Writing the Northwest
Archives
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How Writers Helped Shape the Myth of a New Eden
Read more: How Writers Helped Shape the Myth of a New EdenWhen choosing the name for this website, I considered calling it Writing About the Northwest, but I wanted the writing the site would explore to be more than that. It seemed to me writing related to a region like the NW doesn’t only describe it or explain it but also…
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The Long History and Continued Vitality of the Northwest’s Black Newspapers
Read more: The Long History and Continued Vitality of the Northwest’s Black NewspapersYou don’t have to do more than scratch the surface of Pacific Northwest history to see how unwelcoming the area has been for African Americans. Oregon’s constitution, enacted on this date (February 14) in 1859, made it illegal for Blacks to even stay overnight in the state. As late as…
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Writing About the History, Variety & Triumphs of Northwest Wines
Read more: Writing About the History, Variety & Triumphs of Northwest WinesA short time ago, I happened upon an article announcing that a group of writers who specialized in wine were starting a new print magazine dedicated to covering the NW wine industry. Called Great Northwest Wine, the publication is linked to a 10-year-old website with the same name, and most…
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Guest Post: Writer Stewart Holbrook Was the NW’s ‘Best-Known Personality’ But Never Received the Credit He Deserved
Read more: Guest Post: Writer Stewart Holbrook Was the NW’s ‘Best-Known Personality’ But Never Received the Credit He Deservedby Michael Schepps (you’ll find a full bio, including a link to Schepps’s new book, Split Aces, at the end of the article) Throughout much of his life, the writer Stewart Holbrook (1893-1964) was considered “perhaps the Pacific Northwest’s best-known personality.” In seemingly endless articles that garnered a devoted local readership…
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Guest Post: A Veteran Sports Reporter Laments the Decline in Access for NW Journalists Today
Read more: Guest Post: A Veteran Sports Reporter Laments the Decline in Access for NW Journalists Todayby Bud Withers [Bud Withers covered sports for decades in Eugene and Seattle. You’ll find his full bio at the end of this post, including information on his latest book, Mad Hoops. This writing is copyrighted and used by permission of the author.] The other day, on the anniversary of…
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Guest Post: Celebrating Ursula K. Le Guin’s Real and Imaginative Connections to a Place Called Portland
Read more: Guest Post: Celebrating Ursula K. Le Guin’s Real and Imaginative Connections to a Place Called Portlandby David Naimon, co-author of Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing [Editor’s note: The following is Naimon’s foreword to a new collection of writings by Portland writers called Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin, edited by Susan DeFreitas and published by Portland-based Forest Avenue…
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Rudyard Kipling Writes About NW Salmon…and Chinese Cannery Workers
Read more: Rudyard Kipling Writes About NW Salmon…and Chinese Cannery WorkersWarning: Quotes in this article contain racist descriptions of early Chinese residents of the NW. On the lookout for any kind of writing about the Pacific Northwest, especially early writing by writers from elsewhere, I was delighted to see Oregonian reporter Douglas Perry’s January 6 article, “How Rudyard Kipling’s salmon-hunting…
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Guest Post: The Myth of the “Other World” in Oregon-Set Films
Read more: Guest Post: The Myth of the “Other World” in Oregon-Set Filmsby Michael Schepps Despite Oregon’s geographic proximity to Hollywood, films shot in the state are a rarity. Rarer still are films actually set in Oregon, films that embrace it as a place unto itself. The singularity of the setting and its place in the American psyche may help account for…
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A Small NW Museum’s Presentation of a Japanese American’s Life and Art Raises the Question of What Might Have Been…
Read more: A Small NW Museum’s Presentation of a Japanese American’s Life and Art Raises the Question of What Might Have Been…Sometimes you find the most interesting and informative visions of an area like the Pacific Northwest in out-of the-way places. After reading an article in the Seattle Times, my wife and I traveled out to Edmonds, WA, the other day to view the works of Kenjiro Nomura, an amazing and…
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