Rock reading at Driftwood Public Library for Oregon Legacy 2008

Northwest authors to appear at Driftwood Public Library for Oregon Legacy 2008

Left to right: Cai Emmons, Peter Rock, Lauren Kessler, Matt Love

The Friends of Driftwood Public Library will present the literary series, Oregon Legacy, on four Sunday afternoons in January 2008.

The series opens at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 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 Jan. 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,” winner of the Hanfield Award in 1996. Rock 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 the 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 Jan. 20. 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 also 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 Jan. 27 with a presentation by Matt Love of Nestucca. Love is well known for his “Beaver State Trilogy: Grasping Wastrels vs. Beaches Forever” (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, the Friends of Driftwood Public Library created the Oregon Legacy sereis as a gift for the community to celebrate the library's new home at Lincoln Square Civic Center, and to thank the community for all of its support during the transition to the new library facility.

With little resources beyond the income from their occasional used 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 24 hours we treat an Oregon author like a hero, as all authors should be treated,” said Sue Jenkins, library director and series coordinator.

All Oregon Legacy presentations are free. Each presentation begins at 3 p.m. 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.

Online Publishing

From the article, Fast, Free And In Control
Willamette Week - Portland,OR,USA

Peter Rock, a local writer (2006’s The Unsettling) and associate professor of creative writing at Reed College, sees merit in online publishing but wonders if it will ever reach the popularity of a magazine or hardbound book. “Everyone in the publishing industry is trying to find out how virtual content works, if books are going to be around much longer,” he says. “But I don’t know many people—maybe that’s because I’m old—that spend that much time reading fiction online.” Rock may be right: While virtual content has its advantages—websites can print whatever they want without the restrictions of an editor or publisher while remaining free for readers—it’s difficult to imagine a world without books or magazines.

Peter Rock's new novel due out next fall

I can't believe I haven't posted this....I'm getting lazy.

My Abandonment by Peter Rock will be published by Harcourt in the fall of 2008. This project reunites Rock with the editor Adrienne Brodeur, who founded Zoetrope: All Story with Francis Coppola, and also Tina Pohlman, who published Rock's first two books at Anchor/Doubleday.

A short description of the book from Rock:

My Abandonment is a story of a girl and her father set in Portland and the wilderness of the Northwest. Loosely based on a true story (and informed by the nature diaries of Opal Whiteley and the travails of Elizabeth Smart), it is the first-person narrative of a twelve-year-old girl who is found living in Forest Park (at 5400 acres, the largest forested urban park in the nation) with her father. It chronicles her education, the ingenious ways the two survive in this wilderness, their forays into the city and their interactions with others, homeless and well-established. Ultimately, it is the story of their discovery by authorities, relocation, and further flight, along which many surprises, mysteries and dramas unfold. The novel serves as a further exploration of a question that is important to me: under what conditions is one transformed into a completely different person?

Blogger names Disentangling as a favorite short story

The list:

• “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter
• “Call My Name” by Aimee Bender
• “Civilwarland in Bad Decline” by George Saunders
• “Dirty Wedding” by Denis Johnson
• “Disentangling” by Peter Rock
• “Floating Bridge” by Alice Munro
• “The Hotel Capital” by Olga Tokarczuk
• “Planetisimal” by Keri Hulme
• “The Toughest Indian in the World” by Sherman Alexie
• “White Angel” by Michael Cunningham

• “Hunger” by Lan Samantha Chang

Link to post

Newsday's Favorite Books of 2006

After the fast, scene-jumping pace of "Nimrod," the stories in "The Unsettling" (MacAdam Cage) may seem like novellas. Author Peter Rock's characters are mostly male, mostly hapless, and mostly at a loss to understand the women in their lives. But stark encounters with strangers offer them moments of clarity and passing honesty.
Original link

Newsday's Favorite Books of 2006

After the fast, scene-jumping pace of "Nimrod," the stories in "The Unsettling" (MacAdam Cage) may seem like novellas. Author Peter Rock's characters are mostly male, mostly hapless, and mostly at a loss to understand the women in their lives. But stark encounters with strangers offer them moments of clarity and passing honesty.
Original link

Peter Rock recordings

These are from the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House and WXPN in Philadelphia.

Ambulance

Collapse

I highly recommend listening to these....they were recorded on 10/02/2000.

20th Annual Oregon Book Awards
The Portland Mercury - Portland,OR,USA
Literary Arts brings in essayist extraordinaire Barry Lopez to emcee this year's Oregon Book Awards, which was already sold out by press time. I'm rooting for Matt Yurdana in poetry, Peter Rock for best novel, and shouting out a big "WTF" for Charles D'Ambrosio's exclusion from the short fiction category. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, 227-2583, 7:30 pm, $15 (sold out)