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January 2008 Oregon Legacy 2008
The Friends of Driftwood Public Library will present the literary series Oregon Legacy to the community on four Sunday afternoons in January 2008. The series opens at 3pm on January 6, with a presentation of reading and commentary on writing by Cai Emmons, from Eugene. Her novel, His Mother's Son, was published in 2003, winning the Ken Kesey Award for the Novel (an Oregon Book Award). Her second novel, The Stylist, was released in October of 2007. Emmons began her career as a dramatist, writing for the stage, film, and television. Her essays have been published in the Portland Monthly and the Oregon Quarterly, Arts and Letters. She teaches at the University of Oregon's Creative Writing Program, while continuing her own writing.
On January 13, Peter Rock of Portland will present his work. He has written five books: The Unsettling, The Bewildered, The Ambidextrist, Carnival Wolves, and This is the Place. This is the Place won the prestigious Hanfield Award in 1996. He held the prestigious Wallace Stegner Fellowship while at Stanford. He draws his material from the gritty underground of urban life where many residents live lives of solitude. His new novel, My Abandonment will be published in he fall of 2008. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Reed College in Portland.
Lauren Kessler of Eugene is the third author in the 2008 series; she will speak on January 20, 2008. She is the author of five works of narrative nonfiction, including Dancing with Rose, Clever Girl, the Happy Bottom Riding Club, Full Court Press, and the Oregon Book Award winner Stubborn Twig. Stubborn Twig was chosen as the book for all Oregon to read in honor of the state's 2009 sesquicentennial. Her journalism has appeared in periodicals ranging from the New York Times Magazine to O and the Nation. She is the founder of the online magazine, Etude and directs the graduate program in literary nonfiction at the University of Oregon.
The 2008 Oregon Legacy series finishes on January 27 with a presentation by Matt Love, of Nestucca, Oregon. Love is well known for his Beaver State Trilogy: Grasping Wastrels vs. Beaches Forever Inc (2003), The Far Out Story of Vortex I (2004), and Red Hot and Rollin: a Retrospective of the Portland Trail Blazers 1976-77 Championship Season. His essays have appeared in the Oregonian, his column "Stone Oregon" in several alternative monthlies, and he is the publisher of the Nestucca Spit Press. He teaches English and history in the Lincoln County School District and for nine years has been the caretaker of the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Fourteen years ago, Driftwood Public Library completed a move into a new facility at Lincoln Square Civic Center in Lincoln City. To celebrate the library’s new home and to thank the community for all of its support during the transition, the Friends of Driftwood Public Library created a gift for the community. With little resources beyond the income from their occasional book sales, the Friends underwrote the first literary series ever presented in Lincoln County, the Oregon Legacy Series. Each year they have renewed that sponsorship, while adding the Inn at Spanish Head as a hospitality partner. “For twenty-four hours we treat an Oregon author like a hero, as all authors should be treated”, Sue Jenkins, series coordinator. All Oregon Legacy presentations are free. Each presentation begins at 3pm in the Distad Reading Room of the Driftwood Public Library. The library is located on the second floor of the Lincoln Square Civic Center at 801 SW Hwy 101 in Lincoln City. For further information about the Oregon Legacy Series, contact Sue Jenkins at 996-1251 or suej@lincolncity.org.
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