October WordFest offers new works by local authors

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Three Northwest writers will read from their work at the next WordFest event on Tuesday, October 10, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

Poet Debra Elisa Wöhrmann will read from her debut collection, You Can Call It Beautiful, published by MoonPath Press, 2023. This poetry collection is a mosaic of joy and grief, offering glimpses into the loss and trauma that can shape a family. Other poems in the collection celebrate travel that can open us to wonder, and inspire in us the grit required to change, to cultivate, and to nourish each other.

Debra grew up in the shadow of Mount Rainier, connecting with nature from a young age. Having taught at Lower Columbia College for ten years, she now leads creativity workshops and enjoys inspiring creative expression. She writes poetry, fiction, and blogs at Live(s) Inspiring Today, www.l-i-t.org, and lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and dog.

D.K. Greene will read from her book, Where Bodies Lie, a Pacific Northwest serial killer novel with a twist. Peter is approached by the FBI, asking him for help in solving a decades-old cold case. It will require him uncovering dark secrets from his family and reconnecting with his convicted serial killer father. Peter becomes torn between finding justice and following in his father’s murderous footsteps.

Denise is a prolific writer of twisty crime mysteries that blur the lines between hero and villain. Author of the Killers Club series and the Mommy Mysteries series, she lives in Longview with her wife and son.

Award-winning author and WordFest coordinator Alan Rose will preview his newest novel, The Untimely Death and Life of Damian Greer.  The Corvisiero Literary Agency in New York City is currently representing the work to publishers. In his new novel, Alan has re-imagined Oscar Wilde’s classic tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, for our age, creating a stinging social critique of  the cult of celebrity and the  manufacturing of fame.

Alan’s previous novel, As If Death Summoned (Amble Press, 2020) won the Foreword INDIES (small independent publishers) award for the LGBT category and was featured in the Oregon Historical Society’s 2021 exhibit, “Forty Years of HIV/AIDS in Oregon.”

An open mic will follow the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

The events are free and open to the public.

WordFest launches 2023 fall season

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WordFest resumes for its fall season on Tuesday, September 12, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

Cathlamet poet and writer Dayle Olson kicks off the season’s offerings, reading her recently published short story, “The Mourners,” as well as a number of her poems about life on the Lower Columbia River. Handmade pocket zines featuring her poetry and drawings will be available for purchase.

Dayle is active with The Writer’s Guild of Astoria and co-hosts a monthly radio program, River Writers, on KMUN 91.9 FM. She hosts a quarterly Writers Open Mic at RiverMile 38 brew pub in Cathlamet (next event on Tuesday, October 24, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM). Her work has appeared in The Salal Review, RAIN Magazine, Litmora Magazine, Haunted Words Press, The Dirigible Balloon, Timber Ghost Press and North Coast Squid. In 2022, she was invited to read her poetry at the Angry Ghosts Poetry Competition in Suffolk, England.

Linda Eddleston will be discussing the creative writing process for her novel, Just Call Me Frank,  a book is based on her father’s stories about his teenage years riding the boxcars during the Depression. The story captures his hard childhood and his wanderlust spirit. When writing the book, Linda felt she was on a train journey herself, reliving that time and the places her father experienced decades before. 

Linda is a retired elementary and special education teacher.  Her first book, My Three Friends, is also based on true stories, particularly the endearing friendships maintained over many years overcoming distance, difficulties, and differences.  

John Koehler will be reading from his novel, Dancing in the Red. The story follows Rosary Pinyon, who has a PhD in Economics as she searches for ways to help Native American reservations out of poverty.

John considers himself a serious hobby writer. A longtime member of the Science Fiction Novelists online critique group, he has provided proofreading for novels written by three-time New York Times best-selling author, Michael J. Sullivan. His short story, “Pony Express,” appeared as the cover story in Oct-Dec 2003 issue of the alternative history online magazine, Would That It Were.

An open mic will follow the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.

July WordFest explores our past

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WordFest will highlight aspects of our region’s history at the next event on Tuesday, July 11, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

Hal Calbom will be reading an excerpt from his new history of Longview, Empire of Trees, concerning the tense business negotiations and cat-and-mouse play between two Mr. Longs: Longview’s founder Robert A. Long and George S. Long, the wily river boat gambler who managed western operations for the Weyerhaeuser Company. Their negotiations would make or break Longview and Long-Bell Lumber Company.

A writer, educator, and filmmaker, Hal grew up in Longview, graduating from R.A. Long High School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard College and a master’s in English from the University of Exeter in Devonshire, England. His other books include Sustainable Solutions: The Business of Green, and Resourceful: Leadership and Communications in the Relationship Age. Winner of five regional Emmy Awards for television writing and production, he writes the monthly “People + Place” feature for Columbia River Reader.

Rebekah Anderson will read from The Grand Promise, a historical novel about the impacts to the communities on the Columbia River in the 1930s with the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. A town is uprooted by the New Deal public works project, resulting in personal and financial dilemmas for the Price family as well as other families in the community.

The massive project was destined to bring prosperity to the Pacific Northwest, but would also destroy the family’s home and their town, and radically alter the lives of the indigenous people who had sustained themselves on the Columbia River for generations.

Rebekah is a native Washingtonian whose family came to the Pacific Northwest with the Homesteading Act. She earned an MFA in Fiction from New York University, where she studied with the novelist E.L. Doctorow (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The March.) The novel is loosely based on her family’s history. 

Tom Larsen will be reading from his mystery novel, Stealing History, which tells the story of Wilson Salinas who returns to Ecuador after 15 years in the U.S. Broke, disillusioned, and an alcoholic, he ekes out a living running errands for an elderly attorney who befriended his late mother. As a boy, Wilson loved to read detective stories, and he decides to become a private detective.

