Writing the Northwest
Archives
-
“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…
·
-
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…
·
-
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…
·
-
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…
·
-
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…
·
-
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…
·
-
Persistence and Adaptation: Asian American Identity and News in the Pacific Northwest
Read more: Persistence and Adaptation: Asian American Identity and News in the Pacific NorthwestThe awful rise in attacks on Asian Americans in recent months has reminded me how horribly Chinese immigrants were treated in the Pacific Northwest in the latter half of the 19th century, as well as how difficult it has been through the years for local Asian Americans to be heard…
·
-
The Fancydancing Voice of Sherman Alexie
Read more: The Fancydancing Voice of Sherman AlexieWhen I was in the MFA program at Columbia University in the mid-1990s, a poetry professor assigned a book called The Business of Fancydancing (Hanging Loose Press, 1992) by a writer from my home state I’d never heard of: Sherman Alexie. When I turned the book over, the black-and-white on…
·
-
The Powell’s List of 40 Books Set in the Pacific Northwest
Read more: The Powell’s List of 40 Books Set in the Pacific Northwest(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,…
·
