Becklund is the co-author of Between Two Worlds: Escaping from Tyranny: Growing up in the Shadow of Saddam, which is co-authored by its subject, Zainab Salbi. Becklund is a journalist based in Los Angeles. Mike Francis, Oregonian blogger of "Oregon at War," moderates the panel. SARAH DOUGHER. Borders Stage.
James Tabor
Sure, James Tabor is the chair of the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. But others would better recognize him as a major TV and national newspaper quote maker on everything from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the stand-off in Waco, Texas. Earlier this month, Tabor released his latest book, The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity, which claims that the big J's dad was a Roman soldier rather than, well, God. And you thought your family was screwed up. KELLY CLARKE. Powell's Stage.
Debra Magpie Earling, Dorianne Laux
After reading Dorianne Laux's poetry collection, What We Carry, Phillip Levine described her as writing "gritty, tough, lyrical poems that depict the nature of life in the West today." Born in Maine, Laux has published four books of poetry—most recently, Facts About the Moon—a body of work that has garnered her two NEA grants, a Pushcart Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Debra Magpie Earling's debut novel, Perma Red, inspired by the life of her aunt, is an important contribution to contemporary Native American literature. LISA HOASHI & SHOSHANNA COHEN. Mountain Writers Stage.
Nicole Rubel, Louise Flodin
Rubel's style combines colorful, playful illustrations with stories that teach a lesson, such as No More Vegetables! and Grody's Not So Golden Rules, in which Grody the dog advises, "Don't wash dirty dishes when you can lick them clean!" Louise Flodin brings the timeless themes of frogs and snow together at last in Sherman Meets the Snow Princess and Sherman and the Snow Blower Frog. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Target Children's Stage. Nicole Rubel reads 2-2:30 pm. Louise Flodin reads 2:40-3:10 pm.
Saturday, 3 pm
May Queen: Laila Lalami, Erin Ergenbright
Speaking on behalf of the collection The May Queen: Women on Life, Love, Work, and Pulling It All Together in Your 30s are two Portlanders: Moroccan-born Laila Lalami is the brains behind MoorishGirl.com and the author of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. Erin Ergenbright is co-director of the Loggernaut reading series at Gravy and co-author of The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook (see also 11 am, page 4). KARLA STARR. Oregon Stage.
Golf: Steve Goodwin, Curt Sampson, John Strawn, John Garrity, John Norville
Sharing a spot no bigger than an 18th green, you'll hear from Steve Goodwin and John Strawn (who chronicled the creation of two courses—Goodwin, Oregon's premier and pricey Bandon Dunes, and Strawn, Ironhorse in West Palm Beach, Fla.), Curt Sampson (who chased Tiger Woods), and Sports Illustrated's John Garrity and John Norville, the latter of whom is co-author of the 1996 cult novel Tin Cup. HENRY STERN. Portland Stage.
Peter Pereira, Jeannine Hall Gailey
A family physician by day, wordsmith by night, and founding editor of Floating Bridge Press, Peter Pereira concocts poetry that you'll want to hear again and again. In addition to poetry, Jeannine Hall Gailey writes about Internet technology. Becoming the Villainess, her collection of the former, touches on fairy tales and mythology. LAURA PARISI & SHOSHANNA COHEN. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Environmental Prose: Kathleen Dean Moore, Matt Love
Kathleen Dean Moore may be onto something. Her work is a combination of incredibly touching prose and a passion for nature, resulting in an environmental manifesto that is neither preachy nor hippie-flowy-lovey-dovey. Moore is a philosophy professor at OSU, and she won the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction for her recent work, The Pine Island Paradox. Writer and environmentalist Matt Love launched Nestucca Spit Press and published its latest book, Salt: A Collection of Poetry on the Oregon Coast. He is currently working on a book compiling his experiences growing up in Oregon in the 1970s. LAURA PARISI & ELIANNA BAR-EL. Multnomah Stage.
