As I await the publication of my third book of short stories about Maine and northern New England, A Faithful But Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed, I remember applying for a job in my twenties that I suspected (correctly, it turned out) would pay me for taking naps. The position involved running a …
This short story collection does what Yuknavitch does best—asks you to trade your life for a book that is just strange and beautiful enough for you to make the deal. I floated through these stories the same way I’ve floated through her other work, almost unaware of time passing. Her endangered characters make terrible and …
Ted Chiang, the author of Exhalation, a collection of short fiction that won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and was named a New York Times Best Book of 2019, responded to questions from members of the 2020 PNBA Awards committee. Exhalation is your second heralded collection. What draws you to the short story form? I …
Phinney Books in Seattle has a Resist List of titles. For every title on the list, the store donates 20% of the sales to the American Civil Liberties Union. What to do in the age of Trump? Every week, we’re featuring, here and in our store, a rotating list of a dozen or so books …
Lidia Yuknavitch Reads Her Short Story “Street Walker” Listen to Portland author Lidia Yuknavitch read on this podcast, brought to you by Portland bookstore Powell’s! This story is a preview; the collection, Verge, will be available February 4, 2020. You can preorder now from Powell’s and other independent bookstores. Get crafty, make a card, and …
From lithub.com, by Charles Johnson . . . On November 11, 1991, I had the privilege and pleasure of reading with Marshall at the Poetry Center in NYC. I felt it was an honor because I’d long been an admirer of her novel Brown Girl, Brownstones, published in 1959 when I was 11 years old. …
Not long ago a book sneaked up on me. The paperback of Valerie Trueblood’s Terrarium hit the shelves of Madison Books, which served as a reminder that I’d had the hardcover sitting unread on my nightstand for far too long. I tried one story in the collection, then another, and kept going until the characters began …
Kittens in vending machines, hippos rising out of dark water, broom handles made of gold: in his first novel, King of Joy, Seattle writer Richard Chiem blends comforting absurdity with the most profound reaches of grief. The result is a strange, unsettling harmony that is typical of his writing. Drawing from themes also present in …
Phinney Books in Seattle shared excitement about some spring titles in a recent newsletter. February 26 The Border by Don Winslow The arrival of this final volume is making it clear that Winslow’s epic trilogy about the drug wars on the US-Mexico border is one of the central fictional dramas of our time, closing in a storm …
Valerie Trueblood’s precision in dissecting the complexities of human nature is perhaps her greatest strength. With stories that teeter on the brink of catastrophe, Trueblood doesn’t shy away from the grim and bleak, but her empathy and compassion are what stop you in your tracks. Terrarium is one of 12 finalists chosen for the 2019 Pacific Northwest …
