It’s finally here! Today, Bend becomes a literary hub with the kickoff of the Nature of Words annual festival! The upcoming issue of the Source features our full coverage of the event, including previews, interviews and book reviews. Here’s our final sneak peak at the amazing authors that will be coming to town for readings, […]
NOW2013
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Our Picks 11/5 – 11/13
thursday 7-sunday 10 Nature of Words Festival LITERATURE—Pulling together his family’s history as Japanese-Americans—including years spent in an interment camp—with a budding love for jazz music, Lawson Inada is a remarkable, and distinctly American, poet. Today, he headlines the annual Nature of Words Festival. (For more information, see pg. 33.) For full event schedule see […]
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Author Jim Lynch’s Literature is Equally at Home in Rural and Urban Washington
In 2005, former journalist Jim Lynch wrote his first novel, "The Highest Tide." It is a charming book; set in Puget Sound, the story follows a budding teen, Miles O’Malley, who idolizes conservationist Rachel Carson and often takes late-night walks along the beach. Although trouble is brewing—domestic drama at his parents’ house; hints about a […]
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An English Lit Six-Pack
This weekend’s Nature of Words festival brings together a literary kaleidoscope
Jazz music. Fishing. Seattle’s Space Needle and 1962 World Fair. Slam poetry. Six literary talents, each flowing to and from the power of words at very different angles; there is little to hold together the six poets and novelists who make up this year’s Nature of Words annual festival and fundraiser. But, taken together, as […]
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Ellen Waterston, Bend Author and NOW Founder, is as Busy as Ever
In 2001, Ellen Waterston (or, Ellie, as her friends call her) launched Nature of Words, a literary nonprofit in Bend. Although she’s since stepped aside to focus on other projects—like her recent verse novel, “Vía Làctea,” which is being released Nov. 15—Waterston remains committed to the organization's mission and continues to stay involved through various […]
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Lawson Inada’s Poetry Explores the Intersections of Music, Culture and Community
Internment camps and jazz. Seemingly unrelated, these two American institutions are former Oregon Poet Laureate Lawson Inada’s primary influences—and, when passed through the filter of the now Southern Oregon University professor’s poetry and prose, their seemingly disparate relationship becomes clear. Inada was only four years old when his family began living in the World War […]
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Emily Carr's Poetry is From the Heart, But Not for the Faint of Heart
Emily Carr calls herself an “ecofeminist love poet,” which she details as addressing the “problems of…unposted love letters, cannibal chickens and a ship too late to save the drowning witch.” “The Damsel is (still) in distress,” she explains. Only in her mid-30s, Carr already has published a series of books of poetry—smart, beautiful and image-laden […]
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Fishing for Answers
James Prosek’s coming-of-age angling tale as much a page-turner as a heart-warmer
James Prosek is a Yale graduate, author, naturalist and artist. But more than anything, the 38-year-old Connecticutian is a fishing fanatic. He has penned six books about fish, and even wrote and co-produced an award-winning fishing documentary for ESPN. Prosek, it seems, is on track to be New England’s version of the Pacific Northwest’s David […]
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Karen Finneyfrock’s Poetry and Young Adult Fiction Tell Angsty Stories
“At fourteen I turned Dark. Now, I’m Celia the Dark,” proclaims the first line of Karen Finneyfrock’s "The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door," like a high school battle cry. The line foreshadows the dark and boiling coming of age story that follows, the young adult version of gothic literature, combining romance and friendship with the […]