Andrew Sean Greer
San Franciscan Andrew Sean Greer is the author of How It Was for Me, a collection of short stories, and The Path of Minor Planets. But his latest novel, The Confessions of Max Tivoli—in which Tivoli recounts his life, having been born with the body of a 70-year-old that ages in reverse—really put him on the map. In a review in The New Yorker, John Updike wrote that it "is enchanting, in the perfumed, dandified style of disenchantment brought to grandeur by Proust and Nabokov." KARLA STARR. Benson Hotel Stage.
Southern Fiction: CassandraKing, Ron Rash
A self-described native of L.A. (Lower Alabama), Cassandra King's first-person style of writing about everyday struggles has earned her a loyal following in the South. Her 2005 novel, The Same Sweet Girls, was the national No. 1 Book Sense selection last February. She is currently working on her fourth book, tentatively titled Queen of Broken Hearts. South Carolinian Ron Rash won the 2004 Weatherford Award for Best Novel and the 2005 SEBA Best Book Award for Fiction for Saints at the River. SHANNON GREEN. McMenamins Stage.
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates, who will be 70 in two years, has written approximately 17 billion books, including Them (winner of the National Book Award) and We Were the Mulvaneys (which can no longer be purchased without Oprah's logo on the cover). She continues to produce an extraordinarily eclectic array of books of literary merit, and is a distinguished professor of humanities at Princeton. She once told a reporter for the Academy of Achievement, "I'm drawn to failure. I often write about it, and I'm sympathetic with it, I think, because I feel I'm contending with it constantly in my own life." Because as everybody knows, failing to win the Nobel Prize for Literature means that you are a complete and utter failure. KARLA STARR. Borders Stage.
Jessica Abel
In a man-heavy genre full of stiffs, graphic novelist Jessica Abel is a welcome panel of fresh air. The Brooklynite moved into the public eye with her self-published underground comic, Artbabe, which began in 1992. Abel recently published the critically acclaimed La Perdida, a graphic novel about a young Mexican-American, Carla Olivares, who ventures to Mexico City to reclaim her connection with the country. For those who fear going to see another mumbly, inarticulate artist, fear not: Abel has a bit of experience speaking in front of people—she's a teacher at New York's School of Visual Arts. KARLA STARR. Powell's Stage.
Lynn Darroch, John Stowell, Rob Davis
Longtime Oregonian contributor Lynn Darroch's autobiographical readings/performances have an equally effusive and gentle Beat sensibility, rich in elliptical cinematic space, that echoes the colorful, musical language of jazz poets, outlaws and hipsters. John Stowell, jazz guitarist, and Rob Davis, saxophonist, come together to create a rare, multifaceted experience with their daring harmonies and rich, solid techniques. TIM DUROCHE & ELIANNA BAR-EL. Mountain Writers Stage.
Penda Diakité
After writing I Lost My Tooth in Africa, inspired by her family's trips to visit relatives in Mali and illustrated by her father, Baba Wagué Diakité, also a storyteller, Penda Diakité has gone on to direct short films starring her little sister, Amina, loser of the aforementioned tooth. Penda Diakité is a student at Portland's Jackson Middle School. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Target Children's Stage. Penda Diakité reads from 3:20-3:50 pm.
Saturday, 4 pm
Finding Your Niche: David Wolman, Chris Ballard, Alan Gorsuch
It took Hunter S. Thompson a decade to discover his Gonzo niche. He's lucky it happened so quickly. All writers have a niche, be it a genre, style or dialogue. Most go a lifetime without discovering where their writing is strong-est. Southpaw specialist David Wolman (A Left-Hand Turn Around the World: Chasing the Mystery and Meaning of All Things Southpaw), sports and anthropology writer Chris Ballard, (The Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People Who Found Their True Calling Way Off the Beaten Path), and introspective humorist Alan Gorsuch (All The Ways I Found to Hurt Myself, volumes 1 and 2) have honed their niches, and are on hand to help you figure out how to run with yours. AP KRYZA. Oregon Stage.Tom D'AntoniFormer tabloid journalist Tom D'Antoni now writes his own sensational fiction and incendiary blog, marked by a dislike for his hometown: "Some people aspire to greatness. A combination of bad parenting and coming of age in Baltimore, Maryland, at the same time as John Waters pushed me in a different direction." He is author of the memoir Rabid Nun Infects Entire Convent: And Other Sensational Stories from a Tabloid Writer. PAIGE RICHMOND. Portland Stage.
