We turned into Propeller

We came back, but not here, and not as PDX Writer Daily. Many of the people who used to contribute to PDX Writer Daily have worked to create a magazine named Propeller.

We hope you'll have a look and be pleased.

On Holiday

PDX Writer Daily is going on holiday for the rest of the summer. If you'd like to be contacted when we start up again in the fall, you can join our Facebook page.

Enjoy your summer!

Tin House celebrates tenth anniversary Thursday evening, with benefit for Writers in the Schools hosted by Colson Whitehead

Literary Arts Presents
A Benefit Event for Writers in the Schools:

Tin House Magazine's Tenth Anniversary Celebration!

"Tin House is offering a roof -- despite the toxins of commerce -- shelter meant to keep our language alive. While New York publishers star-search for this year's single lollipop best-seller, Tin House recalls what literature can give one honest reader." -- Allan Gurganus

Thursday, July 16 at 7:30pm
Newmark Theatre - 1111 SW Broadway, Portland

Founded in 1999 by longtime Oregon publisher, Win McCormack, Tin House has for the past decade been a quiet force in the literary world, with its headquarters in the distinctive zinc-sided house in NW Portland. In its 40 issues it has been privileged to print some of our nation's finest fiction writers and poets, such as Richard Ford, Denis Johnson, Deborah Eisenberg, Billy Collins, Frank Bidart and Matthea Harvey. From its conception, too, it has been devoted to discovering the next generation of talent, like Portland's own darling poets, Michael and Matthew Dickman.

This event will celebrate Tin House's 10th Anniversary by gathering some of this country's most exciting established and emerging writers who've been published by the magazine in the past decade. With readings, personal anecdotes and short interviews, the night promises to be a snapshot of what the magazine offers in each of its issues, quality fiction and poetry with, most importantly, personality to spare.

Proceeds from this event will benefit WITS (Writers in the Schools), a program of Literary Arts.

Emcee - Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead (pictured) is the author, most recently, of Sag Harbor, his first "autobiographical" novel. Whitehead is also the author of three previous novels The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, which was a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and Apex Hides the Hurt, as well as a collection of essays, The Colossus of New York.

He received a 2002 MacArthur "genius grant," and the judges called him "a bold experimental writer whose social and philosophical themes speak to the heart of American society." Whitehead's articles about music and television have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Spin and Village Voice."

Readers/Presenters
Aimee Bender
Matthew Dickman
Michael Dickman
Jim Shepard
Dorothy Allison
Steve Almond
Charles D'Ambrosio
Peter Rock
Ron Hansen
Lee Montgomery
Rob Spillman
Elissa Schappell
Win McCormack.

About WITS (Writers in the Schools)
Established in 1996, WITS is a comprehensive program that cultivates young writers and supports Oregon authors through semester-long writing residencies in the Portland public high schools. WITS employs poets, fiction writers, essayists and playwrights to engage students in reading and writing across the curriculum.

Individual Tickets:
-Prices: $12-$14
-Order Online at www.ticketmaster.com
-Portland Center for the Performing Arts Box Office, SW Broadway and Main Street
-Call Ticketmaster at 503-224-4400
-All Ticketmaster outlets, including select Fred Meyer

Visit www.literary-arts.org for additional information.

Tin House Writers Workshop continues today with seminars from David Shields and Aimee Bender

The Tin House Writers Workshop continues today with the following seminars:

Thursday, July 16 2009
2 p.m. HUNGERING FOR REALITY WITH DAVID SHIELDS
Relish ruminating on the real world
The lyric essay is the literary form that gives the writer the best opportunity for rigorous exploration of the world, because it offers no consoling dream-world, no exit door. It is the mind contemplating the “real” world. I want to take the banality of the essay form (the literalness of “facts,” “truth,” “reality”), turn it inside out, and make it a staging area for the inquiry into any claim of facts and truth—an extremely rich theater for investigating the most serious epistemological questions, starting and perhaps concluding with confusion as to where that very “truth” starts and stops.

