Women writers who have been published in VoiceCatcher will be reading at the next WordFest on Tuesday, May 8, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

 

VoiceCatcher is an online journal that supports, inspires, and empowers female-identified writers in the greater Portland, Oregon and Southwest Washington areas. Founded in 2006, VoiceCatcher made its place in the world with print anthologies, and then with an online edition beginning in 2012.

In 2016, VoiceCatcher released its 10th Anniversary Anthology, She Holds the Face of the World. Edee Lemonier, who has read at WordFest previously, is the current president and will introduce the writers that evening, who include:

 

 

 

Joanna Rose, reading “Cooking Lessons,” which appeared in the Summer 2016 issue. Joanna has published stories, essays, poems, and the award-winning novel Little Miss Strange (Algonquin). Her work has appeared in CloudBank, Cream City Review, Windfall, Timberline Review, Portland Review, and Zyzzyva, among others. Her essay “That Thing with Feathers,” was included in 2015 Best American Essays. She teaches youth through Literary Arts Writers in the Schools and Young Musicians & Artists, and co-hosts the Pinewood Table critique group.

 

 

 

Skye Edwards, whose piece “The Other F-Word”  appeared in the Fall 2017 issue, is a senior at Fort Vancouver High School. A feminist who believes equality should be a way of life, Skye has been writing since she was very young and hopes to make a difference in the world through her writing.

 

 

 

 

 

Kris Demien’s poem “Summer Calls My Name” also appeared in VoiceCatcher’s Fall 2017 issue. Now at the end of her seventh decade, Kris has more than a few high points to celebrate, among them: free-falling from 10,000 feet over Mt. Rainier, receiving a fellowship from the Library of Congress, and meeting Dizzy Gillespie. Currently, she is working on expanding her collection of rejection notices, and organizing creative, real life experiences for her four grandchildren.

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tony Ardizzone reads from his prize-winning novel, The Arab’s Ox, at the next WordFest on Tuesday, April 10, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

A captivating linked-story collection set in Morocco’s gleaming imperial cities, twisting  medinas, and remote Saharan outposts, The Arab’s Ox received the Chicago Foundation for Literature Award for Fiction, a Pushcart Prize, the Lawrence Foundation Award in Fiction, and the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. The novel “weaves three distinct story lines…involving Americans hoping to distract themselves from stateside problems in the disturbing beauty of the Moroccan landscape.” (Review of Contemporary Fiction.) “Full of masterly writing and teeming with ordinary Moroccan life, this is travel literature of a high order.” (Chicago Tribune.)

 

Tony Ardizzone is the author of four other novels: The Whale Chaser, In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu, Heart of the Order, and In the Name of the Father. His short story collections include The Evening News and Taking It Home: Stories from the Neighborhood. He has been awarded two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous literary prizes including the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Originally a native of Chicago, he now lives in Portland.

 

 

 

 

 

Lilly Brock is a WordFest regular. Her previous book, Wooden Boats and Iron Men, was about men who fought in World War II. Her newest book, Victory on the Home Front: While Her Husband Fought, She Built Planes ~ She was a Rosie the Riveter, focuses on the strength of women who served at home, and specifically Kelso resident Penny Dean Messinger. While interviewing Penny about her time as a “Rosie the Riveter,” Lilly also learned about her husband who was fighting overseas as a Seabee. Lilly expanded the eventual book to include both of their wartime experiences as they put their young marriage on hold to serve their country.

 

Lilly’s preferred genre is historical fiction. She has written a novel about a family in the 1850s traveling by paddle wheel steamship from New York to the Pacific Northwest via South America. She has also written and published Food Gifts Recipes from Nature’s Bounty, based on organic gardening.

 

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

 

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. 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.

Portland author Jeff Stookey reads from his novel about the Ku Klux Klan’s activities in Oregon at the next WordFest on Tuesday, March 13, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

Acquaintance, the first book in his Medicine for the Blues trilogy, tells the story of Carl Holman, a surgeon who experienced the horrors of World War I, including the loss of his fellow officer and lover. Returning to Portland after the war, Carl develops a friendship with a young jazz musician named Jimmy Harper. The two men tentatively begin to explore sharing a life together. But this is Oregon in the 1920s, where the Ku Klux Klan is gaining political influence and homosexual relationships are illegal. The novel is “a deep dive into Portland’s history,” based on archival research about the lesser known story of the Klan in the
Pacific Northwest, riding the wave of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic prejudice, and promoting the eugenics movement with its agenda to sterilize segments of the population thought to threaten Anglo-Saxon stock.

Jeff  was writing stories even as he was growing up in a small town in rural Washington State. He studied literature, history, and cinema at Occidental College, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from Fort Wright College. Trained in the medical field, he worked for many years with pathologists and trauma surgeons. Jeff lives in Portland with his longtime partner.