Spork Magazine Reading: Kevin Sampsell (moderator), Adrian Shirk, Frayn Masters, David Elsey, Ariel Gore
Kevin Sampsell, the guru who manages the small-press section in Powells' Blue Room, will be moderating this reading; he guest-edited the most recent issue of Spork. Fellow Spork-sters include Adrian Shirk, who cannot legally vote or smoke; Frayn Masters, a member of the performance group Haiku Inferno; widely published poet David Elsey; and Ariel Gore, author of a forthcoming novel, The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show. KARLA STARR. Multnomah Stage.
Women Writers: Meg Wolitzer, Elinor Lipman, Cathleen Schine, Elizabeth Strout
New Englander Elizabeth Strout's success story is an inspiration to any struggling writer. Before publishing her best-selling first novel, Amy and Isabelle, she had countless jobs that included working at a shoe mill and playing piano in bars. A Massachusetts native, Elinor Lipman has written seven novels on contemporary American society and is an occasional feature columnist for the Boston Globe. Lipman's novels throw a comedic spin on sensitive issues ranging from adoption to anti-Semitism. Her 1999 novel, The Ladies' Man, has been optioned for a film to feature Tom Hanks. For Cathleen Schine, see 2 pm listing, page 6. For Meg Wolitzer, see 1 pm listing, page 6. KARLA STARR, LISA HOASHI & ERIKA LEIGH-GOODWIN. Benson Hotel Stage.
Grammar: June Casagrande
June Casagrande, who's book is entitled "Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies" and whom are the grammar columnist on the Los Angeles, will have been leading an panel discussion on grammar. MARGARET SEILER. McMenamins Stage.
Cupcake Brown
See Q&A, page 6. KARLA STARR. Borders Stage.
Dave Eggers
In order to understand Dave Eggers' ferocious output, read the following excerpt from an email interview of Eggers by The Harvard Advocate from the summer of 2000: "The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it's corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die...you will be kicking your ass about all the no's you've said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say. What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who's up and who's down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes." The full version of this is taped to a wall in my apartment. I encourage you to do the same. KARLA STARR. Powell's Stage.
David James Duncan, Tom Crawford
One of Oregon's most talented writers, native Portlander David James Duncan is the author of two incomparable novels set in the Pacific Northwest, The River Why and The Brothers K, in addition to River Teeth, his memoir and collection of stories. An ardent advocate for the environment, Duncan reads and lectures throughout the U.S. when not fly-fishing or writing at his Montana home. Tom Crawford's three previous collections of poems include If It Weren't for Trees, China Dancing and Lauds, for which he won the Oregon Book Award in 1994. His forthcoming work, Wu Wei, explores his travels in China: "Rain in Chongqing is pretty much / like rain in Portland...." LISA HOASHI & SARAH DOUGHER. Mountain Writers Stage.
Sunday, 10 am
Small Press Feature: Sibyl James
A voracious traveler and teacher, Sibyl James has taught everywhere from Tunisia to China and has authored three books of poetry, including The Adventures of Stout Mama and The White Junk of Love, Again. LAURA PARISI. Oregon Stage.
Dangerous Writing: Robert Hill
Portlander Robert Hill received the Walt Morey Fellowship, an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship in fiction, for his first book, When All Is Said and Done, which follows an unconventional Jewish family as they move to new home in the New York suburbs. LISA HOASHI. Portland Stage.
Writer-to-Reader: Kathy Belden (editor), Bill Merritt (author), Richard Pine (agent)
Kathy Belden is an editor at Bloomsbury, which publishes awesome authors such as—drumroll, please—Bill Merritt. Merritt is a Portland-based lawyer and the author of, most recently, the "true" crime caper A Fool's Gold: A Story of Ancient Spanish Treasure, Two Pounds of Pot, and the Young Lawyer Almost Left Holding the Bag. Richard Pine, an agent at InkWell management, is fiercely protective of his clients, who include alternative health guru Dr. Andrew Weil and Susan Orlean. KARLA STARR. Multnomah Stage.