3 p.m. FRUCTIFICATION WITH AIMEE BENDER
Nurturing the seeds and sprouts of language
This talk will cover sentences, paragraphs and short pieces that bear fruit—meaning they go through a process with a kind of blossoming at the end. We’ll discuss how this happens, or what we see happening. We will use fruit as a metaphor for as much as we possibly can. And as always, some kind of writing exercise will happen at some point.

This evening's reading is a big, splendiferous event for Writers in the Schools. See post above for details.

Portland Noir v. Seattle Noir SMACKDOWN! this evening at Murder By the Book

From Murder By the Book:

PORTLAND NOIR v. SEATTLE NOIR

SMACKDOWN !!

Wednesday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.

Celebrate the release of Portland Noir (trade, $14.95), a book devoted to fictional short stories of the (way) dark side of Portland. Floyd Skoot, Jess Walter, and Bill Cameron are among the authors whose stories appear in this compilation.

In one corner, on behalf of Portland Noir, will be editor Kevin Sampsell, and authors Bill Cameron and Kimberly Warner-Cohen.

In the other corner, on behalf of Seattle Noir, will be editor Curt Colbert and Seattle heavyweights G. M. Ford and Skye Moody.

Tin House Writers Workshop continues; Anthony Doerr, David Shields, and Charles D'Ambrosio to read this evening

Today's Tin House Writers Workshop schedule:

Wednesday, July 15 2009
2 p.m. BEGINNINGS
A panel with Karen Shepard, Dorothy Allison, and Walter Kirn, moderated by Elissa Schappell
Wittgenstein once wrote, “It is so difficult to find the beginning. Or, better: it is difficult to begin at the beginning. And not try to go further back.” This is true of writers at all levels of development. One thing that’s commonly said of an unfinished story is that it “didn’t even really start until page 5” or something like that. We’ll discuss how to tell a good beginning from a false start, and examine classic great beginnings to discover what a story demands at its outset.

3 p.m. SUSPENSE WITH ANTHONY DOERR
Shower-Murders, Information, and the Sword of Damocles.
Suspense is, literally, the temporary cessation of something. Have you ever wondered if disruptions sometimes enhance our enjoyment of pleasurable activities? Did you know an experiment has found that interruptions in massages actually heighten people's enjoyment of them? And another showed that TV commercials might actually intensify people's gratification during shows? Here the world's least accomplished suspense writer will try to ask some questions about suspense and how we reveal information to our readers.

The evening reading, at 8:00, features Anthony Doerr, David Shields (pictured), and Charles D'Ambrosio

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North

Kevin Sampsell talks "Portland Noir" on AM Northwest

Portland Noir editor Kevin Sampsell appeared on yesterday's "AM Northwest" to talk about the book with hosts Helen Raptis and Dave Anderson. An interesting (and, we think, very winning) moment in the conversation:

KEVIN: This the thirtieth book in the series, so they've [Akashic Books] done collections in other cities around the country, and outside of the country, as well. It's sixteen stories, written by local writers.

HELEN: Short-story fiction.

KEVIN: Yeah, fiction. They're all set in different parts of the city, and each collection is like that. So it's almost like a travel guide, in a way. But it's--

BILL: With fiction!

KEVIN: It's all fictional. It's all these kinds of crime-type stories.

BILL: But the points of the city that they take you to, and the different neighborhoods, what they reference, is not fiction, necessarily.

KEVIN: [Calmly avoiding entanglement in Bill's devious theoretical challenge, moves the conversation forward.]

You can see the full interview here.

Tin House Writers Workshop continues today, including evening reading with Jan Elizabeth Watson, Stephen Elliott, and Keith Lee Morris

The Tin House Writers Workshop continues today at Reed College, with the following offerings:

Tuesday, July 14 2009
2 p.m. EDITING FROM ALL ANGLES
Panel with Keith Lee Morris, Jan Elizabeth Watson, Ted Thompson, Tony Perez, Meg Storey and Michelle Wildgen, moderated by Lee Montgomery
Tin House authors and editors talk about the often knotty process of editing, both by themselves and with others. We’ll talk about how a story or novel is shaped during initial revisions, and how just when you think you’re done, whammo, you get an editor who wags a big no-no finger in your face and gives you more stuff to do.

