MOST RECENT OPA NEWS
New Oregon Poet Laureate: Kim Stafford
On May 15, 2018, Governor Kate Brown named Kim Stafford the ninth Poet Laureate of Oregon.
We are lucky to have such an accomplished Poet Laureate with a diverse background in teaching and writing poetry. Kim Stafford grew up in Oregon and received his Ph.D. in medieval literature from the University of Oregon. His resume includes printer, photographer, oral historian, editor and visiting writer. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and children.
His book Having Everything Right: Essays of Place won a citation for excellence from the Western States Book Awards in 1986. Stafford has received creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Governor’s Arts Award, and the Stewart Holbrook Award from Literary Arts for his contributions to Oregon’s literary culture. Additionally, his work has been featured on National Public Radio. In his most recent book, 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do, an account of his ... Read all of this item.
MEMBER NEWS
- Posted: June 21, 2018
NFSPS Contest Results Posted
Look for winning poems by OPA’s very own President, Lisa Baldwin!LATEST BOOK REVIEW (EXCERPT)
Before Dreaming: Poems by Arn Strasser, reviewed by Gigi Cooper
Before Dreaming
by Arn Strasser
Budding Branch Books, an imprint of Asher & Merriman Publishers
ISBN# 978-0-9841874-1-6
2015, 89 pp., $19.95
www.buddingbranchbooks.com
Before Dreaming almost is correct; Between Dreaming would be accurate. Arn Strasser’s collection investigates the interaction between the dream state and wakefulness. He approaches the enigma of the dream world with both wonder and dread, exploring the boundaries between living and dead, youth and age, adventure and solace. Without magniloquence, he takes the reader on a journey from as close as the dining room and sofa to the markets and shores of Sardinia.
For Strasser, sleep is not a separate condition, but a way to access both memories and the future. Dream and memory inextricably intertwine in the book, most literally in the penultimate set of poems
called “The Wanderers.”
- Night
… so we may wander
the landscapes
of our dreams … .
these constellations of our
desires, a twilight of
remembrances.
- Awakening
… Do you hear
voices
of the dead,
who speak in memory … .
In ... Read all of this item.
MOST RECENT POET’S SPOTLIGHT
2018 Spring Contest Winner: 1st Place, Theme–Borders and Boundaries
June 2, 2018Cross-Country Bus
by Charlotte Abernathy
Miles beyond midnight, beyond another state line,
past service station signs glaring from high pylons,
beyond remnants of a weary town, one last overhead
reading light clicks off. In the dark, drowsy voices
merge with the droning motor, the roaring tires.
Cold window glass rumbles hard against my forehead
as I watch moonlit hills rise and fall like ocean swells.
Distant farmhouses appear and disappear like small
boats afloat in a heaving sea. Fleeting images of shelter
comfort me all through the long unwinding night.
Judge’s comments
I was drawn to the category, Borders and Boundaries, because it is a subject that I ponder often and I often have lived in between places: countries, regions, cultures. These poems didn’t disappoint. The poets explored a lot of ground, figuratively and literally. And it was fun to explore with them. The poems that really stuck with me were those that took me someplace. The first-place poem reminded me of many ... Read all of this item.