FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ellen Waterston, Director
The Nature of Words
Phone: 541.330.4381
Email: info@thenatureofwords.org
Website: www.thenatureofwords.org
Editors: Author photos available upon request.
Start Turning the Pages! The Nature of Words Announces 2008 Guest Authors
November Literary Event to Feature Diverse Roster of Award-Winning Writers
Bend, Oregon. April 29, 2008. Readers, writers, book browsers, and all lovers of good literature - it's time to load up your nightstand with books written by The Nature of Words 2008 guest authors. In its fourth year, Central Oregon's premier literary event will present another outstanding roster of authors in fiction, literary nonfiction and poetry for its November 2008 festival. The diverse lineup includes an icon of ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy literature, a novelist who uses his dual-culture heritage to explore universal themes, an internationally acclaimed slam poet, an award-winning short story writer, a nonfiction author who is an outspoken advocate for the desert Southwest, a prize-winning poet and memoirist, and a naturalist and ecologist whose books combine science and adventure travel. The annual celebration is scheduled for November 5-9, 2008 in Bend, Oregon.
The 2008 guest author lineup includes these acclaimed authors:
Ursula LeGuin has published 11 books and chapbooks of poetry, 23 novels, over 100 short stories, four collections of essays, 11 books for children, and four volumes of translation. Her best known fantasy works, the six books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in America and England, and have been translated into 16 languages. Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered epoch-making in the field for its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity. Her most recent book, Lavinia, gives voice to Virgil's dutiful, but barely mentioned, wife of Aeneas. Three of LeGuin's books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulit zer Prize, and she has received a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, a Pushcart Prize, and the PEN/Malamud Award.
Luis Urrea was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his nonfiction work and national bestseller, The Devil's Highway, an account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert. A member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the author of 11 books, and uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. Urrea's most recent book, The Hummingbird's Daughter (2005), is the culmination of 20 years of research and writing. The historical novel tells the story of Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as The Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc. Other titles include his memoir, Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life, which garnered a 1999 American Book Award, and in poetry, The Fever of Being, which won the Western States Book Award.
Pam Houston is the author of two collections of linked s hort stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. A collection of essays, A Little More About Me, was published in 1999. In 2001, she completed a stage play called Tracking the Pleiades and her first novel, Sighthound, was published in 2005. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, and The Evil Companions Literary Award. Houston is the Director of Creative Writing at U.C. Davis, and divides her time between Davis, California, and her ranch in Colorado.
Charles Bowden is a Tucson, Arizona-based non-fiction author, journalist, and essayist who writes about the environment and social issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. An outspoken advocate for the desert Southwest since the 1970s, he is the author of 14 books including A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Dog; Down By the River: Drugs, Money, Murder and Family; Juarez: The Laboratory of our Future, for which he won a 1996 Lannan Award; Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America; Desierto: Memories of the Future; Red Line; Blue Desert ; and (with Michael Binstein) Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Billions.
Craig Childs is a naturalist, adventurer, and desert ecologist. Author of 11 books that combine science and wilderness travel, he is a winner of the Colorado Book Award and, in 2003, the Spirit of the West Literary Achievement Award, given to a writer whose body of work captures the unique spirit of the American West. His most recent book is Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild (2007). Previous books include Crossing Paths, The Desert Cries, and The Secret Knowledge of Water. His books have twice been named to the Book Sense 76 list, and have been listed as top books of the year by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
Judith Barrington is a poet and memoirist who has published three collections of poetry, a prize-winning memoir, and a text on writing literary memoir which is used all across the United States and in Australia and Europe. Her most recent poetry is collected in a new chapbook, Postcard From the Bottom of the Sea. Her most recent full length book is Horses and the Human Soul. Barrington's memoir, Lifesaving, won the Lambda Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir. Judith grew up in England and moved to the United States in 1976. She has lived in Portland, Oregon since then, returning to Europe to give readings and workshops every year.
Patricia Smith, internationally renowned as a performance poet, is four-time national individual champion of th e notorious and wildly popular poetry slam, an energized competition where poets are judged on the content and performance of their work. She is also regarded as one of the few performance poets whose work translates effortlessly to the page. Blood Dazzler, a collection due in September 2008, chronicles Hurricane Katrina as it transforms into a full-blown mistress of destruction. Smith's collection, Teahouse of the Almighty, was chosen by Ed Sanders for the 2005 National Poetry Series. Her three previous books of poetry are Close to Death Big Towns, Big Talk and Life According to Motown. She has won the prestigious Carl Sandburg Award, and, in 2006, was inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent.
The Nature of Words includes two nights of author readings in Bend's Tower Theatre, two days of writing workshops conducted by the guest authors at the OSU-Cascades Campus, a dinner and panel discussion at the High Desert Museum, the Rising Star Creative Writing Competition a wards for young writers, and an open mike session for aspiring writers at the Bend Public Library.
About Our Sponsors
The Nature of Words is made possible thanks to the generous support of Central Oregon Community College, Oregon State University-Cascades Campus, Starview Foundation in support of the S.M.A.R.T. (Start Making A Reader Today) Program, The Shops at The Old Mill District, the Writing Ranch, and an anonymous donor. Additional support is being provided by Brooks Resources, Cascade Publications, Clear 101.7 FM, Deschutes County Board of Commissioners, Devore's Good Food, Emily Bonavia, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Bend, S. Park Shaw Foundation, Sun Forest Construction, The Bulletin, The Roundhouse Foundation, The Source Weekly and Umpqua Bank.
For more information, visit www.thenatureofwords.org, email info@thenatureofwords.org or call 541.330.4381.