High Desert Journal:Robert Stubblefield,Elizabeth Grossman, Kathleen Dean Moore
Author of Watershed: The Undamming of America and Adventuring Along the Lewis and Clark Trail, Grossman enjoys outdoor sports in her free time. No big surprise here. For Robert Stubblefield, see Saturday 10 am listing, page 4. For Kathleen Dean Moore, see Saturday 3 pm listing, page 8. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Benson Hotel Stage.
Vampire Fiction: L.A. Banks
Sultry Philadelphia-based author L.A. Banks is best known for her Vampire Huntress Legends, an intricate series of books chronicling the exploits of black hip-hop artist/vampire slayer Damali Richards—a woman who makes Buffy look like Barbie—as she battles the fiends of the Dark Realms, including the "CEO of all darkness" himself. Fans can suck up her next installment of spirituality and blood-soaked carnage, The Forsaken, this July. KELLY CLARKE. McMenamins Stage.
Elinor Lipman
A Massachusetts native, Elinor Lipman has written seven novels on contemporary American society, a collection of short stories and feature columns for the Boston Globe. Her new novel, My Latest Grievance, has just been published to glowing reviews. ERIKA-LEIGH GOODWIN. Borders Stage.
Annie Wang
Annie Wang perfected her English in order to portray convincingly the coming of age of a Chinese girl who falls in love with an American journalist in Lili: A Novel of Tiananmen. Set amid a landscape of cultural and political upheaval, Lili chronicles a decade of the girl's life, culminating in her participation in the uprising in Tiananmen Square. SHANNON GREEN. Powell's Stage.
Poets Laureate: Lawson Fusao Inada, David Romtvedt
This February, Lawson Fusao Inada was appointed Oregon's first poet laureate since William Stafford resigned in 1989. A third-generation Japanese American born in Fresno, Calif., Inada has taught at Southern Oregon State College since 1966. Much of his writing draws on two experiences: his internment with 100,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II, and his early ambition to be a jazz musician. Wyoming poet laureate David Romvedt recently published Some Church, a volume of poems that explore the connections between Wyoming and the world beyond, as they come crashing gracefully and violently into his consciousness. LISA HOASHI & SARAH DOUGHER. Mountain Writers Stage.
Michelle Freedman, Judy Schneider, Mary Weeks
Portland author Michelle Freedman's The Ravioli Kid is a silly sendup of the spaghetti western, full of goofy puns and snicker-worthy linguistic jokes. She is also a fashion designer and co-author of How the West Was Worn. Author Judy Schneider and illustrator Mary Weeks collaborated on But Not Quite!, a children's book that builds critical thinking and reading skills. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Target Children's Stage. Michelle Freedman reads 10-10:30 am, Judy Schneider and Mary Weeks read 10:40-11:10 am.
Sunday, 11 am
Writing about Portland: Steve Duin
The "Iron Mustache" himself, Steve Duin regularly skewers the city's pompous and its prevaricators as a columnist for The Oregonian. Last year, Duin compiled two of his favorite column topics, his faith and his family, into a book, Father Time. HENRY STERN. Portland Stage.
Tom Crawford, Dennis Schmitz
Poet laureate of Sacramento and two-time Guggenehim fellow Dennis Schmitz composes humorous and touching poetry that he claims is "true to the particulars. So that they have an existence in themselves." His most recent collection is titled Truth Squad. For Tom Crawford, see Saturday 4 pm listing, page 8. PAIGE RICHMOND. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Finding Yourself—Memoirs From Abroad: Kerry Egan, Chris Kraus, Ellen UrbaniHiltebrand
Chris Kraus made waves in 1997 with her lacerating and funny memoir, I Love Dick. Her third novel, Torpor, which begins in the summer of 1991, is set at the dawn of the New World Order. In her new novel, Fumbling, Kerry Egan pens her experiences a year after her father's death, during her sojourn on a medieval pilgrimage road in Northern Spain called the Camino de Santiago. In her latest release, When I Was Elena, Ellen Urbani Hilterbrand brings readers along on a journey from the luxury of a Southern sorority house to a "scorpion-infested mud hut in order to live, work, and immerse herself in the culture of Guatemala's poorest villagers." ERIKA-LEIGH GOODWIN. Multnomah Stage.
