News/Events
2021
30 August-- New novel, Lionesses, included on a long list for the Petrichor Prize given by Regal House Press.
2020
June 22, 6 pm, Telling Our Stories, Zoom session for the Pendleton Library
Served as Chair for Whitman's English Department during a strange and turbulent time.
2019
November 8, Reading from The Steelheader (novel-in-progress) for Whitman's Faculty Forum
October 2019, "Come West and See: Stories," a book review in The New York Journal of Books.
2018
November 11, The essay "Mountains and the Idea of Mountains: Seasonal Rounds in the Blues" is the afterword for the book, The Blues, edited by Whitman Geology professor Bob Carson.
June 23, Workshop (with Peter Donahue), Harbor House Books, Aberdeen, 12-2 pm
June 22, Reading (with Peter Donahue, to help him promote his collection of short novels Three Sides Water), Raymond Carver Room, Port Angeles Library, 6 pm
May 18, 3 pm, Lecture on Creating Suspense at the Oregon Writers Literary Summit
April 29, 3-5 pm Annual Walla Walla Whitman Imaginative Writing Collaborative celebration with our best elementary and middle school writers.
March 11, 4-5 pm, Talk on the Power of Story for Whitman's Student Engagement Center.
February 8, Short story "The Plans" is in the Scablands Books anthology Towers and Dungeons.
2017
Promoted to Full --or, as my Scottish colleague pronounces it, "fool"-- Professor
2016
August 25--Temple Grove is included on a list of "100 Must-Read Books about National Parks" for the National Park Service's 100th birthday. Happy birthday NPS!
Here's the link: http://bookriot.com/2016/08/18/100-must-read-books-national-parks/
2015
ASLE Conference
"Going up the Dean" (talk about a new novel)
Moscow Idaho, June 23-27th
Walla Walla, May 18, 2015, 6-8
Many Waters event
My steelhead fly fishing essay, "Earning Pacific," is in this wonderful, interdisciplinary book about the Walla Walla valley
Whitman Campus, Reid Center, May 18, 2015
Pendleton, Oregon, February 19, 7 pm
First Draft Reading Series
Pendleton Center for the Arts
214 N. Main
2014
Seattle Washington, Monday, November 3, 7 pm
University Bookstore, reading and signing
Victoria, British Columbia, November 5-8
Western Literature Association Conference
Temple Grove was a finalist in the fiction category for the 2014 Washington State Book Award announced in a ceremony at the Seattle Public Library on October 10, 2014 at 7 pm. I celebrated and signed books with other finalists. Here's a link to the library's news release:
http://www.spl.org/about-the-library/library-news-releases/washington-state-book-awards-1010
The 2014 Washington State Book Award finalists in fiction were:
"Temple Grove" by Scott Elliott (University of Washington Press)
"Hild" by Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
"Half as Happy" by Gregory Spatz (Engine Books)
"We Live in Water" by Jess Walter (Harper Perennial)
"Wilderness" by Lance Weller (Bloomsbury)
Congratulations to Nicola Griffith! Hild was the winner.
Pendleton, Oregon , Saturday, October 4, 12 pm
Eastern Oregon Word Round-Up
Lecture on writing place
Seattle, Washington, Friday, October 10, 7 pm
2014 Washington State Book Awards Ceremony
Seattle Public Library
Coiled in the Heart is recommended to fans of HBO's show True Detective as a book to read to get your southern gothic fix now that the show is over: http://popculturetea.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/4-southern-gothic-books-to-read-post-true-detective/
Temple Grove is out in paperback, mid August, 2014.
Port Townsend, Washington, August 1, 7pm
Jefferson County Historical Society First Friday Lecture
Port Townsend City Council Chambers, 540 Water Street
$5 suggested donation.
La Grande, Oregon, June 25, 11 am
Craft Lecture for the Low Residency Program at Eastern Oregon University:
"Courting that Place Where Anything Could Happen: Openness to the Unexpected in Structure, Word, and Deed"
La Grande, Oregon, June 25, 7:30 pm
Reading, Eastern Oregon University
La Grande, Oregon, April 16, 7-8:30
Roundhouse Reading Series, Joe Beans Coffee
Seattle, Thursday, February 27, 7-9 pm
Whitman Alumni Talk/Reading
Crowne Plaza Hotel
Seattle, Thursday, February 27, 1pm
Signing at the University of Washington Press Booth, AWP Bookfair
Montana Public Radio, February 13, 2014
The Write Question, Interview with Cherie Newman
http://mtpr.net/post/loggers-big-trees-and-pacific-northwest-indians
2013
Portland, Oregon, November 24, 2:30pm
Eliot Center
Whitman Alumni reading and talk
Portland Oregon, November 23, noon-4pm
Wild Arts Festival
wildartsfestival.org
Bob Edwards interview. October 23, aired November 12.
Touchet, Washington, October 16, 6:30
Reading and talk at Touchet Community Library
Louisville, Kentucky, October 19, 4:00
Carmichael's Bookstore
2720 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
502-896-6950
Marginalia Interview, October 19, Online in 4 parts.
