Rosanne Parry grew up in Oregon loving its rainy days, wild places, and many libraries. She is the author of seven novels for young readers, including the NY Times best sellers A Wolf Called Wander and A Whale of the Wild which have been translated into more than 14 languages. Her first picture book is Big Truck Day! Her next novel will be A Horse Called Sky. Look for it in the fall of 2023. Rosanne is a bookseller at legendary bookstore, Annie Blooms. She lives with her family in an old farmhouse in Portland and writes in a treehouse in her backyard. Ten things to know about Rosanne Parry: 1. I was born in Oak Park, IL and lived just a mile or so from the childhood home of the author Ernest Hemingway. His house is more than twice and big as the one I lived in when I was little but mine is closer to Longfellow Park which was my favorite place to play. I moved away from Oak Park when I was five. 2. I grew up in Portland, Oregon where I live now with my family in a farm house that is more than 100 years old. Sometimes I have chickens and sometimes I have rabbits and always I have a very weedy garden. My summer office is in a fir tree. I have many cherry, plum, and pear trees, a walnut tree, an apple tree and a very peculiar-looking peach tree. 3. I have also lived in Spokane, WA, Taholah, WA, Ft Huachuca, AZ, Aschaffenburg, Germany, and Ft Hood, TX. I have visited all but 8 of the states in America so I’m definitely looking for an excuse to visit North Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maine. 4. My favorite job, besides writing, was being a summer camp counselor. I worked at Camp Howard which is on the slope of Mt. Hood. I still go camping there every year if I can. Here is a view of Mt Hood from Trillium Lake. 5. I can play the violin, and I can juggle, and I am learning to play the harp, but I cannot throw a frisbee to save my life. 6. My grandfather lived with my family when I was growing up. He was born in Berlin. He immigrated to this country when he was a teenager in 1905, and he lived to be 96 years old. 7. I have a brother and a sister who are twins, four children who are not twins and more than thirty nieces and nephews. Mark Twain said, “A man with a big family stands a broader mark for sorrow, but he stands a broader mark for joy as well.” I have found that to be true. 8. Research is one of my favorite things about writing. Sometimes I research in the library but sometimes I research while camping in the mountains or canoeing on rivers and lakes. I go to museums. I go looking for whales in a kayak. I take pictures of plants and animals and listen to birds and the sound of the wind. I swim in the ocean and listen to people sing and learn how to dance. And best of all, I talk to interesting people from all over the world. 9. When I am not writing, I like to ride my bike, hike, make music, climb trees, dance, go to the beach or the mountains, and read books. 10. Lots of really great children’s authors and illustrators live in Portland. My favorite thing about being a children’s writer is the friends I have made. These are some writers I know from Portland: Susan Blackaby, Carmen Bernier-Grand, Carolyn Digby Conahan, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Trudy Ludwig, Susan Hill Long, Fonda Lee, Heidi Schultz, Barry Deutsch, Emily Whitman, Susan Fletcher, Emily Winfield Martin, Graham Salisbury, Laini Taylor, Dylan Meconis, Kim Johnson, and Heather Vogel-Frederick. I hope you read and enjoy their books too. Content and image source from: Goodreads and Rosanne Parry's website. Joe Sacco was born in Malta on October 2, 1960. At the age of one, he moved with his family to Australia, where he spent his childhood until 1972, when they moved to Los Angeles. He began his journalism career working on the Sunset High School newspaper in Beaverton, Oregon. While journalism was his primary focus, this was also the period of time in which he developed his penchant for humor and satire. He graduated from Sunset High in 1978. Sacco earned his B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1981 in three years. He was greatly frustrated with the journalist work that he found at the time, later saying, "[I couldn't find] a job writing very hard-hitting, interesting pieces that would really make some sort of difference." After being briefly employed by the journal of the National Notary Association, a job which he found "exceedingly, exceedingly boring," and several factories, he returned to Malta, his journalist hopes forgotten. "...I sort of decided to forget it and just go the other route, which was basically take my hobby, which has been cartooning, and see if I could make a living out of that," he later told the BBC. He began working for a local publisher writing guidebooks. Returning to his fondness for comics, he wrote a Maltese romance comic named Imħabba Vera ("True Love"), one of the first art-comics in the Maltese language. "Because Malta has no history of comics, comics weren't considered something for kids," he told Village Voice. "In one case, for example, the girl got pregnant and she went to Holland for an abortion. Malta is a Catholic country where not even divorce is allowed. It was unusual, but it's not like anyone raised a stink about it, because they had no way of judging whether this was appropriate material for comics or not." Eventually returning to the United States, by 1985 Sacco had founded a satirical, alternative comics magazine called Portland Permanent Press in Portland, Oregon. When the magazine folded fifteen months later, he took a job at The Comics Journal as the staff news writer. This job provided the opportunity for him to create another satire: the comic Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy, a name he took from an overly-complicated children's toy in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. But Sacco was more interested in travelling. In 1988, he left the U.S. again to travel across Europe, a trip which he chronicled in his autobiographical comic Yahoo. The trip lead him towards the ongoing Gulf War (his obsession with which he talks about in Yahoo #2), and in 1991 he found himself nearby to research the work he