Cris Burks
Neecey's Lullaby, Cris Burks' second published novel, explores the difficult terrain of abuse, poverty and neglect in an African-American household in 1950s Chicago. Lullaby follows Burks' 2002 novel, SilkyDreamGirl, which describes the fruition of imaginative life into reality, with positive and entertaining results. SARAH DOUGHER. Benson Hotel Stage.
Bloomsbury Feature: Kathy Beldon (moderator), Bill Merritt, Jim Lynch
Olympia-based Jim Lynch spent four years as the Puget Sound reporter for The Oregonian, and continues to write fiction: His debut novel, The Highest Tide, was published last year, and was recently named by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association as a best book of 2005. For Kathy Belden and Bill Merritt, see 10 am listing, this page. KARLA STARR. McMenamins Stage.
Maria Dahvana Headley
Headley was a 20-year-old student in Manhattan and fed up with dating when she decided to try a new approach—she'd go out with anyone who asked. The result is the hilarious memoir The Year of Yes, published in January 2006. Most surprisingly, she actually found love, marrying one of the men she met that year. Headley, who now lives in Seattle, recently sold the screenplay to the book, and is currently working on a play. JON WEATHERFORD. Powell's Stage.
Pete Fromm, Elinor Langer
Pete Fromm has won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award a record four times, most recently for As Cool as I Am (2003). Portland journalist and author Elinor Langer, who penned A Hundred Little Hitlers: The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America, has written for The New York Review of Books, The New York Times and The Nation. SARAH DOUGHER. Mountain Writers Stage.
Sunday, noon
Hiking: William L. Sullivan
The author of 10 books, William L. Sullivan has walked nearly every trail in Oregon. His memoir of a 1,361-mile trek from the Pacific to Hells Canyon was voted one of Oregon's most significant books. His current project, The Case of Einstein's Violin, is due out in 2007. JON WEATHERFORD. Oregon Stage.
Phil Stanford
This Portland Tribune columnist may be the closest thing we have in the Northwest to a "true crime" reporter. In fact, due to his obsession with all things that go bump in the night, you half expect to see Stanford, the author of Portland Confidential: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Rose City, with a stogie, trench coat and crumpled fedora. BYRON BECK. Portland Stage.
Peter Sears, B.T. Shaw
Local publisher, professor and poet Peter Sears, author of The Brink, is a graduate of Yale and the Iowa Writer's Workshop; he lends a sharp-edged voice to his powerful, offbeat verse. B.T. Shaw is the editor of The Sunday Oregonian's poetry column; her descriptive, visual poetry has garnered attention from literary mags like Tin House and Fireweed. PAIGE RICHMOND. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Autism: Marti Leimbach
Marti Leimbach reached the top five on The New York Times' best-seller list with her 1990 novel-turned-film, Dying Young. Her latest novel, Daniel Isn't Talking, is about a woman who discovers her young son is autistic. It was written only five years after Leimbach's own child was diagnosed with autism. Leimbach describes the novel as very personal: "Not me exactly, no, but a stylized account of myself—that I can sometimes barely bring myself to look." Multnomah Stage.Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin is the author of countless fantasy-sci-fi books and has lived in Portland since 1958. A Japanese production of her Earthsea series, The War Story of Ged: Tales from Earthsea, is slated for release this summer. If you've seen the miniseries starring Isabella Rossellini, please note that Le Guin was cut out of the production and can't be blamed for its failure to capture much of the intelligence and insights that distinguish her work from mere genre fiction, and in turn have earned her heaps of accolades, including the Hugo, Nebula and National Book awards. KARLA STARR. Borders Stage.
Steve Almond
Steve Almond is best known for Candy Freak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. His new book, Which Brings Me to You, which he co-wrote with Julianna Baggott, is an epistolary tale of modern romance. Note that there is a seedy underbelly to this Almond. His story "Slippy for President" was published in The Best American Erotica 2005, and his story "The Nasty Kind Always Are" was published in The Best American Erotica 2006. KARLA STARR. Powell's Stage.
