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Jeff Crane on the Elwha River, Part 1
May 2nd, 2012

Finding the River coverJust before Jeff Crane's environmental history of the Elwha River was published last fall, the demolition of its dams began. It seems that dam removal has been in the news ever since. Today, we welcome the author of Finding the River to our blog. He shares the roots of his book and his personal history with the Elwha.

Learning the Elwha by Jeff Crane

My interest in the Elwha River began with landscape: the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula, the iconic power of the Elwha River. When I first began hiking and exploring the peninsula as a young man, I was reading Barry Lopez, Edward Abbey, Murray Morgan, and others. These writers helped me see nature with new eyes and also begin to think about the relationship between society and nature and the importance of integrating environment into history.

The Elwha caught my eye with its beauty and seeming wildness. The dams triggered my imagination. Exploring the lower and upper river on my first trip in 1990, I was startled by the small size of the Elwha Dam. Having grown up on a steady diet of road trips to eastern Washington with tours of Grand Coulee Dam and other monolithic, even symbolic dams of the Columbia and Snake, I was surprised by the relative puniness of this dam that did so much damage to the Elwha’s salmon runs. Upstream, making my way to the Whiskey Bend trailhead, I pulled out to observe Glines Canyon Dam, one that in its beauty and construction invoked the other, classic dams of the West. Thus informed of the reality of the river, much of my first hike was occupied with thoughts of what this river might have once looked like. The robust forests cloaking the slopes of mountains; the healthy, beautiful tributary streams; and the Elwha River itself struck me as missing something essential.

Beginning my studies at The Evergreen State College in 1991, I learned more about the Native peoples of the Olympic Peninsula, the uses of the land in the region, and the efforts to remove the Elwha dams. Of course, I was a long way from even thinking about a book when I was an undergrad stomping up the Elwha River trail numerous times, camping in rain, fog, and even sunshine. One memorable trip was conducted in snowshoes on a bright January day after a surprise snowfall. The tracks of coyotes, the elk in the river bottom below Humes Ranch with the plumes of condensed breath trailing their slow walk over gravel bars, and the Elwha itself, seduced me into a deep love of this river. Bruce Brown’s Mountain in the Clouds not only increased my understanding and passion for the peninsula landscape but also made me aware of the story of the Elwha’s damming. When I started my graduate studies at Washington State University and told my advisor Paul Hirt about the damming of the river and the federal legislation of 1992 calling for restoration of the salmon, he encouraged me to write my thesis on the Elwha. Thus began a research and writing project both more difficult and interesting that I would have ever imagined.

Jeff Crane is associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University. He coedited Natural Protest: Essays on the History of American Environmentalism and his essays are published in Oregon Historical Quarterly and Columbia. He grew up exploring the Olympic Peninsula and hiking along the Elwha.

Upcoming events

Friday, June 8, 7 p.m. Orca Books, Olympia, WA.

Saturday, June 9, 1 pm. Ravens Books, 317 NW Gilman Blvd, Suite 21, Issaquah, WA

Monday, June 11, 7 pm. Carver Room, Port Angeles Library, 2210 South Peabody St, Port Angeles, WA. Presented by Port Books & News.

Wednesday, June 13, 7 pm. Grass Roots Books & Music, 227 SW 2nd St, Corvallis OR.

Download an excerpt from the Finding the River.

Follow the dam removals at the National Park Service's Elwha River Restoration site.

One Wild Delicate Second
April 30th, 2012

WDS cover Introducing Wild Delicate Seconds, a collection of 29 chance encounters with the everyday—and not so everyday—animals, birds, and insects of North America by High Desert Journal editor Charles Finn.

Gretel Erlich calls Wild Delicate Seconds "an exquisite read, full of small surprises with big heartbeats."

We hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book.

Flying Squirrels

It was as great an act of faith as I will ever see. It was late summer, late afternoon, the sun already down and I sat on my front steps eating dinner. Looking up, I was just in time to see a family of four flying squirrels parachute across my yard, teetering against a backdrop of Beaujolais air.

The squirrels fell on a steep angle from cedar to fir. They looked timid, shaky, steering with constant corrections as you do an old pickup with play in the wheel.

Tunk …

Tunk, tunk …

Tunk.

They started from high up, falling as if to impale themselves on the branches below. No sooner did one land than another took off, spread-eagle, casting itself into the air. It was like watching a game of chance, or chase, each squirrel following the exact line picked out by the leader. At the end of each flight they would drop their back legs and sweep up, slapping belly first into the trunk of the tree.

