Today’s Reading Local Portland interview is with writer Margaret Malone. Margaret’s work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Swink, The Wordstock Ten Anthology, Rhapsoidia, Tablet, Too Much Coffee Man, on latimes.com, and elsewhere. She is a volunteer facilitator with Write Around Portland and a co-host of SHARE. Recently, Literary Arts awarded her one of eight writers’ grants in recognition of literary excellence. You can catch Margaret reading tonight at Mississippi Studios as part of the True Stories show.
Click through to read the interview with Margaret Malone.
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Wieden + Kennedy Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Portland based advertising agency, is “an arts and culture digital content delivery platform” whose goal “is to renegotiate the relationship between art, media, advertising and the consumer.” As part of this new project they have launched Story Time, which is a show featuring “recorded readings of short stories by published young authors set to soundscapes.” The show is remarkably well produced and draws you in through the subtle use of instrumental tones and voice effects.
The shows first episode featured Trinie Dalton reading her delightful story Froghole ‘08, and the most recent episode has Kevin Sampsell reading from his short story Gloves. Listening time is about six minutes per episode, and after you ‘re finished with these I highly recommend you check out everything else WKE has going on as well.
Just out from LibraryThing: Local Books, a free iPhone application that shows you local bookstores, libraries, and bookish events, no matter where you wander.
No, not that good word, the bigger more universal word. Literacy. Literature. Storytelling. I’m a book nerd. Books are what I do. Why I’m here, on Reading Local I mean. And I appreciate that RL is here to be the soap box that Gabe and I hope it can be. In my opinion, Books can never have too many champions.
Where Do I begin? Let’s not bore you with my life story, but let’s jump to the moment where I wanted to create a site exactly like what Mr. Barber here has created. In the summer of 2008—I know, so long ago—I was attending the Denver Publishing Institute at the University of Denver. It’s a month long program wherein they give you a crash course in Publishing, trying to give you the tools to make your way in the Publishing industry in 15 days of classes (plus a week to find a job). It’s a fun program and if you’re headed into publishing in New York it is a godsend for the western states.
While at DPI I came across a blog post by a talented young author named Blake Butler, a revolutionary of sorts for the author/publishing world. He’s one of the hardest working writers I don’t know personally and a great writer. Anyway, he wrote this piece on Literary Citizenship and it struck a chord with me. As a writer and a fella trying to make his way in publishing, I felt that I could do something beyond just trying to find a good job and putting out books. I, my meager self, could get out there and help other writers share their stories.
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This blog and the network within which its contained is about to get infinitely better. Spencer Newlin-Cushing has agreed to come on as a partner in this venture and I couldn’t be more thrilled or honored! He brings with him a passion and energy for literature and the industry surrounding it that shines through in every project he takes on. This passion was on display as Spencer carried out his role as volunteer Marketing Coordinator for this years Wordstock Festival. It was again on display as he conducted a series of interviews with the writers of The Portland Fiction Project, and I have no doubt that this passion will be readily apparent in the projects he takes on for Reading Local.
Equally as important, Spencer has expressed a clear interest in helping to further Reading Local’s mission of promoting and connecting local literary communities. We have met within the past few weeks to develop ideas for how to best accomplish this, and I look forward to rolling those out over the next few months.
In a way this couldn’t have come at a better time. As those of you who follow this blog know, I am a stay-at-home dad. And as my son gets older the time he requires continues to increase, which is a great thing as it means I get to experience more and more new things with him. It also however impacts the amount of time I have to spend on Reading Local. Emails take longer to respond to, posts I would like to do never come to fruition, etc. Luckily I have been blessed with a wonderfully talented group of contributors that have helped to pick up the slack, and I know Spencer coming on board as a partner will further help to alleviate this time crunch as well.
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PNBA has announced the shortlist for their 2010 Book Awards, with the winners determined at a committee meeting in December and formally announced in January. Here are your finalists:
Of course Gwartney’s Live Through This was also a finalist in this year Oregon Book Awards, and Dickman may have the chance to compare trophies with his twin brother Matthew whose All-American Poems won this years Oregon Book Award for poetry. Rakha looks to be a favorite to take home an award, as The Crying Tree has received glowing reviews since its release.
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Today’s Featured Book Event:
Willamette Writers hosts the Writer’s Faire (The Old Church, @6:30pm): The Writer’s Faire is an opportunity for local authors to promote their work, sell books and “sound off” on upcoming releases and/or events in the writing community. The event will feature table space where authors may sign/sell their books as well as an “open mic.” Doors open at 6:30 pm. Writers Faire is free to members of Willamette Writers and the public. Refreshments are served. Check out Teresa Bergen’s preview of the Writers Faire.
