Brianna graduated valedictorian of her Kelso High School class. Today she lives in London, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development. She started as an intern in 2011 at the UN climate negotiations. Four years later, she witnessed the adoption of the Paris Agreement first hand.

Grays Harbor poet Carrie Born will read from her collection, titled Diesel Cats’ Poetry, about the world of heavy construction and other blue-collar work. Carrie graduated from St. Martin’s University with a master’s in counseling psychology and completed a 6,000-hour union heavy equipment apprenticeship. She has two poetry zines in the Timberland Library. 

Local writers read at WordFest on Tuesday, March 14, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22^nd Avenue in Longview. Tom Larsen will read from his mystery novel, Cantor’s Gate. Set on the Island of Jersey off the coast of England, the story involves a contested inheritance, a band ofneo-pagansand valuable artwork that was looted by the Nazis and hidden on the island.

Krysten is local to Longview, graduating from WSU Vancouver with a degree in English and creative writing. Her writing has been featured in various publications such as the Salal Review, the Salmon Creek Journal, and the Columbia River Reader. You can connect with Krysten at karalston.com or via social media on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. 

Local comedian Coree Spencer will present her book, I’m Not OK, You’re Not OK, an activity book for when people are feeling down, anxious, or depressed. She created it from her own experience of having to rely on laughter to cope with mental health issues. “This book is like being with a hilarious friend who has no good advice but totally gets what you are going through,” she says.

Shirley Clukey of Woodland will be reading from Dis-Membered: A Mormon Mom’s Memoir. The work-in-progress tells the story of why she joined the church at age nineteen and why she left it four decades later. The story includes how grateful she remains for her years in the church and how she wishes she’d never had anything to do with it.

Shirley spent forty-three years as a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as choir director and holding a number of teaching and leadership positions in the US and overseas. Things changed after her twenty-year-old son came out as gay.

Hans Schaufus from Kalama has been writing an annual Christmas letter since 1996. They are pure fiction and represent different settings, in America, and several European and Latin American countries. He will be reading several of these letters.

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.