Tunk.

Did they hold their breath as they sailed? Shout a squirrel version of “Geronimo!” and let go? I don’t know, but square as kites they flew—stuntmen, stuntwomen—acrobats in a jungle gym world. When they landed they’d scamper straight up the tree, just a tiny clatter of claws and then some bark raining down. Then from the shadows they’d toss themselves into the air, trusting to those few tablespoons of wind cupped in their arms. I sat on my front porch transfixed, a forkful of pasta suspended halfway to my mouth, the glass of wine at my side untouched. No one ever tells us exactly how hard life is going to be—or how rewarding. The squirrels flew away, disappearing deeper and deeper into the forest.

I was ready to let everything go.

—excerpted from Wild Delicate Seconds

Charles with hawkYou can read Charles' recent thoughts on the writing life at the Northwest Book Lovers blog. Follow his own blog for new writings and adventures, and visit his website for more information.

Charles will launch the book throughout May with readings in Montana and Oregon. Visit our calendar for complete details.

 

May 2, 7 pm, Chapter One Bookstore, Hamilton, MT

May 3, 7:30 pm, Country Bookshelf, Bozeman, MT

May 4, The Writers' Voice, Billings, MT

May 5, Elk River Books, Livingston, MT

May 8, Fact and Fiction, Missoula, MT

May 11, 7 pm, Nature of Words, Bend, OR

May 12, 2 pm, High Desert Museum, Bend, OR

May 13, 4 pm, Dudley's Bookshop Cafe, Bend, OR

May 14, 7:30 pm, Powell's @ Hawthorne, Portland. With Kim Stafford and Paulann Peterson

America's Wild Read Goes Wild in the City
April 19th, 2012

Wild in the City coverFor the next four weeks, America's Wild Read is hosting a conversation inspired by Wild in the City: Exploring the Intertwine, The Portland-Vancouver Region's Network of Parks, Trails, and Natural Areas, copublished by OSU Press and The Audubon Society of Portland.

Wild in the City is the sixth book featured in the online discussion group, a project of the National Conservation Training Center. (Another OSU Press author was highlighted last October, when Robert Michael Pyle was a moderator.)

MJ CodyMJ Cody leads the discussion during week one, sharing the creative team's desire to produce a city guide that was "more than a handbook to parks, trails, and natural spaces—a more literary tome full of personal stories and insights" that would inspire readers about "the riches surrounding us and the importance of not only being aware, but experiencing the joys of preserving, restoring, and celebrating nature in this singular place we call home."

Mike HouckDuring week two, Mike Houck will discuss the Intertwine. Bob Sallinger will focus on Living with Urban Wildlife during week three. To wrap things up during week four, Mike Houck and Bob Sallinger moderate a discussion of green Bob Sallingerinfrastructure, ecosystem services, and the next frontier in integrating natural and built environments.

American's Wild Read invites you to share your "wild in the city" stories. Visit the Wild Reads blog to participate in the lively conversation, ongoing through May 6.

For more news, follow Wild Reads and Wild in the City on Facebook.

Remembering Brian Booth
April 5th, 2012

BrianThe OSU Press mourns the loss of attorney, author, and cultural activist Brian Booth, who died of cancer at his home in Portland on March 7.

Brian was an advocate for Oregon writers and a scholar of the state’s literary heritage. He founded the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts (now Literary Arts) in 1986, served as its President and Chair, and created the Oregon Book Awards and the Oregon Literary Fellowships. These programs recognize and financially encourage hundreds of Oregon writers and publishers. Novelist Don Berry called OILA “the only literary organization I know actually founded by a reader.” Among its founding board members were Raymond Carver, Ursula Le Guin, and William Stafford.

Brian later co-founded the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, which celebrates Oregon’s diverse literary and cultural legacy through public events, memorials, and publications.

In 1992, Brian edited Wildmen, Wobblies, and Whistle Punks: Stewart Holbrook’s Lowbrow Northwest, now in its eighth printing. Chosen by Portland Magazine as “One of the 20 Greatest Oregon Books Ever” and by The Oregonian as one of the top ten Northwest history books, Wildmen helped revive interest in Holbrook and his “lowbrow or non-stuffed shirt” view of history. The book also sparked renewed interest in Holbrook’s fictive alter ego, the satirical painter Mr. Otis, founder of the Primitive-Moderne School of Art.

