The New Oregon Interview Series brought three prominent Portland literary figures together for an evening of intimate conversation. Fiction and screen writer Jon Raymond, Write Around Portland co-founder Ben Moorad and novelist Monica Drake sat down to discuss their work and how our book culture is evolving on August 26th at Urban Grind East. An editor at Plazm Magazine whose writing has appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, Tin House, The Village Voice, and other publications, Raymond is the author of The Half-Life, a novel, and Livability, a collection of stories, two of which were made into the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. A recent MacDowell Colony Fellow in support of his current nonfiction project, The Envelope of Suicides, Ben Moorad is a poet, interdisciplinary artist and co-founder of the nonprofit Write Around Portland, which has helped over 3000 local youth and adults overcome barriers to build community through writing. An essayist and the author of the novel Clown Girl, Monica Drake’s work has appeared in Portland Noir and The Sun among others, and she teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Host Nora Robertson conceived the New Oregon Interview Series to find out how Portland’s blossoming creative culture has developed and where it’s headed. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” The Oregonian's Barry Johnson remarked "at this point, we don't know whether we're headed back where we left off 18 months ago or whether we're going somewhere completely new. That question is at the center of the New Oregon Interview Series."
The New Oregon Interview Series is presented by New Oregon Arts and Letters, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization formerly known as 2GQ, the publishers of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly. More information can be found online at http://www.2gq.org/neworegon.html.
LISTEN FOR YOURSELF
Jon Raymond is the author of The Half-Life, a novel, and Livability, a collection of stories, two of which were made into the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. He's an editor at Plazm Magazine and his writing has appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, Tin House, The Village Voice, and other publications.
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In 1999, Ben Moorad started Write Around Portland with his friend Liza Halley. In the years since, this nonprofit has helped almost 3,000 adults and youth overcome various barriers to build community through writing. Ben has received three grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council for his poetry projects that incorporate performance and collaborations with book artists; and he is a recent Fellow of the MacDowell Colony in support of his current nonfiction project, The Envelope of Suicides.
Monica Drake is the author of the novel, Clown Girl (Hawthorne Books). Her essays and stories have been published in The Northwest Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Threepenny Review and other magazines. Work is forthcoming in The Sun. She has an MFA from the University of Arizona and teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Photo credit: Chelsea Petrakis.
