Following its summer break, WordFest’s monthly series of readings resumes on Tuesday, September 11, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

 

R.A. Long High School graduate Jon Gosch will read from his newest novel, Deep Fire Rise, a murder mystery set in southwest Washington at the time of the Mount St. Helens eruption.  Patrolling the backwoods country around the rumbling volcano, Deputy Sheriff Tom Wilson discovers a brutal murder. His hunt to find the murderer will take him into the red zone on the morning of May 18, 1980.The book was edited by Jon’s former teacher Jim LeMonds and friend Spike Walker. Naturalist, poet and now-novelist Robert Michael Pyle has praised the book, saying, “The greatest geological event of our times finally has the novel it deserves.”

Jon graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle where he studied Creative Writing and Journalism. A lifelong hunter and conservationist, he began investigating elk hoof disease in 2014.  His articles and photographs on the subject have appeared in regional and national publications, and he recently received an award from the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Jon now lives in Spokane where he is a freelance book editor and working on a novel about the Wobblies.

 

You can read The Columbia River Reader’s review of Deep Fire Rise here.

 

 

 

 

Adeline Alda will read from her memoir, The Rapist’s Girlfriend. She and her partner, Cole, were living on a boat at a marina in Portland, Oregon, when a woman from a neighboring boat accused Cole of rape. Cole had Dissociative Identity Disorder and experienced multiple selves ranging in age from an infant to an elderly adult. Adeline, who lived with all of these selves, knew none to be a rapist, and helped Cole defend himself (or him-selves), embarking with him on an emotional, spiritual, and psychological journey.

 

 

 

A past board member of the Washington Poets Association, Adeline’s poetry has appeared in print and online under various versions of her name. Her poetry has been performed by actors at the Milagro Theater in Portland, featured on Northwest Public Radio, and set to music by two songwriters. She currently resides in Olympia. The Rapist’s Girlfriend is her first work of prose.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A variety of literary forms will be presented at the next WordFest on Tuesday, July 10, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

 

William L. Alton earned a BA and MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. He has published a novel, Flesh and Bone (2015), two collections of poetry, Heroes of Silence and Heat Washes Through, a memoir titled My Name is Bill and Girls, a collection of flash fiction. His work has appeared in a number of publications, and in 2010, he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Bill’s newest novel was launched in June 2018. In Comfortable Madness, Butter is a teenaged lesbian who lives with schizophrenia. She hallucinates and does the best she can with the help of a few close friends and her girlfriend. But then Gid begins to visit. No one can see him except Butter. In his visits, his face is obscured. No one believes he is real, not even after Butter becomes pregnant. Gid tells Butter that she will be the mother of a savior. Finally, Butter forces Gid to show his face. When he does, he also disappears, and Butter comes back to the world she lived in before Gid, a world of voices and visions, but also a world of hope with a new baby to raise.

 

 

 

 

 

Lorna Moon will be reading from the her historical fiction novel, Jacob’s Pillow  (2006 Thumb Print Press, Edinburgh), where folklore and gothic adventure bring the legend of Thomas the Rhymer to life as the otherworldly sage mentors young Alpin, a reluctant hero, on his quest to save Scotland. Donald Smith, PhD, of the Scottish Storytelling Centre called it, “A beautiful piece of storytelling, finely wrought and structured and full of life, passion, and mystery.”

Lorna spent eight years living and writing in Scotland. She now lives in Centralia, Washington.

 

 

 

Fredrick Hudgin will be reading his newest short story, about a man who is dying of cancer and about to enter hospice. His cat, his companion for twelve years, is unable to go with him, so the man tries to find a way for his cat to live with people who will care for him.

“It’s Up to the Cat” is included in Fred’s collection of short stories, A Rainy Night and Other Short Stories.

 

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, and I spent the next three years in the army, including a tour in Vietnam.” He earned a BS in Computer Science from Rutgers University, leading to a career as a computer programmer. His short stories and poems have been published in Biker Magazine, on Poetry.Com, The Salal Review, The Scribbler, and in the WordFest anthology, That Holiday Feeling.

 

Signed copies of the presenters’ books will be available for sale that evening.

 

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.

 

For more information, contact Alan Rose at www. Alan-rose.com.

 

 

 

 

 

A variety of literary forms will be presented at the next WordFest on Tuesday, June 12, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

 Poet Janice Haupt will be reading from her most recent book of poems, Searching for Water. She describes the collection as “a journey through my lifetime.” In it, she writes of special people she has encountered, including “bums by the Cowlitz River,” meeting bears in the blueberries, and climbing Mt. Cotopaxi in Ecuador with her grandson. “Wherever I am, there’ll be water calling to me.”

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leslie Slape will read selections from her play, The Harder Courage, a finalist out of 400 submissions in the Ashland New Plays Festival. By the evening of WordFest, she should know if her play is one of the four winners. The Harder Courage is a historical drama based on true events in Woodland and Kalama in the 1890s. It explores the relationship between Sheriff Ben Holmes and his prisoner, Robert Day, whom Holmes is ultimately required to hang for murder.

Leslie is a retired Daily News reporter and a professional storyteller. In addition to plays, she writes short fiction, memoir, historical pieces, and stories in the style of folktales. Her story, “The Tale-Teller,” was published in The Healing Heart: Families (2003, New Society Publishers). Her work has also appeared in the Cowlitz Historical Quarterly and the Salal Review.

Steve Anderson will be reading excerpts from his third Book of Hours novel (as yet untitled). Brother Alphaios and archivist Inaki Arriaga arrive in Rome for the presentation of the reconstructed Book of Hours to Pope Gregory II. That all-consuming task now complete, Alphaios has not yet been reassigned to his home monastery and is restrained by his vows from stepping outside the cloister into the city that so beguiles him. Will cloistered life still be sufficient for him?

 

 

Steve lives and writes in Longview.  His earlier two books in the series are The Beguilement of Brother Alphaios and Unholy Error. He is available to speak to book clubs upon request at ([email protected])

 

 

 

 

Caleigh Maffet will be hosting the event that evening. A student at Lower Columbia College and staff member of the Kelso Public Library, Caleigh writes fantasy stories under the pseudonym, Alkaid Tsuki.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.