David James Duncan, Tom Spanbauer
Tom Spanbauer is the creator of Dangerous Writers, a group that helped launch the career of Chuck Palahniuk. Spanbauer's novels, such as The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon and In the City of Shy Hunters, explore issues of identity and sexuality. His next, Now Is the Hour, will be published this May. For David James Duncan, see Saturday 4 pm listing, page 8. KARLA STARR. Mountain Writers Stage.
Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen
Award-winning, best-selling children's author Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen writes heartwarming books with important life lessons, like the forthcoming A Home for Salty, about an endangered marsh mouse in San Francisco Bay. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Target Children's Stage.
Sunday, 1 pm
Jonathan Petropolous
Permitted access to Hesse family private papers and the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, Jonathan Petropoulos has written Royals and the Reich (2006), which follows the House of Hesse from its enthusiastic support of Hitler to its tragic denouement: the princes' betrayal by an increasingly paranoid Hitler and prosecution and denazification by the Allies. Despite what you saw at the Portland Art Museum show, it's not all Fabergé eggs and Holbein Madonnas, people. SARAH DOUGHER. Oregon Stage.
Thom Hartmann
Best known as progressive talk show host for Air America and KPOJ, Thom Hartmann is also an accomplished author. His book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight was the basis of a 10-minute web film by Leonardo DiCaprio. Most recently, he is the co-author of Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK. SHANNON GREEN. Portland Stage.
James Grabill, Verlena Orr
In James Grabill's unique view, no one should settle for a world that conducts itself as though there were no mythic dimension. Verlena Orr writes the purest of truths, dry-witted and street-wised. ELIANNA BAR-EL. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Dr. Sidney Schwab
Dr. Sidney Schwab's witty, gritty, memoir, Cutting Remarks: Insights and Recollections as a Surgeon, tells the story of his surgical training and the patients and professors he met along the way. LAURA PARISI. Multnomah Stage.
Graphic Novel: Jamie Rich, Matt Wagner
Two of Portland's own: Matt Wagner has been creating ground-breaking graphic characters like Batman villain Two-Face for some 20 years. Jamie Rich, author of three prose novels and writer for Dark Horse Comics, releases his first full-length graphic novel, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, this year with artist Joelle Jones. TOBY VAN FLEET. McMenamins Stage.
John Grogan
The columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer has turned his troubles with one misbehaving mutt into one of this year's biggest books. Marley & Me allows readers to wallow in the sentimental yapping that seems to happen to almost every dog owner once a four-legged fool invades their home. BYRON BECK. Borders Stage.
Nick Jans
A seasoned outdoor writer whose forte is the Alaskan wilderness, Nick Jans is a contributing editor for Alaska magazine and a member of USA Today's board of editorial contributors. His 2005 book, The Grizzly Maze, explores the life of Timothy Treadwell, who caused a media sensation when he and his girlfriend were fatally mauled by a bear in October 2003. LISA HOASHI. Powell's Stage.
Donald Hall
"I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems," writes Donald Hall in his essay "Poetry and Ambition." A two-time Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, with 15 books of poetry (and 22 books of prose), Hall could be considered an authority. LISA HOASHI. Mountain Writers Stage.
R.L. Stine, Teri Nowak
It's a family affair: Teri Nowak and her husband, Andrew, rescued a hummingbird; daughter Nadia wrote a story about it, Bird in Hand; and Teri provided the lifelike watercolors. For R. L. Stine, see Saturday noon listing, page 5. SHOSHANNA COHEN. Target Children's Stage. Stine reads 1:10-1:40 pm. Nowak reads 1:50-2:20 pm.
Sunday, 2 pm
Art/Avant Garde/Apocalypse: Douglas Lain (host), Walt Curtis, Dan Shea, Jim Farris, Mahesh Raj Mohan, Ryan Dolliver
Using everything from sex poetry to jazz to science fiction, these Portland-based artists and writers explore social change in the 21st century. Douglas Lain, reading from his recent collection of short stories, Last Week's Apocalypse, hosts this multimedia investigation into the idea that, these days, all art must be political. LAURA PARISI. Oregon Stage.
