On Tuesday, July 12, award winning playwright Charlotte Samples will read from her first novel, a work-in-progress titled Peaceable.  Set in a small town located in the boot heel of Missouri, the story spans a period from 1888 to 1988, featuring two sisters at odds with each other over practically everything including the upcoming funeral of their father, the Little Commodore.

Charlotte’s play Darlin’ received the Sprenger-Lang Foundation New Play Competition award, and the William P. and Arlene R. Lewis Playwriting Competition award, and was a finalist in the prestigious O’Neill Theatre Center National Playwrights Conference New Play Competition.  Her play The Signature (Still Life With Lilacs) was the recipient of the League of American Pen Women Award for playwriting.

 

Douglas  Maynard will read from his novel, Three Summers, a story of two friends recounted in their experiences over three summers from as many decades. Dennis’ life is chaotic: he doesn’t graduate from high school, is drafted into the Vietnam War, and starts using drugs and alcohol heavily. Yet Nathan idolizes him. Their friendship grows through their camping trips, hitchhiking together to San Francisco, and through their discussions on history, politics and life.

Doug is an assistant principal in the Kalama School District. This is his first novel.

 

Alkaid Tsuki will read from her work-in-progress, Freedom’s New Moon, the first book in her projected Liberation Trilogy, a fantasy series about friendship and brotherhood in dark times. In the first book a ghostly apparition guides fourteen year-old Scavenger Lyron to the only survivors from the destruction of Eraside, which marks the beginning of his adventures and discoveries.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. 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.

 

 

 

Note: WordFest takes a summer break in August and will resume in September.

 

 

Last September, Portland writer Steve Anderson, read at WordFest from his thriller, The Other Oregon, what he called “Cascadia noir.” Steve is also the author of the novels, Liberated: A Novel of Germany, 1945, and Under False Flags, as well as narrative nonfiction, short stories and screenplays.

On Tuesday, June 14, he will be reading from his newest novel, Lost Kin, the third in a trilogy about two German-born brothers, Harry and Max Kaspar, who were raised in the United States. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Max returns to Germany. In this volume it is 1946, and the brothers are reunited, Harry as part of the American occupation forces, and Max who bears a questionable past and seeks Harry’s help in saving Cossack refugees from being deported and killed in the Soviet Union.

A Fulbright Fellow who studied in Munich, Steve is also a literary translator of crime and mystery fiction by German novelists Alexander Hartung, Marcus Huennebeck, and others.

He was recently interviewed on KLTV’s “Book Chat” program, which can be viewed at www.alan-rose.com.

 

 

 

Susan Rose will be reading from her Young Adult fantasy, Shattered Crust, published in January, which she describes as “a love story, mystery, fantasy and suspense,” set in Yellowstone National Park. She is currently working on a sequel, Beneath the Crust: Yellowstone’s Secret Jewel.

Susan lives in the Pacific Northwest and has had her short stories published in the Not Your Mother’s Book anthology series.

 

WordFest regular Ed Putka will be reading another of his popular Cleveland stories, set in the Polish neighborhood of his youth. This story involves a picnic at Munroe Falls with the extended family. What could go wrong?

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday, May 10, Liz Prato will be speaking at WordFest in her different roles as short story writer, essayist and editor whose work has been published in numerous literary journals, and as an influential figure in the Portland literary community. She will be reading from her short story collection, Baby’s on Fire, and talk about her interest in short form fiction.

Liz also reviews manuscript submissions for Forest Avenue Press in Portland. She will discuss what she looks for in submissions and take questions from the audience about submitting one’s work for publication. Liz was featured in a recent Book Chat interview, currently airing on KLTV. You can also see the interview here: http://alan-rose.com/bookchat/april-2016-a-chat-with-short-story-writer-and-editor-liz-prato/

 

Retired Lower Columbia College instructor Yvette O’Neill Raynham will read from Forty Years on the Road: My Life as a Safari Driver in Kenya, by Peter Mbulo. Yvette and her husband Michael Raynham met Mbulo in Nairobi in 2012, visiting cultural sites and going on safari with him, and then again in 2014.

 

“Peter has been a safari driver for forty years and is a great story teller,” says Yvette.  “We encouraged him to write his memoirs which, in addition to accounts of adventures in the bush, reflect the history of Kenya from the last days of British rule and the struggle for Independence up to the present.” Mbulo also writes of the effects of climate change and development on Kenya’s animal populations, the problems and benefits of globalization, and the efforts to maintain the cultural heritage of the country.

 

 

 

Susan Taylor will read from a novel she is writing entitled Heads Do Roll, a “light-hearted murder mystery” based on her experience as a federal whistle-blower. Susan worked with Erin Brockovich when organizing protests in six southern California cities where Susan exposed “flood control” projects as payback for congressional donations and related contamination of local wells.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. 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.

 

 

 

 On Tuesday, April 12,  Robert Hill will be reading from his new novel, The Remnants, published by Forest Avenue Press. The town of New Eden has arrived at its last days. As two near-centenarians prepare for their annual birthday tea, a third vows to interrupt the party with a bold declaration. With wit and inventive wordplay, Robert delivers a bittersweet elegy to the collective memory of a dying community.

 

Robert is a recipient of a Literary Arts Walt Morey Fellowship and a Breadloaf Writers Conference Fellowship. His debut novel, All Is Said and Done (Graywolf Press,) was short-listed for the Oregon Book Award’s Ken Kesey Award for Fiction.

 

 

 

 

David Rorden will read from the manuscript of his legal novel, A Method to Her Madness, which tells the story of a young public defender who finds himself thrust into a high-profile jury trial defending a mental patient found sitting in the middle of the freeway. The attorney soon learns that his client staged the event in order to put the state’s system of forced mental treatment on trial. But she has another, and darker agenda.

 

 

Steve Anderson, WordFest regular and author of the novel, Book of Hours: The Beguilement of Brother Alphaios, will be reading from his memoir.

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

 

 

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. 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.

 

 

 

Charolette Conklin will be hosting the next WordFest gathering on Tuesday, March 9, at 6:00 pm. A regular participant for many years, Charolette has read her often humorous poetry and short stories that have been published in The Salal Review, The Rambunctious Review, and the WordFest anthology, That Holiday Feeling. 

 

 

 

Local writer and poet Mary Lyons returns to Wordfest with essays, poetry and an excerpt from a short story, all part of a wide-ranging collection she’s writing entitled Body Parts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Kubin will be reading an excerpt from his novel, Foolish Fire, a coming of age story about a teenage girl overcoming hardships and family tragedies while growing up in the 1970s on a farm in the fictional town of Riverview, Oregon.

Patrick is a writer and lawyer living in Longview. His short stories and photos have been published in the Salal Review, The Daily News, The Columbia River Reader, and Portland Magazine. He has written three previous novels.

 

Cam Parvitee will be reading from the second book in her Black Dragons series, about the trials and challenges of a group of senior citizens and the twelve neighborhood children they befriend.

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meet the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. 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.