3 p.m. WRITING FROM EXPERIENCE, WITH STEPHEN ELLIOTT
The Freedom of Sticking to the Facts
Your experiences, and how you process them, are the most valuable things we can offer readers. We will talk about writing from experience in fiction and nonfiction, and how to use our lives as jumping off points and framing devices for the stories we tell about ourselves and others. We’ll also talk about the dangers of writing from experience and overcoming the blocks set in place (often unnecessarily) by our fears of exposure. We will look at strategies for getting past those fears and for dealing with friends and relatives whose memories might be different from our own. Finally, we will focus on unlocking our lives and the joy and value of integrating the worlds we know with the worlds we create.

INSIDE THE ACTOR'S STUDIO: METHOD POETICS, WITH D.A. POWELL
Getting Inside Another’s Head
Writing a poem is not unlike rehearsing a play: the voice of the poem must be arrived at through a series of apt choices, just as an actor's performance is built on apt choices. In this seminar, we'll look at the ways in which the character of the poem can be broadened and strengthened using tools traditionally associated with theatre.

This evening's reading begins at 8:00, and features Jan Elizabeth Watson, Stephen Elliott, and Keith Lee Morris.

The Times documents novelist Roxana Robinson's New York "Home With a Hideout"

In the Real Estate section of the Times, novelist Roxana Robinson discusses how and where she writes.

If you'd like to hear her describe the challenges of writing in a beautiful Upper East Side apartment, don't miss the audio slide show. (Photo at right by James Estrin, from the Times story.)

Tin House Summer Writers Workshop runs this week at Reed

The Tin House Summer Writers Workshop runs this week at Reed College. Afternoon seminars and workshops can be attended for a $15 fee. Evening readings cost $5.

Today's scheduled seminars, from the Writers Workshop site:

2 p.m. THE AGENT GAME
Panel with Denise Shannon, Bonnie Nadell, Julie Barer, and Betsy Lerner
Finding an agent to represent your work can be a time-consuming and hair-raising endeavor. Ideally, the relationship between agent and author is both professional and personal, providing a writer with much-needed support and encouragement. In this seminar, New York agents talk about what writers should know before seeking representation and offer unique insight into their profession.

3 p.m. OBSESSION, A NEW MUSK BY STEVE ALMOND
The Little Engine That Couldn't Stop
Clinicians tend to cast obsessive thoughts and behaviors as pathological, which is why clinicians are so fucking boring at parties. In this informal and possibly disorganized lecture, we'll examine a series of obsessive texts, from Lolita to Fever Pitch, in an effort to understand how our fixations might be made to yield urgent prose without descending into yammering solipsism. If time allows, the lecturer will recite key sequences from the film "Fatal Attraction."

This evening's reading is at 8:00 p.m., and will feature Karen Shepard, Ann Hood, and Walter Kirn.

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North

Facebook Roundup: The Week in Status Updates (7/10)

We suppose the heat is on. Your news:

+ “I guess we’re not as sleazy as we thought.”

+ “Flights to Korea are no longer $666, so I now feel comfortable buying my ticket.”

+ “…hopes you catch a case of ants in the crotch.”

+ “Regretting my decision to live next door to a hardcore venue.”

+ “Mind racing, tires rolling, coffee steaming, bluegrass strumming.”

+ “…is sporting shorts today; let Yorkshire beware.”

+ “It’s too bad that the best thing a man can do for his career is die.”

+ “…is vaguely annoyed that Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price costs $17.81 on Amazon.com.”

+ “…is drinking and trying to set the printer up with the network. Not necessarily a match made in heaven.”

+ “Cereal is my favorite drunk food.”

+ “As of today, we have been married for a whole year. Hooray! We’re still alive!”

+ “…watched He’s Just Not That Into You tonight. Made appointment to have my vagina sewn back up tomorrow.”

+ “Life lessons learned in the last 12 hours: you cannot assume that you inherently know how to peel and ‘trim’ a parsnip; taking allergy medicine does not cure a migraine, it only knocks you out; and waking up with Michael Jackson’s ‘You Are Not Alone’ reverberating in your head definitely means your dreams were either really sweet or really creepy.”

