(You can purchase most of the books below through the Writing the Northwest portal at Bookshop.org.)
One of my goals for this site is to introduce readers to writing set in the Northwest that hasn’t reached a large audience, especially works by writers other than white men. To that end, I’m working on future reviews of exciting new literature as well as posts by myself and others about past writings that should be better known. But I don’t want to ignore iconic Northwest books.
So, to get a lot of great books onto the site quickly, here’s a link to a post the folks at Powell’s Books put together back in 2014 titled, “40 Books Set in the Pacific Northwest.” The list is a bit male-, white-, and Oregon-centric, but, to be fair, it was produced eight years ago and the intention seems to have been to alert people to some of the biggies. Maybe the Powell’s staff will produce a follow-up with more-current works soon!
Their 40 selections are:
FICTION
Mink River
by Brian Doyle
The Lathe of Heaven
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Night Dogs
by Kent Anderson
Heartsick
by Chelsea Cain
Trout Fishing in America
by Richard Brautigan
East of the Mountains
by David Guterson
Hard Rain Falling
by Don Carpenter
My Abandonment
by Peter Rock
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
by Sherman Alexie
Last Go Round: A Real Western
by Ken Kesey
Black Hole
by Charles Burns
Sometimes a Great Notion
by Ken Kesey
Glaciers
by Alexis M. Smith
The River Why
by David James Duncan
Boneshaker
by Cherie Priest
Permeable Borders
by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Geek Love
by Katherine Dunn
No One Belongs Here More Than You
by Miranda July
Ricochet River
by Robin Cody
The Motel Life
by Willy Vlautin
Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?
by G. M. Ford
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
by Ken Kesey
Dies the Fire
by S. M. Stirling
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
Witchling
by Yasmine Galenorn
Ten
by Gretchen McNeil
Trask
by Don Berry
NONFICTION
This Boy’s Life: A Memoir
by Tobias Wolff
Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story
by Brent Walth
Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon
by Chuck Palahniuk
Hidden History of Portland, Oregon
by J. D. Chandler
Sky Time in Gray’s River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place
by Robert Michael Pyle
Wildmen, Wobblies and Whistle Punks: Stewart Holbrook’s Lowbrow Northwest
by Stewart Holbrook
All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families
by Rene Denfeld
Of Walking in Rain
by Matt Love