At the next WordFest on January 12, 2016, Linda Eddleston will be reading from her memoir, My Three Friends, which tells the story of four young girls living in the Oregon suburbs of the 1950s. She describes their choices, successes, trials, tragedies and their enduring friendship framed by the decades they grow up in.

Linda is a retired elementary and special education teacher living in Longview, Washington. Her work has been published in The Children’s Ministry Magazine, That Holiday Feeling anthology and in The Daily News. She has written travel journals, poetry and family stories. My Three Friends is her first book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Bonaudi, former president and long-time board member of the Washington Poets Association, will be reading a selection of “new and used poems with a look at what happens off the page.”

Karen has led poetry workshops and taught adult creative writing classes, and has been a member of a performance troupe. Her poetry has appeared in the Bellingham Review, South Dakota Review, Pontoon 2, The Far Field, Snow Monkey, and WPA’s Cascade Journal. Her chapbook Editing a Vapor Trail was published by Pudding House Press. A former Longview resident, she now lives in Renton where she edits www.sirensrock.com and publishes books by other writers.

 

Lilly Brock will read from a work of historical fiction that she is currently writing. The story concerns a family in the 1850s, migrating by paddle wheel steamship from New York to the rugged Pacific Northwest  where men outnumbered women twenty to one. The story gives an intimate view of what such journeys and settling into a rugged territory were like.

 

Now retired, Lilly and her husband moved from Olympia to live next to the Columbia River which, she notes, is “the perfect place to pursue her long awaited writing journey.” They have planted an orchard and an organic garden, and she wrote and published  Food Gift Recipes from Nature’s Bounty.

 

 

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next WordFest on Tuesday, December 8, will celebrate art, stories, and thinking outside the proverbial box.

Artist, videographer, and former LCC instructor Yvette O’Neill Raynham will be reading a short piece of magic realism, titled El Niño, based on experiences “true and imagined” during a class she taught on the Arts of the Americas.

 

 

Yvette taught in the art department at Lower Columbia College for almost twenty years, retiring in 2007.  She believes that “art should be a part of life.  Mowing a lawn, cooking a meal, and driving a forklift can all be artistic expressions, depending on design, expression and execution.”  She lives in Longview and Astoria with her husband, Michael.

 

 

Kevin Hunter will be reading from his book, Is That the Best You Can Do?, available as an e-book on Amazon. The result of thousands of interviews, his book illustrates the necessary soft skills required for survival in today’s highly competitive marketplace. The book explains how one can think out of the box by changing life habits, and shows how creative thinkers intentionally interrupt their daily routines with a purposeful strategy.

 

 

Kevin is a business coach and mentor, and hosts business talk radio on “The Business Forum Show” (TBFS Radio). His first broadcast aired in Michigan in 1999, interviewing business guests and professionals from that area. Today, TBFS Radio airs in 220 countries and draws guests from all around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

WordFest regular Kelley Jacquez will be reading a story from her second collection of short stories set in the town of El Nido, New Mexico.

Kelley is the author of 14 short stories published in literary journals and anthologies.

 

 

Her book of interwoven stories, Holding Woman and Other Stories of Acceptable Madness, was acclaimed as one of the Great Books of 2013 by author and New York Times reviewer Madison Smartt Bell, and chosen as one of the Southwest Books of the Year 2014.

 

 

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. The events are free and open to the public.

 

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next WordFest on Tuesday, November 10, will highlight mysteries and poetry.

Kate Dyer-Seeley writes the Pacific Northwest Mystery Series (Kensington
Publishing) set in the rugged landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and featuring a young journalist named Meg Reed. She also writes the Shakespearean Bakeshop Mystery Series (Macmillan) set in Ashland, Oregon, under the pen name Ellie Alexander—“which means I spend a lot of my time researching hikes, artisan bakeshops, and ways to kill people off.”

Her books have been on a number of bestseller lists. About the PNW Mysteries The Library Journal writes: “Dyer-Seeley provides a splendid overview of the greater Portland and Columbia River Gorge region, perfect for travel buffs. Her freshly graduated (from journalism school) bumbling protagonist shows promise with her determined attitude and moxie.” Mystery Scene Magazine recommended the Bakeshop Mysteries to readers “who enjoy clever plots, likable characters, and good food. Knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays is purely optional.”

Kate will be reading from her latest mystery, Slayed on the Slopes— After talking her way into a job writing for Portland’s Northwest Extreme magazine, Meg Reed may now really be in over her head. Actually, about 8,000 feet over her head. She’s at Mount Hood’s remote Silcox Hut, covering the Ridge Rangers—Oregon’s elite high-altitude rescue team—during their four-day winter training. Stranded in the hut with them during a sudden blizzard, Meg thinks she hears gunshots. None of the others believe her until one of their team members is found outside in a pool of frozen blood.

