Writing the Northwest
Archives
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How a Fashion Trend Led to an Eastern Oregon Bloodbath–and How It Was Stopped
Read more: How a Fashion Trend Led to an Eastern Oregon Bloodbath–and How It Was StoppedFew people other than outdoorsy Oregonians and avid birders had ever heard of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon before Ammon Bundy and his gang of armed militants occupied it for six weeks in the early days of 2016. Some feared at the time that the occupation would…
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Portland the Spinster
Read more: Portland the SpinsterA three-week road trip through parts of the Midwest and Canada (including Chatham, Ontario, where the subject of my next biography–J. D. Ross–grew up) has kept me from posting anything for a while. But I’m back in the Northwest now and I just came across a May 19, 1917, article…
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More Than a Dozen Books About the Pacific Northwest Are Finalists for Today’s Washington State Book Awards
Read more: More Than a Dozen Books About the Pacific Northwest Are Finalists for Today’s Washington State Book AwardsWhen the winners of the 2022 Washington State Book Awards are announced today, books set in or focused on the Pacific Northwest are sure to be among the winners. The awards–given out by the Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book,…
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“One of the Greatest Americans of Our Generation”–The Subject of My Next Biography: J. D. Ross
Read more: “One of the Greatest Americans of Our Generation”–The Subject of My Next Biography: J. D. Rossby Michael N. McGregor When James Delmage Ross died suddenly on March 14, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt mourned his passing by telling the country it had lost “one of the greatest Americans of our generation,” a man whose “successful career and especially his long service in behalf of the public…
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Guest Post: The Pacific Northwest’s First (and Forgotten) National Literary Star–Ella Rhoads Higginson
Read more: Guest Post: The Pacific Northwest’s First (and Forgotten) National Literary Star–Ella Rhoads Higginsonby Dr. Laura Laffrado [Dr. Laura Laffrado is a Professor of English at Western Washington University. Her full bio can be found at the end of her essay.] In the last decades of the 19th century, the Pacific Northwest, especially the far corner of northwestern Washington, was a remote place…
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Book Review: Exploring the Unknowable in Peter Rock’s PASSERSTHROUGH
Read more: Book Review: Exploring the Unknowable in Peter Rock’s PASSERSTHROUGHMost bankable fiction writers—those whose books become bestsellers and sometimes movies—rely on conventional storytelling and character development to affect their readers. But there are other, often-more-intriguing authors who rely more on mood or mystery or simply fine writing. They may not reach a wide audience, but they’re adept at subverting…
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Guest Post: Restoring Biodiversity in an Oregon Ravine
Read more: Guest Post: Restoring Biodiversity in an Oregon Ravineby Dr. Paul Otto [Dr. Paul Otto is a professor of History at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. His full bio can be found at the end of his essay.] My partner, Lynn, recently published a wistful poem, “In this Green Green So Blue,” inspired by a camping experience…
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Book Review: A “Coast Salish Punk” Tells Her Own Story
Read more: Book Review: A “Coast Salish Punk” Tells Her Own StoryThere are many reasons white narratives have long shaped our understanding of Native history and even contemporary Native lives. One, of course, is the lack of pre-contact writings by Indigenous people. Another is the suppression of Native voices during the white conquest of the two American continents. A third is…
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Pine Pollen and Canopy Tears: Keen Observations of a Northwest Forest by an Iowa Essayist
Read more: Pine Pollen and Canopy Tears: Keen Observations of a Northwest Forest by an Iowa EssayistSometimes the sharpest observations of a place come from individuals who don’t reside there—people who visit not as tourists but as temporary observers, seeking understanding rather than snapshots. Think of Alexis de Tocqueville, the Frenchman who toured America for nine months in 1831 and produced Democracy in America, a two-volume…
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