In 1996, Brian received the Stewart H. Holbrook Award from Literary Arts for outstanding contributions to Oregon’s literary life. In presenting the award, historian Terence O’Donnell said, “Booth has probably done more for Oregon writers than anyone in the state’s history. He is Oregon’s preeminent Man of the Book.”

Brian’s publication of Davis Country: H.L. Davis’s Northwest with co-editor Glen Love in 2009 revived another quintessential Oregon author.

Brian had a favorite quote, rendered in calligraphy by Oregon painter Charles Heaney, hanging next to the door of his basement home office. It reads, “Happiness is not the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.”

Brian at WordstockA Celebration of Life Memorial Service is scheduled for Thursday, April 12, 2012, at 4 p.m. at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1126 SW Park Avenue, Portland. A reception at the Portland Art Museum will follow.

Read Brian Booth's obituary.

Read Steve Duin's tribute to Brian in the Oregonian.

Read about Brian's work with the Himes & Duniway Society.

The Lessons of First Love
March 22nd, 2012

by Ana Maria SpagnaAMS

The first book about the Northwest that I truly loved was Kim Stafford’s Having Everything Right. I was wooed by the poetic language, the tender human relationships, the sweeping landscapes, and the raw grain of “Pine, Fir, Cedar, and Yew.” But most of all I was seduced by the title and Stafford’s explanation of its Kwakiutl language origin:

“Having everything right” is a portable name, an expandable place. It could be what we call Earth. But it will not, unless we sift from our habits the nourishing ways: listening, remembering, telling, weaving a rooted companionship with what I call home.

I knew that whatever I chose to write—however I chose to live—I wanted to imbue it with that intention and that urgency.

At first I believed—in the way only twenty year-olds can believe—that it would be a linear sort of journey. You search for this place, this way of being, and you find it. Voila! I didn’t understand how much work it would be. I could not have understood even if I’d been told. Over time I learned to do the necessary work—to dig in the dirt, to revise the same sentence, to organize meetings and sit through them—the kind of work you sometimes hate and you do anyway, over and over, until for a moment everything is right. Then it isn’t.

For years, then, I thought only about the work, but lately I’ve been thinking, too, about the difference it can make. So many good stories! Sometimes it’s a single person. Like Guy Evans who came home to his family’s orchard in Chelan, Washington to help out, and along the way, started a winery and a CSA and made an award-winning film about sustainable agriculture. Like Lance Romine who removes invasive juniper near Prineville, Oregon and fashions the knotty logs into beautiful homes. More often it’s a group of people come together with a common purpose. One of these is in OSU’s own Spring Creek Project.

In each case, in every case, the earnest good intentions, and the astonishing results, humble and inspire me.

As do writers. Since my early heady crush on Kim Stafford, I’ve fallen in love with more Northwest writers than I can name, writers whose themes may be different, but whose work brims with the same sense of longing and urgency and faith: Molly Gloss, Robert Michael Pyle, Brian Doyle, Kathleen Alcala, John Daniel, David Oates, Maya Jewell Zeller, Kathleen Dean Moore, David Wagoner, Melissa Hart.

Sometimes I think about that slim palm-worn volume of essays on my shelf, a hard-back that flops opens to each of my favorite passages the way an old shoe fits your foot. Maybe the title should have been Making Everything Right. If it was, I wouldn’t have loved it the way I did or learned from it what I did. It wouldn’t have honored what we yearn for, what we believe in, what we work for, and what we sometimes, miraculously, achieve.

—Ana Maria Spagna

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Now Go Home

PotluckAna Maria Spagna is the author of Potluck and Now Go Home (both from OSU Press), as well as Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus. Visit her blog to read more of her elegant and insightful writings.

On Friday, April 13, join Ana Maria Spagna for a reading at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. The event is cosponsored by OSU Press, the Friends of the Library, Grass Roots Books & Music, and the Literary Northwest Series.

 

Women in the West
March 14th, 2012

We can’t let March and Women's History Month pass without highlighting some remarkable books that unveil and celebrate women’s experiences in the West.

to the WoodsIn her 2011 WILLA Award winning memoir, To the Woods, Evelyn Searle Hess describes the challenges and lessons of building a new life in the wild foothills of Oregon’s coast range. An elegant tour of the natural history of place through the seasons, To the Woods is also an exploration of sustainable living and the joys of simplicity.

