Inside a rented house on bluff in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, I’m one of four women on a DIY writer’s retreat. A wall of tall windows shows a blue scene: a bend in the Mississippi River, cloud cover, deciduous trees, buzzards tilting just beyond our overlook. Inside, having run or walked or stretched to clear our …
Bikini Kill front woman Kathleen Hanna transformed the ’90s revival punk scene with a call to action from young girls that lives on today. Hanna shares her journey surviving the scene under threat of male violence but also delves into her supportive relationships with other influential musicians of the era (Kim Gordon fans rejoice!) while …
A middle-aged woman wakes up and finds an invisible wall has been put up, a little ways outside where she is staying. This wall extends infinitely and everything beyond the wall is frozen in time. She finds no people living near her. She is terrified and thinks it might be some military experiment gone wrong. …
Poet E.J. Wade interviewed Oregon novelist Karen Spears Zacharias. E.J.: Karen, you are the author of several books including the bestselling Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide, Mother of Rain, Burdy, A Silence of Mockingbirds, After the Flag Has Been Folded, and The Murder Gene. We love your books, dauntless stories about women who navigate …
Portland author Ellen Notbohm interviewed Brittney Corrigan about her fifth poetry collection, Solastalgia (2023, JackLeg Press). Corrigan’s poetry and short stories have appeared in more than 100 literary journals including Watershed Review’s 10th Anniversary issue and other publications including Scientific American’s Science in Meter and Verse column. She appears frequently at poetry readings around the …
![Livid by Cai Emmons [red background, black and gold pair of scissors]](https://nwbooklovers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Livid-cover-120x180.jpg)
This novel is a fascinating and moving portrait of love, sex, grief, feminism, morality, fortitude, and the complexities of human character. When Sybil returns from Boston to the West Coast town where she once lived, she’s immediately empaneled on a jury for a murder trial. Also on the jury is her ex-husband. Sybil’s sympathy for …
When a meme mocking her cousin’s body hair becomes the talk of the school, TJ Powar begins to wonder how and why something as natural as hair is seen as disgusting or unclean—she then decides to discontinue her shaving and waxing regimens to test just how much it affects her social status. TJ Powar Has …
May the memory of bell hooks (1952-2021) always be preserved. Her work was a tour de force, and this excellent volume is a good a place to start. She was the author who taught me about feminism as an act of revolutionary love, and as a critical mindset for human thriving. This book disrupts patriarchal …
Some just out-wit, out-smart, out talk others, out perform, and some “sit quiet and refuse to be agreeable.” Many just don’t give into self-doubt and second-guessing and proceed through life with verve and conviction. I would have loved to met them all! Each little vignette is filled with wit and insight and such fun to …
Set across the PNW, LaPointe combines memoir and creative non-fiction to weave the stories of her Coast Salish female ancestors into her own complex tale. Heart-wrenching, and unflinching, LaPointe depicts the severe mental and physical health problems and hardships caused by PTSD from sexual assault—an issue which disproportionally impacts Native/Indigenous women. In La Pointe’s journey …
