Retired judge and WordFest favorite Ed Putka will be reading the latest addition from his Cleveland stories, humorous tales about growing up in his Polish neighborhood in Ohio. In “The Redemption of Sister Mary Motts,” Ed offers his take on how nun’s get their nun names.

Craig decided he wanted to be a novelist at age fourteen. He achieved that goal fifty years later, in 2022, by publishing Where You Will Die. He is now working on the third in the series, Reason Not the Need. 

Elisa Carlsen grew up in Humboldt County, Nevada. A queer, outsider poet and artist, her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Trumpeter, Cirque, Argentum, Brushfire, Nevada Arts Council, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. Elisa is a Poetry Editor at New American Press and the author of Cormorant (Unsolicited Press 2023). Her poems have won awards from the Writer’s Guild of Astoria and the Oregon Poetry Association and she has been nominated for Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize. 

Eric Fair-Layman, aka Papasquatch, (presumably the one on the left) is a Portland poet and spoken-word artist.  The styles of his poems vary from humorous and edgy to mournful laments, often with biting social commentary in the subtext.  By day, he is a bookkeeper and licensed massage therapist, and has two teenagers that he raises, full time.  By night, he puts his significant science and math education to work by writing poems. You can find him on Instagram at Papa_Squatch2229.

WordFest regular and true-crime fan Sharon Cope-Jeffries will read from personal letters exchanged between Sam Wilson and Ted Bundy, offering a look into the mind of the high-profile serial killer. These letters were written between March 4-October 5, 1987. Now deceased, Sam was the younger brother of Penny Lightfoot, writer, WordFest member, and close friend of Sharon’s. Sharon will also read from Sam’s correspondence with true crime writer Ann Rule. 

Tom Larsen will be reading an excerpt from Getting Legal, Book Two in The Wilson Salinas Ecuador Mysteries. In this book, Wilson is hired by the Attorney Arturo Moreno to negotiate the release of the attorney’s grandson who has been kidnapped. Wilson enters the unfamiliar world of wealth, lies, adultery, extortion and murder, where nothing is as it seems.

Cheryl Landes’ latest book, The Best I Can Do, is about her experiences as a caregiver for her late husband, who had an undiagnosed mental illness that resulted in their marriage falling apart and forcing them into homelessness. The memoir, taking place in Seattle, New York City, and New England, received the Gold Book Award for Nonfiction from Literary Titan and the Silver Book Award for Nonfiction from the Nonfiction Authors Association.

Last year at WordFest, Kelso native Brianna Craft read from her first book, Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir. Brianna, a researcher for the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, works to further equity in the United Nations’ climate negotiations for the worldʼs poorest countries–which we know have done the least to cause the climate crisis but are the most vulnerable to its impacts. 

Robert Michael Pyle will read from his newest poetry collection, The Last Man in Willapa. Within these 75 poems, readers can find people, creatures, places, and stochastic happenings both large and small, that are lyrical, story-based, and beautifully descriptive. Bob writes from the details of the real, physical world, where nothing is beneath notice. 

Shawn Deal has had a long career in teaching,  acting, directing, and producing plays. He is the author of 24 plays and professional monologues that have been produced throughout the United States and Canada and  have won 16 awards in competitions.

Last year at WordFest, Kelso native Brianna Craft read from Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir. A researcher for the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, Brianna works to further equity in the United Nations’ climate negotiations for the worldʼs poorest countries, which have done the least to cause the climate crisis but are the most vulnerable to its impacts. At the July WordFest, Brianna will read from her first novel, We Don’t Have Time For This, where Lemonade Mouth meets climate change activism in an enemies-to-lovers young adult (YA) romance.

Shamus Award Finalist Tom Larsen will be reading an excerpt from Getting Legal, part of his Wilson Salinas Mystery of Ecuador series. Having had some success as a private investigator, Wilson decides it’s time to “get legal”—get his P.I. license—even though, as his attorney tells him “in Ecuador, there is really no such thing as an Investigador Privado. The concept doesn’t exist.”  Still, the attorney hires Wilson to investigate the disappearance of his spoiled grandson, heir apparent to his lucrative legal practice, which throws Wilson into an unfamiliar world of wealth, lies, adultery, extortion and murder. His newly-won sobriety is in danger, and ultimately, so is his life.

Marc Imlay will be reading from Reflections on Heron’s Haven Pond, his forthcoming second book of poetry and sequel to Pilgrimages to a Bullfrog Buddha (2020.)  In both books, the saviors, saints, and sages of all religions, times, and places reside in an unspoiled natural park as various indigenous creatures interact with the narrator and one another. Marc is a retired chiropractor and acupuncturist.  Meditation has been a major interest which he has practiced daily for 52 years and taught for 50 years. Marc and his wife moved to Longview 10 years ago and are avid dancers and musicians.

Lenore Weiss will read from her environmental novel, Pulp into Paper. In the close-knit community of Hentsbury, Arkansas, racism and the local paper mill’s oppressive control over the town collide in this tale set in the 1990s. Rae-Ann, owner of a convenience store and unofficial mayor of the town, and Vernon, the plant’s Environmental Officer, find their budding romance hitting an unexpected roadblock when chemicals from the mill’s runoff claim the life of Rincon, a young black boy battling acute asthma. In a harrowing failed rescue attempt, Vernon relives the trauma of holding the dying boy in his arms.

Ellen Jacobson will read from Poisoned by the Pier, the third book in her Mollie McGhie cozy mystery series featuring quirky characters, an adorable cat, and way too many dead bodies. In this book, Mollie is thrust into another murder investigation when someone is poisoned during a cake baking competition. While she tries to identify the killer, Coconut Cove’s annual boating festival is in full swing. In between getting ready for her first sailing race and cheating on her diet, Mollie uncovers clues, interviews suspects, and does her best to avoid rutabagas.

Writer Linda Eddleston and film producer/ musician Ron Walker will share their experiences from a recent adventure on the Princess Discovery Riviera Mexican Cruise Ship. Linda will offer ideas and examples of how to record and document vacation trips by creating travel journals, and Ron will show a short film of their cruise experience.