The Process of Writing a Personal Memoir: Linda Carroll
Insanity is hereditary—you get it from your kids! If that's true, then Linda Carroll—whose womb once housed Courtney Love for nine months—should damn well be the most insane person on the planet. Instead, Carroll is a successful, practicing therapist in Corvallis who has been married for 17 years. She is also the author of Her Mother's Daughter, a memoir that explores her relationship with Love and Carroll's own parents. KARLA STARR. Portland Stage.
Jeff Knorr, Judith Root
Jeff Knorr's poems are collected in Standing Up to the Day. Portland resident Judith Root is the author of Weaving the Sheets and Free Will and the River. BEN WATERHOUSE & SHOSHANNA COHEN. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Young Adult: Amy Goldman Koss
In Amy Goldman Koss' clique-focused young adult novels (The Girls, Gossip Times Three), girls learn how friendship, family and a little community activism can save everything from Hanukkah to treasured coastline. MARGARET SEILER. Multnomah Stage.
Spiritual Journey—Work, Family and Writing: Deborah Santana
Deborah Santana, wife of legendary guitarist Carlos (for over 30 years!), penned the soul-searching, surprisingly non-name-droppy, non-gossipy memoir, The Space Between the Stars. AMY MCCULLOUGH. McMenamins Stage.
Rosalind Wiseman
Rosalind Wiseman is the author of Queen Bees & Wannabes, the basis for the movie Mean Girls. JON WEATHERFORD. Borders Stage.
Christopher Moore
Christopher Moore, a novelist nine times over—his most recent work is A Dirty Job—is fast in the running for our generation's version of Kurt Vonnegut or Tom Robbins. His wacky plot-driven books are relentlessly entertaining—even informative. For those doubters, check out this nugget of wisdom from The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror: "Life is messy. People generally suck." KARLA STARR. Powell's Stage.
Tim Schell, Ron Carlson
Former editor of Clackamas Literary Review, Tom Schell is also the co-author of Mooring Against the Tide: Writing Fiction and Poetry. Ron Carlson is a master of literary balance: His stories hint at the fantastic in the banalities of everyday life, while snatches of imaginative zaniness and biting irony never compromise the quiet melancholy that hangs about his best work. Carlson's most recent collection is A Kind of Flying: Selected Stories. ELIANNA BAR-EL & ADRIAN CHEN. Mountain Writers Stage.
Sunday, 3 pm
Jane Kirkpatrick
A writer, lively speaker and mental health professional, Jane Kirkpatrick has lived in Oregon since 1974. She and her husband homestead land on the John Day River, in a remote part of Eastern Oregon locally known as "Starvation Point." The rugged landscape that surrounds Kirkpatrick gives inspiration to her award-winning non-fiction essays and articles as well as her extensive list of historical fiction, including the recently released A Clearing in the Wild. LISA HOASHI. Portland Stage.
Dan Raphael, Lois Rosen
Dan Raphael is an edgy and salient Whitmaniacal force worth reckoning with, host of the "I Love Monday!" poetry reading series at Borders downtown, and the author of Greatest Hits 1976-2000. Lois Rosen, the author of Pigeons, a collection of poetry about growing up in New York City, co-directed the Advanced Institute of the Oregon Writer's Project at Willamette University. TIM DUROCHE & SHOSHANNA COHEN. Mountain Writers Poetry Stage.
Young Adult: Susan Fletcher
Take a wind-whipped seaside setting and a brave girl dealing with hardship—and, just for the heck of it, throw in a dragon or two—and you'll have the bones of Flight of the Dragon Kyn, a novel by Lake Oswego writer Susan Fletcher, who makes language a part of her settings ("amidships," "knarr"). MARGARET SEILER. Multnomah Stage.
Kristin Kaye
Kristin Kaye's memoir, Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World, chronicles her experiences directing a Broadway production that featured a cast of female bodybuilders, woven together with a look inside the subculture itself. Kaye is the first graduate from Portland State University's master's writing program to have a book published. KARLA STARR. Benson Hotel Stage.