Bright Lights Discussion Series continues Monday evening with Dennis Wilde and Ralph DiNola

From Portland Spaces:

Portland is home to many of the most accomplished efforts at green building in the country, in categories ranging from historic preservation to condominiums to medical research facilities. But what will the city's next accomplishment be?

One possible answer will be presented at the next Bright Lights city design discussion, as two of Portland's top sustainability experts present early conceptual design for what they hope will become the first high-rise "living building" in the world—the Oregon Sustainability Center at Portland State University.

With a freshly completed feasibility study in hand, Ralph DiNola of Green Building Services and Dennis Wilde of Gerding Edlen Development will offer their team's research about how a 200,000-square-foot urban high-rise might be designed and built with a zero carbon footprint, generating all of its own power and processing all of its own waste on-site. Already the project is meeting major challenges, from economics (the first-draft design's curving form is being squared off to be built more cheaply) to aesthetics (local design aficionados have attacked it on the blogs).

The proposed building is an unusual collaboration between the Oregon University System, the Portland Development Commission, and the Oregon Living Building Initiative, the latter a consortium of nonprofits working on sustainability initiatives. If built, it would rise on the PSU campus to become the city and state's regional green hub.

The evening promises to be an exhilarating look at the possibilities and problems of next-generation green building with two of the city's—indeed, the nation's—top sustainability experts.

Dennis Wilde's passion for sustainable urban development runs deep. From his graduate studies in architecture and urban planning to his current role at Gerding Edlen, environmental responsibility and smart design are central to his philosophy. He first realized the possibilities of sustainability from a business perspective while attending a workshop on the Natural Step (naturalstep.org) in 1997, the same year he joined Gerding Edlen. As Gerding Edlen's designated "green guy," Dennis has encouraged increased sustainability in the company's development projects while building a strong case for the economic and social benefits of environmental responsibility. Dennis's responsibilities include feasibility studies, management of the pre-construction process, and overall project management. He also serves on the board of the Oregon Natural Step Network.

As principal and senior design consultant at Green Building Services (GBS), Ralph DiNola is currently involved with nearly 20 projects—among them, the country's first LEED Gold certified winery, Stoller Vineyards Winery in Dayton, Oregon. Also on the list is the Oregon Convention Center, which participated in the LEED-EB pilot program (usgbc.org/LEED/eb), resulting in energy savings of 30 percent (roughly $110,000 per year). Ralph has worked with the University of Oregon's Department of Architecture to develop and deliver curriculum using the Living Building Challenge rating system as a design framework. He also has led GBS's transition into a carbon neutral consulting practice. This has involved the acquisition of carbon offsets and green power to account for 100 percent of the emissions associated with business operations.

Sponsored in part by the Architecture Foundation of Oregon, Bright Lights is a joint presentation by Portland Spaces and the City Club of Portland. It is held the second Monday of every month (except August) at Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th Ave. Doors open at 5:30. Presentation begins promptly at 6 p.m.

Soapstone residency application period opens July 1

From Soapstone:

The application period will soon open for Soapstone residencies.

We will be accepting applications postmarked between July 1 and August 1, 2009 for residencies between November 2009 and November 2010.

Application forms can be downloaded from http://www.soapstone.org

Soapstone
622 SE 29th Avenue
Portland, OR 97214
503.233.3936
retreats@soapstone.org
http://www.soapstone.org

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North

Oregon Humanities Think & Drink discussions available online

From Oregon Humanities:

Were you one of the 350 people who joined us for our June Think & Drink event with award-winning, multigenre author Ursula Le Guin and OSU philosophy professor Lani Roberts, who discussed morality and self-deception?

If not, or even if so, you can now listen to that discussion on our website. While there, you can also listen to the February conversation with John Frohnmayer, who discussed corporate citizenship and how it jeopardizes democracy, and the Earth Day panel, which featured Portland-area scholars and business leaders who discussed developing alternative economies in Portland and beyond.

OCH's Think & Drink happy-hour conversation series is held bimonthly at rontoms (600 E. Burnside) in Portland. All events are free and open to the public. We hope you'll join us for the next event on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at 6:30 p.m., with Representative Earl Blumenauer and Portland State University president Wim Wiewel.