would eventually publish as Palestine. The Gulf War segment of Yahoo drew Sacco into a study of Middle Eastern politics, and he traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories to research his first long work. Palestine was a collection of short and long pieces, some depicting Sacco's travels and encounters with Palestinians (and several Israelis), and some dramatizing the stories he was told. It was serialized as a comic book from 1993 to 2001 and then published in several collections, the first of which won an American Book Award in 1996. Sacco next travelled to Sarajevo and Goražde near the end of the Bosnian War, and produced a series of reports in the same style as Palestine: the comics Safe Area Goražde, The Fixer, and the stories collected in War's End; the financing for which was aided by his winning of the Guggenheim Fellowship in April 2001. Safe Area Goražde won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2001. He has also contributed short pieces of graphic reportage to a variety of magazines, on subjects ranging from war crimes to blues, and is a frequent illustrator of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. Sacco currently lives in Portland. Content and source image: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/32468.Joe_Sacco Emmett Wheatfall lives in Portland, Oregon where he writes, records, publishes, and performs poetry. Fernwood Press, an imprint of Barclay Press has published 3 books of Emmett's poetry. His collection titled As Clean as a Bone was published in May 2018. As Clean as a Bone was a 2019 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist as well as a da Vinci Eye award finalist. Our Scarlet Blue Wounds was published in November 2019. Our Scarlet Blue Wounds examines American “Exceptionalism” in light of political, social, and economic constructs in America. Published in June 2022 is his most recent poetry book titled With Extreme Prejudice: Lest We Forget. This new publication recalls and examines the early days of COVID-19. Emmett has recorded one non-lyrical (without music) poetry CD titled I Speak and four lyrical poetry (with music) CDs. They are When I Was Young (2010), I Loved You Once (2011), Them Poetry Blues (2013), and Welcome Home (2017). These CDs feature some of Oregon’s most gifted and talented jazz, blues, and gospel musicians. Somebody Told Me (2020) is his first lyrical poetry gospel single. Following it up is Amazing Grace featuring LaRhonda Steele (2020). His new single is What A Friend We Have In Jesus (2022) and features some of Portland, Oregon's finest gospel musicians and vocalists. These releases can be viewed, heard, and or downloaded from major online music sites such as Amazon Music and Spotify, including a host of other such download sites. Since 2014, Emmett has served on the Nomination Committees for the selection of Oregon Poet Laureate Peter Sears, Elizabeth Woody, Kim Stafford, and Anis Mojgani. The Oregon Poet Laureate fosters the art of poetry, encourages literacy and learning, addresses central issues related to humanities and heritage, and reflects on public life in Oregon. The poet laureate is appointed by the governor of the State of Oregon. Emmett was a featured poet at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the March on Washington (Portland Event) where he delivered his original poem written for the occasion, Miles to Go Before We Sleep. In addition, he was the keynote speaker at the screening of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech for the Oregon Historical Society’s Oregon Black History Series program, “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Fiftieth Anniversary” on August 28, 2013. In October of 2017 and 2021, Emmett gave the keynote address at the Oregon Poetry Association's Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon. The title of his keynote address was "Can Poets Change the World?" In 2020, Corban University in Salem, Oregon filmed a 9-Part Series featuring poet Wheatfall. This series was made possible by generous grants from the Library of America and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of Lift Every Voice, a year-long national celebration of African American poetry. A Brief History can be viewed at the following YouTube link https://youtu.be/JFZM7Iqwnsg. Emmett has performed lyrical and spoken word poetry in Portland jazz venues such as Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant, Tony Starlight's Supper Club and Lounge, Backspace Café (formerly), Portland's fabulous Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and many venues in Portland and throughout the State of Oregon. Emmett has had the distinct opportunity to headline at Jimmy Mak’s; the former premier Northwest Jazz club once regarded as one of America's top 100 Jazz Clubs. Emmett has performed and recorded with world-class Jazz and blues musicians in the persons of Noah Peterson (Peterson Entertainment LLC), national and international jazz recording artist Darrell Grant, Gordon Lee, Andre St. James, Brandon Woods, John Thomas, Christ Turner, Ben Jones, Anthony Jones; Canadian pianist Gaea Shell, Eldon T. Jones, James (Jim) Blackburn, and Ramsey Embick (former pianist and bandleader for the Pointer Sisters); notwithstanding Portland's late-great and legendary bass player James Miller. The "Boss of the B-3 Hammond" Mr. Louis Pain, aka “King Louie,” as well as Carlton Jackson, Peter Dammann, Renato Caranto, and Edwin Coleman III; Salem, Oregon great Nathan Olsen, and Portland concert pianist Michael Allen Harrison. Portland vocalists Barbara Harris, including the highly regarded jazz, blues, and gospel artist LaRhonda Steele, Portia Jones, Amy Lesage, and Linda Tellis. Most noteworthy is the late great Grammy-nominated jazz, blues, gospel pianist extraordinaire, Ms. Janice Scroggins. Content and image source from: Goodreads and Emmett Wheatfall's website. Cindy Baldwin is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Where the Watermelons Grow, Beginners Welcome, The Stars of Whistling Ridge, and No Matter the Distance (a Junior Library Guild selection). She lives just outside Portland, Oregon, with her husband and daughter.