Charles D'Ambrosio
Seattle-born Charles D'Ambrosio is the author of The Point and Other Stories and Orphans, a collection of essays published last year by ClearCut Press. His first collection of short stories in 10 years, The Dead Fish Museum, will be published by Knopf in May; many were first published in The New Yorker. It is a glorious and tender look at desperation and sadness. If you miss him, you will kick yourself later after you read the triumphant reviews that Fish is sure to get this May. KARLA STARR. McMenamins Stage.
Obituary Writing: Marilyn Johnson
See Q&A, page 8. Borders Stage.
Haute Cuisine: Steven Rinella
The prologue of Outside magazine correspondent Steven Rinella's book explains it all: "I'm just now beginning to stuff the bird. But no matter how hard I stuff, I can't get it to fit inside the bladder." Ew. And so, we launch into The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine, Rinella's yearlong quest to capture, kill and cook the critters featured in the dusty pages of Escoffier's legendary Le Guide Culinaire, the 1903 cookbook Rinella calls "the Kama Sutra of food." KELLY CLARKE. Powell's Stage.
Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Wrigley
One of our greatest living poets, 59-year-old Yusef Komunyakaa—whose 1994 Neon Vernacular won the Pulitzer Prize—writes verse that evokes the rhythms of his native rural Louisiana and the textures and shadowy immediacy of big-city jazz while maintaining a tender, healing aura that poignantly "depends on small silences we fit ourselves into." Idaho poet Robert Wrigley practices what he preaches: As a teacher, he has said, "A poem is a struggle between music and meaning, and neither should win." TIM DUROCHE & ELIANNA BAR-EL. Mountain Writers Stage.
Michelle Roehm McCann, Joe Spooner
Jill-of-all-trades Michelle Roehm McCann has edited Girls Know Best and Boys Know It All, insightful compilation guidebooks for older kids. If you've ever been baffled by the apparent lack of elephants in inner Southeast Portland, come see Joe Spooner, who takes on this and other pressing topics in The Elephant Walk. Target Children's Stage. McCann reads 3:10-3:40 pm. Spooner reads 3:50-4:20 pm.
Sunday, 4 pm
Susan Straight
Salon.com writer Susan Straight is the author of the National Book Award-finalist Highwire Moon and, more recently, A Million Nightingales, which follows the hard life of 19th-century "mulatresse" Moinette. KELLY CLARKE. Oregon Stage.
Young Adult: Michael Donnelly, Anne Ursu
Much of the color in Puget Sound writer Michael Donnelly's works comes from his characters' names. Awakening Curry Buckle, published last fall, includes a Tibetan amulet, a secret treasure and the character Darwin Bownes. His upcoming False Harbor features Anton Gropius and Egret Van Gerpin. Minnesotan Anne Ursu's novels get a little freaky with circus clowns, memory pills, and—in her latest, The Shadow Thieves—Greek mythology and underworld adventures. MARGARET SEILER. Multnomah Stage. Donnelly reads 4-4:30 pm. Ursu reads 4:30-5 pm.
Gore Vidal
Born in 1926, Gore Vidal has written novels (Myra Breckinridge), screenplays (the original version of Caligula), and nonfiction, including Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings. Though he has long been known for his political views—his grandfather was a senator, and he finished second in California's 1982 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate—he has recently ramped up his political activism. Take note of the titles of his last two works: Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta and Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia. His recent activism, inspirational and tireless, stems largely from his critiques of the Bush administration. As he told Australia's Dateline in 2003, "I've spent most of my life marinated in the history of my country, and I'm so alarmed by what is happening with our global empire, and our wars against the rest of the world, it is time for me to take political action." KARLA STARR. Borders Stage.
Craig Lesley, Joanna Rose
Portland-based teachers and published writers: Thy heroes are Craig Lesley and Joanna Rose. Lesley teaches writing at PSU and is the author of several books, including his memoir, Burning Fence, which lyrically examines his childhood in central Oregon and the impact of alcohol on his father and adopted son. Rose, the author of Little Miss Strange, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, will be teaching at this summer's Haystack, PSU's summer creative arts workshop on Cannon Beach. KARLA STARR. Mountain Writers Stage.
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WWeek 2015