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North

Oregon Rural Communities Explorer seeks stories

From Nancy Witham at Oregon State University:

Request for Stories: Life in Oregon's Rural Communities.
Deadline for submission: September 30, 2009.

The Oregon Rural Communities Explorer (RCE) at Oregon State University is seeking short stories about life in rural Oregon communities.

If accepted, your story will be permanently archived in OSU's digital library and judged for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place with cash prizes. These winning stories will also be posted on the RCE website as "Feature Stories."

Some Ideas:
What is life like in your rural community or region?
How has your rural community changed over time ?
What makes your rural community special?
What happened the last time people in your community came together to get something done?

For guideline and submission information visit Oregon Rural Communities Explorer at www.oregonexplorer.info/rural.

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North

Okay, Tuesday

PDX Writer Daily did not return on Monday. It returned on Tuesday.

Holiday!

PDX Writer Daily will return Monday.

Independent Publishing Resource Center announces new, year-long certificate program

From the IPRC:

Join us for the IPRC’s next creative odyssey: a year-long certificate program in Independent Publishing. Participants will choose between one of two tracks, Creative Writing or Comics/Graphic Novels, and will spend two semesters creating and publishing their work.

Fall Semester will feature generative workshops with the following instructors, guest lecturers, and advisors:

Creative Writing: Justin Hocking, Ariel Gore, Kevin Sampsell, Alex Wrekk, and Cheryl Strayed.

Comics/Graphic Novel: Jesse Recklaw, Dylan Williams, Craig Thompson, Nicole J. Georges, Todd Bak, Annie Murphy, and Shawn Granton.

Spring Semester will be facilitated by former Portland Mercury Art Director Mark Searcy, and will include intensive instruction in book design and layout, Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, use of our Bind-Fast bookbinding machine, letterpress and screen printing, as well as web design and New Media studies.

Students will publish a collaborative book that anthologizes their creative work, and will go on to produce their own books and start their own presses.

Many writing and cartooning programs cost roughly the price of a new BMW. Our program, on the other hand, costs about as much as a nice new bike. And as a program we are much like a bicycle: not flashy, but nimble. Human powered. Something old that is also new. The future.

For more information or to apply e-mail justin@iprc.org

Monica Drake, Karen Karbo, Justin Hocking, and Gigi Little read from Portland Noir Thursday evening at The Blue Monk

From Kevin Sampsell:

Portland Noir at The Blue Monk
Big Portland Blowout Full of Stars and Music

Thursday, July 2
9:00pm
The Blue Monk (downstairs)
3341 SE Belmont

One more big bash for the book that's taking over Portland--we actually sold more copies of this book than the Stephanie Meyer books AND the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies book at Powell's last week!

There will be kick-ass readings by Monica Drake, Karen Karbo, Justin Hocking, and Gigi Little, along with music by Tahoe Jackson and a showing of the obscure film noir, "Portland Expose" (1957).

Reading Frenzy hosts artist reception for Kate Bingaman-Burt Thursday evening

From Reading Frenzy:

"Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?"
Artist's Reception for Kate Bingaman-Burt

Thursday, July 2
6:00pm
Reading Frenzy
921 SW Oak St.

We're very, very pleased to present Obsessive Consumption by Kate Bingaman-Burt this July! Ms. Bingaman-Burt will practically be creating a store within a store with not just an exhibit, but window displays, bins filled with dozens of original drawings, 40 issues of her beautifully produced What Did You Buy Today zines, and other objects and oddities relating to personal consumption! We can't wait!

Kate Bingaman-Burt is an illustrator, designer, writer and founder of Obsessive Consumption. She also is an assistant professor of graphic design at Portland State University.

For the last four years, she has produced drawings inspired from her daily purchases, no matter how mundane. Bingaman-Burt's work explores the relationship between people and their possessions as was as the consumer culture.

Her work about personal consumerism has appeared in installations and exhibitions across the country as well as in multiple media outlets such as New York Times Magazine, How, Print, Art News and National Public Radio. Princeton Architectural Press is publishing her first book: Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? which contains containing 650 of her Daily Purchase Drawings, patterns and credit card statements in March of 2010.

