I’m a member of People’s Coop and every week they send me an email about their Wednesday farmer’s market. (Yes, it goes on through the winter.) This week they featured chickweed, which is pretty silly. Why would anyone buy chickweed at a farmer’s market? Why would someone even grow it as a crop, when it’s […]
Read more "Chickweed"“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good […]
Read more "Here Be Dragons"It’s time to get political again.This week President Barack Obama was sworn into his second term in office. Following the inauguration hooplah came all the news coverage: The dances! The clothes! Beyonce! Michelle’s Bangs! Soon the excitement will wear off and we’ll return to the lull of politics as usual, right? This happens to me. […]
Read more "My Inauguration Wish List"In a moment of weakness, Johnny put in a call to his mother to ask for a loan. He called her around 3:00, which was always too many hours after the day had levered him up from warmth at Ben’s side, stimulated him with caffeine, fed and washed him, exhausted him again, and fed him […]
Read more "Apologists"Oregon’s 77th Legislative Assembly has begun and we have some female powerhouses in the legislature. My own representative, Carolyn Tomei, served as presiding officer of the House, calling the House Chamber to order. She is also chair of the House Human Services and Housing Committee, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and is serving […]
Read more "Inauguration: Women in Oregon Politics"I am working on my MFA creative nonfiction thesis about food foraging. I asked my father to talk about my first experiences with wild food. One of my pleasures was taking Lauren out in the backpack, walking quite long distances, and she loved to ride in the backpack. I learned to stop and grab berries […]
Read more "My Father’s Perspective"When I came across the Dead Feminists Series over the holidays, it was in an echoing room in the Oregon Convention Center for Portland’s Crafty Wonderland holiday fair. The table showcasing the work of Anagram Press and Springtide Press, owned by Tacoma-based Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring (respectively), was overrun with craft-loving customers, so I […]
Read more "Feminists Printing"“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does any-one have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing […]
Read more "The Force That Drives The Flower"Chloe Caldwell, essayist, part-time Powell’s employee, author of last year’s collection, Legs Get Led Astray, and all-around amazing woman, sat down with me in December (in Cheryl Strayed’s house of all places—she was housesitting while the Wild author was on vacation) and talked about sex. Oh, and writing. Here is our interview for the inaugural […]
Read more "Girl on Girl: Chloe Caldwell"My students had gotten me tipsy after our end of the term year happy hour and put me on a cab ride home to the West Hills. I would have swum further with the young, but a fellow instructor and friend of mine followed me to the bar where I had thought to buy another […]
Read more "Loners"
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