Watch the Book Chat interview with Jeff here:

 

 

Jan Bono will be reading selections from Bottom Feeders and Starfish, the first two books in her Sylvia Avery Mystery series, set on the southwest Washington coast.

Jan has lived in Long Beach, Washington, since 1977. She began writing a humorous, personal experience newspaper column that continued for 10 years, garnering 11 state awards from the WNPA. Her column’s popularity led her to become one of the top five contributing authors to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, publishing 36 stories during the past 8 years.

In 2012, Jan became the Grand Prize winner of the Coast Weekend serial mystery chapter contest. This inspired her to begin writing her lighthearted and fun cozy mystery series, which she describes as “like Murder She Wrote, but with a lot more humor.”

Jan has also written five collections of humorous, personal experience short stories, two poetry chapbooks, one collection of short romances, a book about her 252-pound weight-loss journey, and nine one-act plays. She has been published in numerous magazines, including Guidepost, Star, and Woman’s World.

Jan was recently featured in a front page article in The Daily News. You can read it here.

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. 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.

 

 

 

 

 

Three poets celebrate friendship, memories, truth and history at the next WordFest on Tuesday, February 13, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

Fellow poets, former colleagues and close friends Carolyn Norred and Deborah Brink Woehrmann will present different approaches to the idea of history.

Carolyn will read excerpts from an exchange of letters between herself and her adolescent grandson, Oliver. This epistolary conversation developed in response to his telling her that he enjoyed school but didn’t like history. Through their correspondence, they have been exploring his question, “What can I do with history?”

Carolyn is retired from Lower Columbia College’s Language and Literature Department.

Through her poetry, Deborah will be exploring the question of truth and the stories we tell ourselves in the making of “history”.

Deborah was also an instructor at LCC in the Department of Language and Literature for ten years while co-hosting the Northwest Voices Series. She now lives in Portland, where she writes, works as a massage therapist, and leads the occasional writing workshop. You can read her musings and articles (along with guest-writers) at Live(s) Inspiring Today! at www.l-i-t.org

 

Joining Carolyn and Deborah will be Longview poet and memoirist Mary Lyons. She will read from her developing anthology entitled Body Parts. Her Valentine’s Day selection, “An Affair of The Heart,” sheds light on the funny and bizarre experiences of modern technology intersecting with our hearts. Her second selection, “Clowning around,” takes on new meaning as a Halloween adventure unfolds.

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WordFest kicks off its 2018 series on Tuesday, January 9, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

Fred Hudgins will read from his first young adult (YA) novel, Green Grass. He says, “I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence. It’s usually a little more complicated than that.”

Susannah and her friends open a portal to a magical Paradise. But Paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The young people drop into the middle of a civil war, with good people and bad people on both sides. Deciding who is who becomes a pretty important question to figure out. Once the Earthlings get cloned, things really become complicated. Imagine saying “Hi!” to yourself!

Fred has been writing poetry and short stories since he took a Creative Writing class at Purdue University in 1967. “Unfortunately, that was the only class I passed.” He spent the next three years in the army, including a tour in Vietnam, then earned a BS in Computer Science from Rutgers, with a career as a computer programmer.

His short stories and poems have been published in Biker Magazine, The Salal Review, The Scribbler, in the anthologies, That Holiday Feeling and Not Your Mother’s Book on Working for a Living, and on Poetry.Com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan O’Keefe will be reading an excerpt from his novel Shallow World: A Sunny-Thorned Seed for the Untold Stories, which he describes as “a New Adult romantic dramedy.” Set in the fictional city of Merson Valley, California, it follows the wonderful, messy, sometimes heartbreaking lives of best friends Jynnete and Katy, both 20, as they face the challenges and adventures of college, romance, new adulthood, and a school shooting.

Ryan is currently seeking ways to get his novel published.  Born in Washington, he has also lived in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, and moved to Longview in September. He previously worked as a copywriter for a financial institution.

 

 

 

Joan Enders will read from Evidence is Lacking. Yet I Still Hope. Joshua Henry Bates was a young teacher in a country school when he signed up for service in the American Expeditionary Forces going to Europe in the “war to end all wars.” The book contains primary sources about Joshua and his life–about the young woman with whom he fell in love, about leaving his farm to  attend the University of Utah, and his self-doubts reflected in his journal. Joan will lead the audience in an “interactive reading” of these sources, including documents and photographs from his youth,  his journal and Camp Lewis diary, and a variety of other materials to learn about who he was and what happened to him. Joan promises it will be “very different from other readings, to be sure!”

 

Joan taught literature and research skills in middle and high school libraries for 28 years. She was a recipient of the American Library Association’s Frances Henne Award for library leadership. She now conducts training webinars for librarians and administers the local Family History Center for Family Search International. She enjoys “peeling the research onion” for students and adults. Joan speaks to professional organizations and at genealogy conferences.

 

 

 

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. 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.