"For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to tell stories—probably because my imagination was so vivid as a child that I was convinced that the Three Bears slept on the other side of my queen-sized bed and that a volcano was likely to rupture underneath my house at any moment. When I was eight, before computers were nearly as common as they are now, I taught myself how to type so that I could get the stories in my head down faster than I could with a pen and paper. As an adult I type about 150 words per minute, so I guess it paid off! I have a genetic disease called cystic fibrosis, and my health challenges have always been both a big part of my life and a big influence on my writing. One of my first books (also written when I was about eight) was a melodrama about a princess locked in a tower that featured villains named most cleverly after two of my inhaled medications (Albuterol and Vanceril, in case you’re wondering). As a preteen, I had books stashed all over my house in case I found myself nearby without reading material. For years, I kept a book in one bathroom cabinet in particular, just on the off-chance that I was brushing my teeth or visiting the toilet without another book at hand. (I remember this book most often being either ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine or FAR TO GO by Noel Streatfeild.) As a grown-up, it’s my goal to write the kinds of books that kids will want to stash in bathroom cabinets. Like many of my characters, I grew up in the South (Durham, North Carolina, to be precise). I moved away after graduating high school and haven’t been back since, but my heart will always love the humidity, lightning bugs, and warm accents. These days, my home is in Portland, Oregon, which is a different kind of magic—and while I’ll always miss the South, I’m growing to love the misty winters and the wild blackberries, too! I live in a cute little house called Maple Cottage with my husband and daughter, who looks like she just might turn out to be a storyteller, too." Source: cindybaldwinbooks.com Raised in Corvallis, Oregon, Jon Krakauer graduated from Hampshire College in 1976, after which he worked as a carpenter and commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska before embarking on a career as a writer. He is the author of 8 books, including Into the Wild, Into Thin Air (which was one of three finalists for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction), Under the Banner of Heaven, Where Men Win Glory, and Missoula. His work has also been published by National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. In 1999, he received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. According to the award citation, “Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer.” In the aftermath of the 1996 Everest tragedy that was the subject of Into Thin Air, Krakauer got involved with the American Himalayan Foundation in order to repay some of his personal debt to the courageous Sherpas who did so much to assist him and the other survivors of that calamity. Presently he serves as the board chair of this extraordinary organization. Source: jonkrakauer.com Walidah Imarisha is an educator, writer, public scholar and spoken word artist. She has co-edited two anthologies, Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements and Another World is Possible. Imarisha’s nonfiction book Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption won a 2017 Oregon Book Award. She is also the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars, and in 2015, she received a Tiptree Fellowship for her science fiction writing. She has co-edited two anthologies, Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements and Another World is Possible. Imarisha’s nonfiction book Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption won a 2017 Oregon Book Award. She is also the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars, and in 2015, she received a Tiptree Fellowship for her science fiction writing. Imarisha is currently an Assistant Professor in the Black Studies Department and Director of the Center for Black Studies at Portland State University. In the past, she has taught at Stanford University, Pacific Northwest College of the Arts and Oregon State University. For six years, she presented statewide as a public scholar with Oregon Humanities' Conversation Project on several topics, including Oregon Black history. She was one of the founders and first editor of the political hip hop magazine AWOL. She has toured the country many times performing, lecturing and challenging, and has shared the stage with folks as different as Angela Davis, Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Kenny Muhammad of the Roots, Chuck D, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Robin D.G. Kelley, Umar bin Hassan from The Last Poets, Boots Riley, Saul Williams, Ani DiFranco, John Irving, dead prez, Rebecca Solnit, and Yuri Kochiyama. Source: walidah.com |
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