He is soon embroiled in a case involving a mysterious stolen artifact. The trail leads him deep into the Amazon jungle, the home of the Shuar, an indigenous people who have never been conquered by the white man. Along the way, Wilson learns some hard truths about himself, the woman he is falling in love with, and his best friend from childhood. 

Tom is the author of four novels and numerous short stories in the crime genre and won the 2020 Black Orchid Novella Award. His short story, “Pobre Maria,” will appear in the 2023 edition of Best Mystery Stories of the Year from Mysterious Press.  

An open mic will follow the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.

June WordFest features Tiffany Dickinson’s new novel

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WordFest will feature three very different women writers telling three unique stories at the next event on Tuesday, June 13, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

Tiffany Dickinson will read from her second middle-grade novel, A Mink’s Tale. The farm is the only home Malinka has ever known, but when a stranger arrives, she realizes that her home is not the safe haven she thought it to be. Accepting the truth of what life on a fur farm means for her, she must make a choice to remain in her comfortable world at risk to herself and her young kits, or to run for freedom. And if they do run, will freedom be worth the costs?

In the tradition of Watership Down and the Warriors series, A Mink’s Tale takes readers on a journey of adventure, courage, and loyalty, making a great read for ages 9-12 and for all animal love.  People can connect with Tiffany at www.tiffanydickinson.com or on Facebook at Tiffany Dickinson Author. 

In a departure from cozy mystery writing, Jan Bono will discuss writing television movie scripts. After reading a stack of books on the subject, taking two professional 10-week screenwriting classes, navigating script formatting software, as well as  participating in numerous online seminars, workshops, and the Willamette Writers’ monthly “Happy Hour in the FilmLab” gatherings, Jan will share how she went from being totally clueless to completing two TV movie scripts in 11 months.

Amid her 30-year teaching career, Jan also wrote a bi-weekly humorous newspaper column that garnered 11 state awards in 10 years. A collection of the columns became her first published book. She has published 17 books, including a 6-book cozy mystery series set on the Long Beach Peninsula, and is among the top five contributors to the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, with 57 acceptances. She’ll be teaching a workshop on writing for Chicken Soup at this year’s SW Washington Writers’ Conference at Centralia College on September 9th. 

Sally Jones began penning poetry and stories when she was 11 years old and she has never lost the enthusiasm for writing. During her a 38-year career in 9-1-1 communications, and as a long time volunteer for domestic violence shelter programs, she wrote professional reports, grants, manuals, and media releases. During this time she also continued writing poems, a few of which were published in college and local literary publications.

At retirement she began a book of stories based on her experiences as a 9-1-1 worker, the relationships of coworkers in the dispatch center and in the field, and in her personal life.  Beginning with, “9-1-1, what is your emergency?” each chapter plunges the reader into the intimacy and urgency of a 9-1-1 caller’s crisis and the calm response at the other end of the line. The call taker’s life at home echoes the chaos of her work and her calm response, which she comes to recognize as a kind of addiction, as she takes the first step toward rescuing herself. At WordFest, Sally will read selections from her manuscript in progress.

An open mic will follow the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.

May WordFest features stories of women finding their inner strength

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WordFest will feature true stories of women discovering the fortitude to overcome enormous challenges at our next event on Tuesday, May 9, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

Women’s history author Marianne Monson will read from The Opera Sisters, a historical novel based on the true story of the Cook sisters who smuggled valuables out of 1930s Nazi Germany to finance a daring operation to help Jews escape to England. 

British sisters Ida and Louise Cook were enjoying quiet, unassuming lives in south London when Hitler came to power in 1933 and began persecuting German Jews. Jewish members of the opera community approached the sisters for help. The two sisters devised a plan to personally escort Jewish refugees out of Germany, smuggling jewelry and furs beneath the watchful eyes of SS soldiers, before the country’s borders were closed. The Opera Sisters is a riveting and inspiring novel of two unlikely heroines whose courage and compassion helped many to escape Nazi persecution.

Marianne received her MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of twelve books. Her 2016 novel, Frontier Grit, was nominated for an American Library Association Amelia Bloomer Award, and her 2018 Women of the Blue and Gray was awarded a silver medal in the military category by Foreword Reviews. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several community colleges and universities and is founder and President of The Writer’s Guild, a literary nonprofit based in Astoria, Oregon. Find more information  at: www.mariannemonson.com

Award winning author Ashley Bugge knows tragedy and triumph. Her debut memoir, Always Coming Back Home, detailing the 2018 tragic scuba diving accident that claimed her young husband’s life, has won multiple awards. Her new book, The Ocean is Calling, is the story of her life’s greatest love and loss: the death of her spouse followed by giving birth to her child alone. Bugge takes readers through a journey, from a bitter dark night with a bottle of sleeping pills in her hand to an expedition through eight countries with her three young children in tow.

The Ocean is Calling is a journey of heartache, exploration, discovery, travel, and family, with the trust that whatever happens in life, there can be hope and joy ahead. 

Ashley also co-authored with her three young children, A Hui Hou: Until We Meet Again, a book for young boys and girls processing grief after losing a loved one. She is a Master Scuba Diver and polar explorer who enjoys traveling with her all-female expedition team researching how climate change is affecting our world’s oceans. You can learn more about her here: www.ashleybugge.com and on Instagram: @ashley.bugge.

A WordFest favorite, retired judge Ed Putka will be reading a new story about growing up in his Polish neighborhood in Cleveland. This tale is about Mr. Wojcik who kept racing pigeons. When a new renter moves next door, he is taken by the pigeons and an adventure ensues. Ed is enjoying his retirement, serving on the Legal Aid Board and traveling within the country and abroad with his wife, Mary.

An open mic will follow the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.