Kate will be talking about the challenges (and fun) of writing a mystery series—what inspires her, where she gets her ideas, and how she plots them to create tension and suspense.

 

 

Janice Haupt will be reading a selection of her poems. She says, “This is my favorite collection of my poems. In them, I am reliving adventures of mine and my family, some with laughter, some with tears.  All but one are new. The most difficult ones to write are about my brother, and about my grandson’s recent climb to summit Mt. Cotopaxi in Ecuador.”

 

 

Janice has published several collections of her poetry including the most recent,  Call This Beach Mine.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Anderson will be reading from the sequel to his 2013 novel, Book of Hours: The Beguilement of Brother Alphaios. In the new work, Book of Hours: Peter’s Parchment, Brother Alphaios and archivist Inaki Arriaga discover an ancient document hidden inside the wood-and-leather covers of the Book Hours. Intent upon learning its source and meaning, they are warned away by Prior Bartholomew, who predicts the full weight and fury of the Church will descend upon them if they persist in their quest.

Steve lives and writes in Longview, drawing on a lifelong interest in art, architecture and western religions.

 

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. The events are free and open to the public.

 

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

 

 

 

 

Book publishing has been in a state of flux for a number of years now, due to the rise of e-books, the consolidation of the large publishing houses, the convenience of self-publishing, and other game-changing factors. At the next WordFest gathering on Tuesday, October 13, two veterans of the book publishing industry will be discussing these changes and future trends, and answering people’s questions.

Publisher Laura Stanfill will discuss what it takes to start an independent press and how she transitioned from a regional Northwest publishing company to a national one in the past year.

Laura is a novelist, an editor, a journalist, and the founder of Forest Avenue Press (2012), which publishes page-turning literary fiction. Her authors include previous WordFest guests Dan Berne (The Gods of Second Chances), Kate Gray (Carry the Sky), Stevan Allred (A Simplified Map of the Real World), and Ellen Urbani (Landfall).

As a community newspaper editor, Laura earned numerous statewide awards for her writing and editorial work, including the Consumer Issues Reporting Award from the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association. A sought-after speaker on the subject of publishing, she has spoken at the University of Oregon, Pacific University, Willamette University, the Oregon Writers Colony, the Manzanita Writers’ Series, Corban University, and Clackamas Community College’s Compose Conference.

 

Publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek will discuss changes she’s seen in the book business and why it’s more important than ever for authors to connect to their audiences and ways they can do it. Mary began her publishing career in 1979 in San Francisco. In 2003, she joined the University of Michigan Press, where she was the Director of Publicity and the Trade Marketing and Foreign Rights Manager. Later, she joined Literary Ventures Fund, where she worked as a marketing, publicity and foreign rights consultant with various authors, agents, and publishers.

In 2010, Mary relocated to Portland and once again took on independent publicity projects. Through her company, READ A Unique Perspective, she provides publicity, marketing and foreign rights management with a unique outlook for each title and genre. She works primarily in literary fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, photography that leans toward social documentary commentary, and on “readable academic books.” She is also a consultant for Portland State University’s MFA for Publishing program.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

 

 

 

 

 

The next WordFest gathering will be on Tuesday, September 8, launching a new season by moving the monthly event to second Tuesdays.

 

Steve Anderson is a Portland writer, the author of the novels, Liberated: A Novel of Germany, 1945, and Under False Flags, as well as narrative nonfiction, short stories and screenplays.

A Fulbright Fellow who studied in Munich, Steve is also a literary translator of crime and mystery fiction by German novelists Alexander Hartung, Marcus Huennebeck, and others.

 

 

 

He will be reading from his most recent novel, The Other Oregon, what he calls “Cascadia noir,” about a former journalist who is asked by the FBI to find a friend from his youth who may be involved in a dangerous militia movement in rural Oregon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melanee Evans will be reading a number of short pieces from her poetry and creative nonfiction that reflects her passion for beauty, wellness and the power of a quiet mind.

A Certified Transformative Coach, she traveled much of last year with professionals from twenty-five countries to study the principles behind human consciousness. Melanee is a regular contributor to The Columbia River Reader and is writing a book about her experience as a reunited adoptee raised in a transracial family.

 

Alan Rose, who coordinates WordFest, will be reading “On the Art of Dying (Instructions Included),” a chapter from the novel he is currently writing about the AIDS epidemic.

Alan is the author of two novels, The Legacy of Emily Hargraves (2007), a paranormal mystery, and Tales of Tokyo (2010), a modern quest tale set in contemporary Japan, and of a novella, The Unforgiven, published by Bold Strokes Books in 2012.

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.