Other Book Events Today:
Helen Deutsch Lecture: “The Scaffold in the Marketplace” (Lewis & Clark College, Miller Center for the Humanities, room 105, @3:30pm): Helen Deutsch is a Professor of English at ULCA. Her talk is titled, “The Scaffold in the Marketplace: Johnson, Hawthorne and the Romance of Authorship.” She will discuss Samuel Johnson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and each author’s relation to (and anxieties about) the literary marketplace.
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There are a bunch of sci fi authors in town this weekend for OryCon, and if you weren’t able to make it down to the conference you still have a chance to meet and greet 18 of those authors who will be at the Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing store tomorrow (11-29) at 4:00 as part of the third annual Sci-Fi Authorfest Book Signing. This event coupled with the Writer’s Faire on Tuesday gives Portland book lovers ample opportunity to support local authors, and get your books signed while you are doing so.
A majority of the authors signing at the Authorfest are from Oregon, and all of them are from the Northwest. The list of attendees includes:
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Publishers Weekly has spearheaded an effort to have tomorrow (11-7) serve as National Bookstore Day. They are encouraging indie bookstores across the nation to participate by holding one day promotional events including: raffles, giveaways, discounts, prize baskets, and other ideas.
The Publishers Weekly website shows three Oregon bookstores partaking in the festivities: Third Street Books in McMinnville, Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis, and Portland’s St. John’s Booksellers who is having a “buy 2 get 1 free sale.” I’m sure that every other Portland (and Oregon) bookstore would enjoy you celebrating National Bookstore Day at their store as well.
So use this as an excuse to get some early Christmas shopping taken care of for that book lover in your life, or just as a way to celebrate all that neighborhood bookstores bring to our communities.
I have come across the St. John’s Booksellers’ Community Supported Bookstore (CSB) program before, but for some reason this time it struck a chord and got me thinking about how this could potentially be a viable way for indie bookstores to be proactive in their ongoing battles against the powers that be.
CSB’s essentially take the well established and mutually beneficial Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model and apply it to bookstores. The St. John’s Booksellers program allows the customer to buy a membership ($400/year) in exchange for $35 worth of books for “free” every month, along with a discount on all purchases above and beyond those books. Other benefits like free admission to ticketed events, member-only events, and early access to advance reader copies of select titles are also included. Reading Frenzy has a similar member benefit program as well.
If I had a bookstore and were designing a CSB program I would attempt to take it one step further, by setting aside a small percentage of non-voting shares in the corporation that people could purchase in addition to the basic membership. Their would certainly be some added legal hoops to jump through in taking this approach, but I think they would be worth it and here are five reasons why: Read the rest of this entry »
The last couple weeks have brought some disheartening developments for indie bookstore owners (Amazon’s same-day shipping, Barnes and Noble’s Nook), but the biggest development has been the price war Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target are now engaged in. For a great primer on why this effects consumers choices of books (as well as an authors ability to get published), please read Book Passage co-owner Bill Petrocelli’s recent Huffington Post column. Here is a sample:
One of the ironies of the current price war is that it includes The Lacuna, the latest novel by Barbara Kingsolver. But Kingsolver wasn’t always a best-selling author. When her first novel The Bean Trees was published in a modest print-run in 1988, independent booksellers recognized it as a literary treasure and sold thousands of copies. After that the chain stores climbed on the band-wagon, but without that first push from independent booksellers Kingsolver’s career might never have taken off.
Anyone who loves books should worry that the doors seem to be closing on the Barbara Kingsolvers of tomorrow.
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This post is authored by contributor Nicole Krueger. You can keep track of what Nicole is up to on her wonderful blog Books and Bards.
As a writer, I feel a deep appreciation for venues that are willing to support local authors by scheduling literary events. After all, book readings aren’t always the most heavily attended happenings, even in lit-loving Portland.
So when I heard The Clearing Café was looking for local writers to help launch a biweekly author series, I was happy to help out by contacting a couple of Inkwater Press authors, who were excited to get involved.
The Clearing Café is an annex of sorts to The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa, owned by acupuncturist and herbalist Peter Borten along with massage therapist and Ayurvedic specialist Briana Borten. Its focus is offering food and drinks made from ingredients that are locally, sustainably, and organically grown.
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