Peace at HeartPeace at Heart, an Oregon Book Award finalist, also celebrates the everyday gifts of rural life in Oregon. In it, poet and teacher Barbara Drake reflects on ten years spent birthing lambs, raising geese, and making wine on a farm in Yamhill Valley.

PotluckAna Maria Spagna delves into the nature of community in her newest collection of essays, Potluck.  Her earlier collection, Now Go Home, takes the reader on her journey from her childhood home in California to a new chosen home in the Pacific Northwest's North Cascades.

Light on DevilsLouise Wagenknecht describes life in a remote logging town as a teenager in the 1960s in her new memoir, Light on the Devils. She shares her unique perspective as a longtime Forest Service employee and “takes an unflinching view backward at the complicity of well-meaning government in the excesses of industrial forestry,” notes author Robin Cody.

Child of Steens coverIn another childhood memoir, Child of Steens Mountain, Eileen O'Keeffe McVicker paints, with her collaborator Barbara J. Scot, a vivid portrait of her girlhood in eastern Oregon.

The stories of three prominent Northwest women—Betty Roberts, Avel Louise Gordly, and Barbara Roberts—are preserved thanks to the Women and Politics in the Northwest series, edited by Portland State University's Melody Rose.  

Remembering   With Grit   Up the Capitol

We invite you to explore our website and discover more Northwest women's voices and stories, from Abigail Scott Duniway to Hazel Hall, from Eva Emery Dye to Beatrice Morrow Cannady.

You'll find additional materials about Oregon women online at the Oregon Historical Society. Check out the display and Flickr set at the Oregon Multicultural Archives, which features Erlinda V. Gonzalez-Berry and Deanna Kingston, along with other amazing women from OSU.

Reflecting on Oregon's History
February 22nd, 2012

Force for Change coverRemembering cover"It is a gift to look back and unpack everything in between then and now and reflect aloud. How many of us get to do that before we become dust?" —Avel Louise Gordly

The theme of this year’s African American History Month, “Honoring Black Women in American Culture and History,” is an irresistible opportunity to highlight two books that tell the story of significant women in Oregon's history.

Remembering the Power of Words recounts the personal and professional journey of Avel Louise Gordly, the first African-American woman elected to the Oregon Senate. (Note: On February 27, Gordly will be among the honorees at the First Annual Black History Makers event at Portland Prime Restaurant.)

Kimberley Mangun's A Force for Change, winner of a WILLA Award, explores the life and work of African American journalist Beatrice Morrow Cannady, one of Oregon's most dynamic civil rights activists. The Oregon Historical Society's African American History Month page includes a link to a photograph of Beatrice Morrow Cannady. The Oregon Encyclopedia also has an informative page on Cannady—and both sites have many more resources to explore.

Here at Oregon State University, the Oregon Multicultural Archives has created a month-long physical exhibit featuring the Urban League of Portland, an organization with which Avel Louise Gordly has long been involved. If you can’t visit the Valley Library to see it in person, the Digital Collection in Flickr includes a wonderful collection of photographs. (Their display last year focused on the BSU 1969 Walkout. The archives also holds oral histories collected from OSU basketball players Charlie White and Norm Monroe.)

Other books of interest from OSU Press:

Jumptown cover waging war cover

Celebrating with Heart: Oregon Turns 153
February 9th, 2012

On February 14, the state of Oregon marks 153 years. This coming week some of our Portland-area colleagues and collaborators are offering fabulous opportunities to toast Oregon's rich history.

On Monday, Feb. 13, 7 pm, noted historian Richard Etulain—who contributed the foreword to Eileen O'Keeffe McVicker's Child of Steens Mountain—presents on "Abraham Lincoln and the American West During the Civil War Era" as part of the Oregon Encyclopedia's History Nights series. His talk happens at McMenamin's Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan, Portland.

Brian photoCome one, come all to a combined celebration of Oregon's birthday and a release party for The Bear Deluxe Magazine #33 on Tuesday, February 14th—the party begins at 6 pm. "An Oregon Valentine" features author Brian Doyle and others. Festivities include Valentine card-making, author readings, birthday cake, and open mic valentines and prizes. You are invited to bring along your valentine or make one up at the event. Prepare for a full evening of fun: 6-7 pm reception and Valentine card making; 7-8:15 author readings; 8:15 birthday cake; 8:30-915 open mic valentines (152-word limit); 9:15-9:30 reception and prizes. The party happens at Zoomtopia and the Mouth Studio, 810 SE Belmont, Portland. It's sponsored by Orlo, the Oregon Cultural Trust Heritage Commission, OSU Press, and the NW Film Center—and it's free!

