We have an exciting line-up of writers for the new year, sharing their unique voices through poetry, novels and short stories, memoirs and essays. To receive the monthly WordFest newsletter announcing each event, sign up here.

Civil War historian and retired Kelso history teacher, John Simpson will read from his 6th book, All for the Union, based on 180 wartime letters donated to the Cowlitz County Historical Museum in 2014.  The missives were written by two brothers and two brothers-in-law to their sisters and wives in rural western New York. The four soldiers fought in every major battle in the Eastern theatre from Bull Run to Petersburg. Together, the Ellithorpe family letters offer a rare glimpse into the daily lives of soldiers in the Army of the Potomac and of the home front they swore to protect.

Caroline Kurtz will read from her memoir of growing up in Ethiopia, A Road Called Down on Both Sides, and from her second memoir, Today is Tomorrow, about returning to the area in the midst of a brutal civil war. A citizen of two cultures, Caroline grew up absorbing the sights, sounds, smells, and customs of Africa, then returned later as an adult with her husband and three children where she taught, advocated for women, and supported peacemaking efforts between Ethiopia and Sudan.

Local writer Debz Briske will read from a book she is currently writing called Shape of Fear. The story is set in Astoria, Oregon, in 1922 and 2007. On December 8, 1922, at 2:00 a.m. during a fierce rainstorm, most of the coastal city was destroyed by a fire of unknown origins. In 2007, the U.S. economy entered into recession. These two historical events are the inspiration for her novel, weaving together the stories of Tobias, a disturbed teenage boy living in 1922, and Madison, a lonely girl living in 2007, and how fear shaped their lives and the lives of those around them.

Debz is a storyteller and writer of psychological and paranormal horror and personal monologues. She works in health care, which provides ample occasions for horror, humor, and cadavers, and loves baking, gardening and exchanging ghost stories.

Novelist and WordFest coordinator Alan Rose will present a different approach to writing one’s memoirs. “Any one human life comprises a multitude of transforming moments,” he says, “but trying to make sense of these moments and find some meaning through them can be overwhelming. How, and where, does one begin?” He will offer an approach to memoir that helps distill and define one’s most significant memories.

Alan is the author of three published novels and one novella. His novel of the AIDS epidemic, As If Death Summoned, won the Foreword INDIES (small independent publishers) Book of the Year Award (LGBT category) in 2021. He is also host and producer of KLTV’s “Book Chat” and reviews books for the Columbia River Reader.

Singer/songwriter Kyleen Austin will be performing a number of original songs, from one of her earliest pieces, “Leaving Colorado,” to songs reflecting her life in the Pacific Northwest. She will also discuss the inspiration and story behind the songs, like “Middle of the Lake,” written during an epic solo kayaking expedition from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Puget Island on the Columbia River in 2019.

Peter Adams Young will read from his novel One Hundred Stingers, based on his experiences flying in the air war over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail was an extensive web of roads and paths winding through the jungles of Laos, connecting the ports of North Vietnam with Communist fighting forces in the South. The challenge of cutting off this steady flow of combatants and materiel pitted the technology of United States air power against the implacable resourcefulness of the North Vietnamese regime. The need to maintain the illusion of Laotian neutrality meant that this conflict was nominally conducted in secret.

Poet John Ciminello will read from a selection of his work. His poems are about place, gratitude, and service, and are shaped by words, breath, rhythm, and story.  A native of Washington D.C., he grew up on the east coast before he and his wife moved to the Pacific Northwest 40 years ago

Jan Bono from Long Beach, WA, will read from her new book, Pen Pals. Jan has previously published a collection of 12 “murderous” short stories written earlier this year, as well as a 6-book cozy mystery series, all set in SW Washington.

Caroline Kurtz will read from her memoir of growing up in Ethiopia, A Road Called Down on Both Sides, and from her second memoir, Today is Tomorrow, about returning to the area in the midst of a brutal civil war.

Steve Anderson reads from the third installment of his Book of Hours trilogy. The beautifully reconstructed fourteenth century Book of Hours is presented to the Pope, though without the shreds of an incendiary letter Brother Alphaios found hidden in the book’s leather-and-wood cover. Having determined who wrote it and knowing how damaging the letter could be to the Vatican, Brother Alphaios steals the letter and invites a select group to help decide how to handle the historical but potentially explosive document. Steve lives and writes in Longview, WA.

Craig Allen Heath will read from his debut novel, Where You Will Die. This amateur-sleuth murder mystery follows unconventional minister Alan Wright as he struggles against external obstacles and his own inner demons to discover who killed his new best friend, Ruth MacKenzie. Wright can’t fathom why anyone would harm one of the oldest and best-beloved citizens of Eden Ridge, a tiny foothill tourist town where he has found refuge from a broken heart. He and Ruth’s friends, five elderly women known as The Little Red Hens, join forces to reveal how even the admirable trait of loyalty can lead to evil acts.

Marc Imlay has been a meditation instructor since 1974, a chiropractor since 1981, and an acupuncturist since 1988.  He retired from his private practice in Kent, Washington, in 2014.  Marc has written poetry since high school, and recently published his first poetry book, Pilgrimages to a Bullfrog Buddha. 

Filmmaker Ron Walker of Astoria will discuss filmmaking as a form of storytelling, showing excerpts from films he has made over the past forty years.

Ron began working in films in the 1970s at the Film Loft in Portland as their resident “film composer.” Over the years he learned the craft of filmmaking, involved in film shoots on numerous locations and the editing process. He began making his own films in the 1980s, at first shooting on Super 8 film before moving on to a video camera which expanded what he was able to do. Many of his films have been documentaries about musicians, artists, historians, dancers, and poets, who have told their stories through creative expression.

School teacher, songwriter, and spiritual life coach, Cody Rothwell will read from his book The Mystic Shift. Raised an evangelical Christian, Cody underwent a spiritual transformation in 2010, that led to his breaking free from conventional Christianity and embarking on the mystical path of Christianity.