She is active in the indie craft and craftivism movements and provided all of the illustrations for the book Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design as well as the promotions for the companion documentary of the same name. Some of the other people she happily draws for are IDEO, Madewell, Ready-Made Magazine, The New York Times and Wieden + Kennedy.

Birthday: Szymborska

"I've mentioned inspiration. Contemporary poets answer evasively when asked what it is, and if it actually exists. It's not that they've never known the blessing of this inner impulse. It's just not easy to explain something to someone else that you don't understand yourself.

"When I'm asked about this on occasion, I hedge the question too. But my answer is this: inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists generally. There is, has been, and will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners - and I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.'"

-- from the Nobel Lecture of Wislawa Szymborska, who turns 86 today.

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North

Articles: Pinsky on Marianne Moore, Williams on authors tweeting in anger

In Slate, Robert Pinsky looks into why Marianne Moore (right) kept revising "Poetry":
"Moore, as I understand her project, champions both clarity and complexity, rejecting the shallow notion that they are opposites. Scorning a middlebrow reduction of everything into easy chunks, she also scorns obfuscation and evasive cop-outs. Tacitly impatient with complacency and bluffing, deriding the flea-bitten critic, unsettling the too-ordinary reader, she sets forth an art that is irritable, attentive, and memorably fluid."

In Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams writes, "Hey, authors, don't tweet in anger!":
"As newspapers and magazines shrink and shutter their book review sections, one could easily fret that with them will go that other great literary institution: the author-critic feud. Fortunately, as Alice Hoffman's weekend meltdown suggests, the form is still thriving -- in 140-character nuggets. Smarting from a so-so review of 'The Story Sisters' in the Boston Globe, the prolific novelist tweeted her fury to the world. She came out swinging, calling reviewer Roberta Silman 'a moron,' quickly moving on to 'idiot,' then expanding her repertoire to dis the newspaper and the city of Boston itself."

Barbara Blossom, Nancy Woods, Karen Flagstad, and Samantha Ducloux Waltz read at Blackbird Wine Shop Wednesday evening for Oregon Literary Review

Oregon Literary Review co-hosts First Wednesdays, a series of readings, performances and wine-tasting at the Blackbird Wine Shop, 3519 NE 44th off Fremont, 7-9pm. This show is 21 and over. Contact Julie Mae Madsen at maemadsen@gmail.com for more information.

The readers/performers for July 1 are Barbara Blossom, Nancy Woods, Karen Flagstad, and Samantha Ducloux Waltz.

Samantha Ducloux Waltz is an award-winning freelance writer in Portland, Oregon, with more than three dozen personal essays in series such as the A Cup of Comfort series, the Chicken Soup For The Soul series, the Ultimate series and other anthologies. Her work has also appeared in The Christian Science Monitor and The Rambler. She has also written fiction and nonfiction under the name Samellyn Wood. More at www.pathsofthought.com.

Barbara Blossom Ashmun is the author of six books, most recently Married to My Garden. She writes “Garden Muse,” a weekly garden column for the Portland Tribune and has written for Fine Gardening and Better Homes & Gardens. She's working on a sequel to Married to My Garden, with a working title of All My Children, and a memoir. Barbara gardens on 2/3 of an acre in Southwest Portland and enjoys opening her garden to interested gardeners. Read more at
BlessingsFromTheGarden.blogspot.com.

Nancy Woods is a Portland freelance writer whose essays have been read on Oregon Public Radio and published in the Oregonian, Oregon Quarterly, Oregon Humanities and Northwest Palate. She is a regular contributor to Oregon Home.

Karen Flagstad lives and writes in Southeast Portland, Oregon, where she shares a 96-year old house with her husband and two cats. She holds degrees in English literature from San Diego State University and UCLA. For her dissertation, she wrote about Shakespeare (The
Tempest), Renaissance travel literature, and magic traditions, completing her UCLA doctorate in 1979. She has worked as a flight attendant, a teacher, a technical editor, and a writer. Her publications include literary criticism, travel pieces, poetry, book reviews, and articles on the environment. Currently she is at work on a memoir.