“The Sisters Brothers” is as much as a historical fiction as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is an examination of the slave trade—which is to say, the book is an unvarnished and macabre take on that space between civilized and uncivilized lives in a specific period of American upheaval. One that is as much about its […]
Book Talk
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The Other 17 Percent
Oklahoma Poet Laureate Nathan Brown comes to Sisters
Nathan Brown attacks words like a man fresh from the desert stumbling into a buffet. That’s not to say he doesn’t choose his words carefully because the current Poet Laureate of the State of Oklahoma doesn’t waste a syllable either in his poetry or in conversation. His writing ranges from unpretentious intellectualism to matters of […]
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Poetic Sasquatch and Alien Intervention
William L. Sullivan’s The Oregon Variations
It’s not difficult to imagine William L. Sullivan—the author of four novels and 13 works of nonfiction focused on Oregon and its many wonders—in a rough-hewn log cabin, tucked into the wilderness, typing out his novels and stories on an ancient manual typewriter (which is exactly what he did). In his most recent book, The […]
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Road Warrior Meets A River Runs Through It
Peter Heller’s mild-mannered apocalypse: The Dog Stars
After The Road won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, critics thought Cormac McCarthy had the final word on post-apocalyptic literary fiction. They didn’t see Peter Heller coming. In The Dog Stars, a national bestseller that appeared on multiple “best of” lists when it was released last year, Heller employs all the tropes of the popular […]
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Slaughter Fodder
Local author reimagines wagon trains with werewolves
Among the many harrowing tales of discovery and misadventure that originated during the great western migration of the 19th century, few are as legendary as the Donner Party, a stranded group of pioneers who turned to cannibalism for sustenance. In a new reimagining of the fateful journey, local author Duncan McGeary adds a supernatural edge […]
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Jane Kirkpatrick Resurrects History
One Glorious Ambition is yet another novel from one gloriously ambitious writer
Award-winning and prolific local author Jane Kirkpatrick brings history to life. Lending her inspirational voice to historical women has earned her more than 25 published books, numerous awards, and countless devoted readers. In her new novel, One Glorious Ambition, Kirkpatrick focuses on an early champion of the mentally ill, and her efforts to ensure compassionate […]
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21st Century Poetry
Bend hosts Oregon Poetry Association Conference
Logically, poetry should be the literary form of the 21st century. It’s short, concise, and for a shallow reading, only requires a snap second attention span. Sounds an awful lot like Twitter (a-hem, Millennials, you should love it). Yet despite its digestibility, the form is still clouded by a shadow of elitism and snobbery, dating […]
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Oregon’s Very Own John Grisham
An interview with Phillip Margolin
Author Phillip Margolin traded the thrills of the courtroom as an Oregon trial attorney for a career penning legal thrillers, and has nearly 20 bestselling books to show for it. His most recent novel, a historical drama titled Worthy Brown’s Daughter, is a heartbreaking story of slavery and murder set in nineteenth-century Oregon. Margolin will […]
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Take Another (Dopamine) Hit
Comedian Will Durst confronts everyone from aging hippies to bratty millennials
“I love the fact that (Toronto mayor) Rob Ford admitted to smoking crack, and (French president) Francois Hollande admitted to an affair—and both their approval ratings go up,” says Will Durst, a 61-year-old political satirist with a guttural delivery, before delivering his punch line and advice to the president. “Obama needs a wild weekend.” Durst […]
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The Internet Phenomenon
Allie Brosh, Bend’s web cartoonist turned highly praised book author
The magazine section of the eastside Barnes and Noble, which doubles as a guest reading hall, is packed with eager tweens, middle-aged women and other internet trolling Bendites, all clutching bright yellow paperbacks with Allie Brosh’s signature pink dress-wearing figure sprawled across the cover. Her pointy cone ponytail and her suspected mentally challenged pet “special […]
