If a song defines a place, what does it mean to lose it?
Melissa Hart
Posted inMarch 5, 2018: Drilling Chaco
Why we should reconsider the starling
An author explores the unlikely relationship between a musical genius and avian pariah.
Posted inJune 12, 2017: The Big Swing
Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, revisited
A new book examines six decades of transformation in Monterey, California.
Posted inArticles
How my adopted daughter made peace with the outdoors
If our daughter couldn’t tolerate nature, how would we integrate her into our world?
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
The mysteries of the everyday
A writer and her family court the unknown.
Posted inSeptember 15, 2014: Books & Essays
Encouraging more ‘nerds of color’
A conversation with L.A. writer Jervey Tervalon.
Posted inMarch 17, 2014: When California Kicks Coal
Cracks in the urban-chic facade
The Residue YearsMitchell S. Jackson352 pages, hardcover: $26.Bloomsbury USA, 2013. Today, most people who think of Portland, Ore., picture charismatic bridges spanning the sparkling Willamette River, cozy coffeehouses and brewpubs on rain-slick streets, and passionate environmentalists bicycling to farmers markets. But behind the scenes, Portland in the 1990s teemed with crack dealers and users willing […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Exploring the intersection of animal and human
Survival SkillsJean Ryan197 pages, paperback: $15.95.Ashland Creek, 2013. Early in Jean Ryan’s debut collection of stories, a woman in a wetsuit strokes an octopus’ head while it caresses her face with the tip of one arm. The scene illustrates one of the author’s favorite themes: We’re at our best, we humans, when we allow ourselves […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A survivor, searching for soul
The Old Man’s Love StoryRudolfo Anaya176 pages, hardcover: $19.95.University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. “Letting go of one’s soul mate is not easy.” So writes award-winning author and retired University of New Mexico professor Rudolfo Anaya in his latest novel, The Old Man’s Love Story. Inspired by the death of his beloved wife, Patricia, in 2010, […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2013: Intimate Geographies
Desert solitude, desert community
Brother and the DancerKeenan Norris266 pages, softcover:$15.Heyday Books, 2013. Gang wars, drive-by shootings, drug sales, poverty — San Bernardino County was, as Keenan Norris explains in his debut novel, Brother and the Dancer, “one of the most violent places in America” at the millennium. The area surrounding his hometown of Highland, Calif., he notes ruefully, […]
Posted inJune 24, 2013: Water Rights
Investigating an epic war of populations
The Searchers: The Making of an American LegendGlenn Frankel405 pages,hardcover: $28.Bloomsbury, 2013. In a memorable scene in John Ford’s 1956 Western, The Searchers, gun-toting cowboys ride through Utah’s stark red landscape, flanked by war-painted Native Americans. “At the heart of the matter … was land,” writes Glenn Frankel, director of the School of Journalism at […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
A fresh take on an old crime: A review of The Case of D.B. Cooper’s Parachute
The Case of D.B. Cooper’s ParachuteWilliam L. Sullivan411 pages, paperback: $14.95.Navillus Press, 2012. In November 1971, a man traveling under the name “Dan Cooper” hijacked a Boeing 727 flying between Portland and Seattle, demanded $200,000 from the FBI, then parachuted from the plane into history, somewhere in the Northwestern wilds. The FBI has searched unsuccessfully […]
Posted inOctober 15, 2012: Are you a local?
A tribute to solitude and community: A review of Tributary
Clair Martin is marked, not only by the “purple-red stain” that spreads across her left cheek and on down her neck, but by being an orphan with a preference for solitude — inconceivable to the Mormons of Brigham City in 19th-century Utah Territory, where she’s deposited at just 6 years old. Valued only as a […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2012: Water Warrior
Generosity of voice and heart: A review of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest TrailCheryl Strayed336 pages, hardcover: $25.95. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. A well-worn hiking boot dominates the cover of Cheryl Strayed’s new memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail. It’s a striking symbol of tenacity and a visual reminder of how travelers braving the […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2011: Possessing the Wild
Meditations on craft: A review of What I Learned at Bug Camp
What I Learned at Bug Camp: Essays on Finding a Home in the WorldBy Sarah Juniper Rabkin173 pages, softcover: $15.Juniper Lake Press, 2011. Twenty-some years ago, University of California, Santa Cruz, writing professor Sarah Juniper Rabkin banished us from the classroom and told us to write outside, under a redwood. The assignment left a lasting […]
Posted inWotr
Princess for a Day
Once a year, A Family for Every Child, an Oregon-based nonprofit that works to place foster children in permanent homes, hosts its Princess for a Day fundraiser. For $50, participants get pampered and primped, glittered and gifted with goody bags and gowns and an elegant tea followed by ice cream sundaes and a dance with […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
Of rivers, boats and baseball umpires
Another Waythe River Has:Taut True Talesfrom the NorthwestRobin Cody208 pages, softcover: $18.95.Oregon State University Press, 2010. Robin Cody inspired me to buy a kayak. A confirmed landlubber, it didn’t occur to me to become familiar with my local waterways until I read Cody’s eclectic collection of essays, Another Way the River Has: Taut True Tales […]
Posted inNovember 9, 2009: Roadless-less
The kindness of hunters
I despise guns. If a Winchester appears in a movie, I gnaw my fingernails, heart galloping. Firearms show a lack of imagination, I think; they slant the playing field, and sometimes threaten to tip the whole thing over. Recently, a student of mine penned a lyrical essay on the spirituality of hunting. I gave him […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Confronting life’s essentials
Every so often, I long to relocate to a metropolis far from my sleepy Oregon hometown and my third of an acre of Douglas firs and screech owls. “Oh, Melissa,” chides a friend used to these yearnings. “Just take a vacation and move your couch.” The desire for change entices us. Those who live in […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
The bizarre intersection of humanity and nature
Rancho WeirdoLaura Chester212 pages, softcover, $18.00.Bootstrap Press, 2008. The cover of Laura Chester’s Rancho Weirdo features a cartoon of an armless human bound in a black sheath, banging its bloody head against a boulder. The image could be a metaphor for the stories in this collection — tales in which middle-class people, wrapped in conflicts […]