Jim ScheppkeAfter exemplary service, Oregon State Librarian Jim Scheppke—whom OSU Press is proud to welcome to our Editorial Advisory Board—stepped down at the end of 2011. All are invited to a celebration of his many contributions to our libraries and literary life at a free event in Central Library's U.S. Bank Room, 801 SW 10th Ave, Portland, on Wednesday, February 15. The reception starts at 6:15 pm; the program—which features Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann Peterson, Oregon Library Association President Abigail Elder, Multnomah County Director of Libraries Vailey Oehlke, poet David Hedges, and Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission President David Milholland, along with surprise guests—begins at 7 p.m.

Moonstruck eventThe Oregon Historical Society is offering free admission on Tuesday, February 14 to celebrate Oregon Statehood Day. Drop by at noon to meet former Governors Victor Atiyeh and Barbara Roberts and to enjoy a piece of 153rd birthday cake. Check out all of OHS's rich offerings celebrating Oregon history. Then on Sunday, February 19, Barbara Roberts returns for a 2 pm conversation with OHS's Kerry Tymchuk, who will interview the former Governor about her amazing life and career.

Later that same day, Sunday, Feb. 19, at 6:30 pm, Barbara Roberts is the featured guest at Moonstruck Chocolate Café in Lake Oswego. (45 S State St, Ste 130F, Lake Oswego)

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On a final note, if all of these birthday parties whet your appetite to know more, OSU Press has a book coming this spring just for you. Tom Marsh's history of Oregon government and politics, To the Promised Land, will be available in May.

To the Promised Land cover

Deanna Paniataaq Kingston, Scholar and Advocate
February 1st, 2012

image of Deanna

All are invited to a celebration of Deanna Kingston’s life
Monday, February 6, 1 to 3 p.m.
MU Ballroom, Oregon State University

After several years struggling with cancer, the author of a forthcoming OSU Press book passed away in December. Dr. Kingston, who was an associate professor of anthropology at Oregon State University, was in the process of finalizing the manuscript for her book “Niglarugut Ugiuvangmiuguruagut: We King Islanders are Wolf Dancing," part of the First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies initiative. Read their blog post about Deanna.

Oregon State University’s tribute to Deanna highlights her many personal and professional accomplishments. She received the 2010 Phylllis S. Lee Award from OSU for her dedication to social justice; at the time of her death she was principal investigator on two National Science Foundation grants. (Read NSF's tribute.)

OSU Press plans to move forward with the book project in partnership with the OSU Anthropology Department. As acquisitions editor Mary Elizabeth Braun shares, “Deanna was a gifted and innovative scholar who spent much of her career working for her community, including creating a website for the King Island Placenames Project and many long-term efforts in documenting traditional ecological knowledge.”

(Photo courtesy of Life @ OSU.)

Oregon Book Award and Other Goings On
January 11th, 2012

Mink coverSonny coverCongratulations to Brian Doyle and Glenn Anthony May, Oregon Book Award Finalists! Mink River is up for the The Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and Sonny Montes and Mexican American Activism in Oregon for The Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction. Timothy Egan hosts the awards ceremony on April 23rd in Portland. Click here for ticket information and to peruse the complete and impressive list of finalists. Don't forget to cast your ballot for the Readers’ Choice Award.

We've already bragged about our amazing cover designer, David Drummond, and OSU Archives has even created a flickr set of OSU Press covers designed by Drummond. The AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show—which is traveling the country and is on display in the Valley Library at Oregon State University through Jan. 18th—features examples of excellent book design from the scholarly publishing world. OSU Press’s The Lumberman’s Frontier is among the award-winners for cover design. Up the Capitol Steps cover

Portlanders: you have another chance to hear former Governor
Barbara Roberts talk about her new book, Up the Capitol Steps,  this Friday, Jan. 13th, 7:30 p.m. at Powell's on Burnside.

Wading coverAnd Corvallis friends: have you ever wondered what it's like to study stream insects? OSU professor and editor Judith L. Li and contributors Norm Anderson, David Lytle, Deb Finn, and Mark Miller will share their stories during a reading and celebration of the publication of Wading For Bugs: Exploring Streams with the Experts on Wednesday, January 18th, at 7 p.m. at Grass Roots Books & Music, 227 SW 2nd, Corvallis.

Member of AAUP