Missoula, Montana, October 10-12
Montana Festival of the Book
Walla Walla, Washington, September 18, 5:30 pm
Walla Walla Public Library
Leavenworth, Washington, September 20, 7pm
Leavenworth Public Library
Leavenworth, Washington, September 21, 1-3 pm
A Book For All Seasons Bookstore (signing)
Spokane, Washington, September 21, 7pm
Auntie's Bookstore
Mazama, Washington, September 7-8
Mazama Festival of Books
Ketchum (Sun Valley), Idaho, July 11th, 6pm
Ketchum Public Library
Vancouver, B.C., June 9, 7:30 pm
Railway Club Reading for Joyland Magazine
Located in the heart of Vancouver, BC, at
579 Dunsmuir St. on the corner at Seymour
Phone: 604-681-1625 .
https://www.facebook.com/events/152024704976628/
Bellingham, Washington, June 4, 7pm
Village Books
1200 11th Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
Tel: 360.671.2626
Elliott Bay Book Company, June 2, 3 pm
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle WA 98122
(206) 624-6600
Olympia, Washington, May 31, 7pm
Orca Books
509 E. 4th Ave.
Olympia, WA 98501
360-352-0123
Portland, Oregon, May 23, 7pm
Annie Bloom's Bookstore
7834 SW Capitol Hwy
(503) 246-0053
Whitman Bookstore Launch Reading
Walla Walla, Washington, April 23, 7pm
Whitman College, Olin 130
2012
Temple Grove is scheduled for release on May 1, 2013.
In February I gave the G. Thomas Edwards Lecture at Whitman. The title: The Brain Wants a Song: Creative Writing and the Liberal Arts.
2011
In May, I accepted the G. Thomas Edwards Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship at Whitman.
The short story Affirmed and Alydar was accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of the Louisville Review
June: Read the novella-in-progress "Cue the Cougar" with David Bernardy and Joni Tevis at the ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) Conference in Bloomington, Indiana. The title of the reading: Our Animals Inside
2010
Summer: short story "A Certain Kind of Rural Story" published in Mayday Magazine
I will read my essay "Sol Duc" at Raucous Pens/Wild Lives. This is a group reading in honor of Hawk and Handsaw Magazine and Terrain.org, Thursday 8 April, as part of the AWP Conference, Denver Colorado.
2009
Short story collection Return Arrangements is short listed for the Flannery O'Connor Prize for short fiction.
Finished editing Pen students' anthology Concertina: Our Voices.
Short story "Leaf and Blade" published in Juked.
This summer I'll be working with two students on a Perry Grant adapting oral accounts of family stories into satisfying fiction and creative non-fiction.
May 2009--Finishing up a productive sabbatical during which I began work on a long poem about rivers; completed work on a story collection (working title Return Arrangements) about brothers, sibling rivalry, and attempts to become an artist; got a good start on several other projects; and began teaching a multi-genre creative writing class at the Washington State Penitentiary.
I'm reading my essay "Sol Duc" (about a particular experience fly-fishing for steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula) at the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE) Conference in Victoria, B.C., June 3-7.
"How Much Letting Go?" a review of Greg Sanders story collection Motel Girl in the American Book Review, May/June.
February 11-15, AWP in Chicago and particularly the Pedagogy Forum, sharing a style exercise involving a translation of a passage of a Hemingway story ("Hills Like White Elephants")into Faulknerian prose and/or a translation of a passage of a Faulkner story ("A Rose for Emily") into Hemingway-esque prose.
"Lonely Voices," a review of David Crouse's story collection The Man Back There and Other Stories in American Book Review, January.
2008
"The Crossing: A Love Story in Twenty-Six Lines" in Forklift, Ohio, November
"Warranted Magic: Writing and Discussing Magical Realism." An article in the Writers Chronicle, May/Summer
January 30-February 2. AWP Pedagogy Forum, New York, "Using Self-Guided Journals to Supplement Reading in a Workshop Class"
2007
October 17-21. Western Literature Association Conference, Tacoma, WA. Read a selection from In the Olympics.
February 10. Winter Margin, Walla Walla Community College's annual invitational reading event to "...push back the winter margin...put it in its place."
February 28 to March 4, AWP Conference, Atlanta, Georgia. Pedagogy Forum: "Supplying the Best Ending," a writing exercise that involves having students read all but the ending of a story they've never read before, supplying the best ending they can write for that story, and comparing their ending with the original version.
2006
I'm on sabbatical from Whitman in the fall and will be traveling, living near Forks, Washington, and working on the second novel and some other writing projects.
Short story "The Wheelbarrow Man" in the summer 2006 Antioch Review
AWP Pedagogy Forum, "Using Favorite Songs to Inspire Story Writing," Austin, March 2006
2005
Southern Kentucky Bookfest "Success and the First Novel" invited talk, April 2005.
AWP Vancouver March 2005
One Community, One Book Event March 3 and 4, 2005, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Coiled in the Heart was selected as the book for this event in 2005. I went to Bowling Green to participate in a series of discussions of Coiled with students on the WKU campus and members of the Bowling Green community. It was a wonderful experience.
Texas Book Fair, "Dark in the Heart" panel discussion, October 28-30th, 2005 Austin Texas
2004
Visiting Writers Readers Series Reading at Whitman, September 21
July, Paperback edition of Coiled in the Heart published by Putnam (Bluehen, Berkely)
KUHF, Houston, Front Row, Interview With Alison Jones, Aired July 2004
2003
Readings:
University of Houston Library Reading Series, October
Davis-Kidd, Nashville, September
Walden Books, Knoxville, September
Hawley-Cooke, Louisville, September
Brazos Bookstore, Houston, September
Radio:
NPR’s Morning Edition, Interview with Bob Edwards, Aired November 11, 2003
KONP, Port Angeles, Washington, Interview with Karen Hanan, Art Beat Show, August 27, 2003
Television:
KUHT, Channel 8, Houston, Texas, recorded in September 2003
WVLT, Channel 8, CBS Affiliate, Knoxville, Tennessee, September 17, 2003
WHAS Channel 11, ABC Affiliate, Louisville Kentucky, September 12, 2003