Fishtrap News

Still time: Include Fishtrap in your end-of-year giving

2010-12-30T16:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends,
A few weeks ago, we sent out a mailing asking Fishtrap's community of writers, readers and other supporters to consider an end-of-year gift to Fishtrap. Many of you have responded already, and generously. Thank you! But we still have a ways to go to meet our goal.

If you have not yet made your 2010 year-end tax-deductible donation, please consider doing so now. With your help, we can continue Fishtrap's proud 23-year legacy of rich programs, workshops, gatherings and publications (and, yes, that "rich" pun was intended!). Remember, no gift is too small, but if you can, please give generously.

There are two easy ways to donate so that your donation counts for 2010:
1) Donate online at www.fishtrap.org anytime up until midnight on December 31.
2) Date your check prior to midnight on December 31 and mail it to: Fishtrap, PO Box 38, Enterprise, OR 97828. Postmarked December 31 or earlier is best, but who saves envelopes? Checks received within the first week of January and dated in 2010 will be counted.

If you live in Oregon, be sure to match your donation to Fishtrap (and other participating arts and cultural organizations) with a donation to the Oregon Cultural Trust. Double the impact of your gift and receive a dollar for dollar credit on your Oregon income tax for 2010 at the same time. How can you beat that?

On behalf of the entire Fishtrap Board and Staff, here's to a wonderful, writing-filled New Year!

With gratitude,

Barbara Dills
Interim Executive Director

Winter in the Wallowas

2010-12-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends,

Season's Greetings from Wallowa County and all of us at Fishtrap. I took my morning walk today, sunny, gorgeous, and a crisp 15 degrees out. I thought I'd share the view that greeted me as I headed up into Iwetemlaykin, the Oregon State Parks Heritage Site just outside the town of Joseph. I was about ten steps further down the trail from this scene and a fox bounded into sight fifty yards ahead, paused, sat down, and considered me before heading on. I walked slowly along as she or he played hide and seek with me for another five minutes or so before rounding a bend out of sight.

I then headed off in a different direction, only to see this lady to your left poised at the top of the ridge, (look to the right of the trees). Turned out she was with four sister does. The others were resting on the ground but jumped up and took off when two humans and a dog approached from a trail on the other side. The does' day had begun. And so, magically, had mine.

Scenes like this are so frequent they become almost commonplace when you live here. Which brings me to say, if you haven't visited Wallowa County in winter, you are definitely missing out on something special. So, why not join us for Winter Fishtrap, February 25-27? Iwetemlaykin in the lovely Nimipuu (Nez Perce) language means "at the edge of the lake." Come sit with us at the other edge of Wallowa Lake and join the conversation about what "Getting Small" can mean to a life and a planet.

There is still room at the Inn (in this case, Wallowa Lake Lodge!), which is closed for the rest of the winter and only opens that one stretch in February for Fishtrap. We're adding new elements to the program all the time. In addition to the core presentations by Winona LaDuke, Charles Goodrich and Tammy Strobel, we'll have music and other fun with Kate Power and Steve Einhorn, writing time with Amy Minato, and most likely a local "slow food" guest chef on Saturday night. Great fun on the bus ride out Interstate 84 from Portland for those of you who live in that corridor or want to depart from Portland. It's stacking up to be an amazing weekend. If you register and pay your balance in full by December 21, you'll receive a discount on your registration. You can sign up and make secure payment online with a credit card or PayPal account, or by calling Fishtrap at 541-426-3623.

We just learned yesterday that the Lodge's cabins will be available for Winter Fishtrap participants again this year for a few days before and after our event. There are only a few cabins available, so if you are interested, give us a call or write to jon@fishtrap.org.

Help Fishtrap Wrap Up 2010 In Strength

The other deadline coming up is the December 31st deadline to make a donation to Fishtrap and receive a tax deduction for 2010. Oregon residents are reminded to support the Oregon Cultural Trust at the same time and you'll get a tax credit that offsets your donation (up to $500 for individuals and $1000 for couples). Fishtrap relies on the support of our extended community to support all our programs, including Summer and Winter Fishtrap. Our costs to produce these events are not covered by registration fees. Your donations also enable us to provide writing instruction and inspiration to youth all across Eastern Oregon and to produce Wallowa County's Big Read program, which last year reached 2300 people in a county of only 7000. The book everyone will be reading over the holidays this year to get ready for the Big Read kick-off on January 9 is Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. No matter where you are, read along and join the fun!

You can donate online at www.fishtrap.org right up until midnight on December 31. Checks written and postmarked on or before December 31 will also be credited for 2010.

No donation is too small... and we ask those of you who can to give generously. Your support in any amount is deeply appreciated.

Fishtrap Fellowships
Each year, we award up to five full fellowships to emerging writers to attend Summer Fishtrap free of charge. The Fellows are selected based on submission of work and a statement of interest. The purpose and spirit of the Fishtrap Fellowship program has always been to give a leg-up to writers who may not yet be publicly recognized through other channels, such as MFA programs, publications or other fellowships and awards. This year, to ensure that we are serving our particular audience, we will also be asking for a complete resume. The screeners and final judge will have the benefit of this personal information as they evaluate the candidates. We hope this process will encourage those of you just starting out to consider applying, as well as writers who may have been at it for a while but be ready to make a new leap. If you are interested, please send an email to me at barbara@fishtrap.org with "Fishtrap Fellowship 2011" in the subject line and we'll send you the formal application guidelines, which will be available in early January. More information on the Fishtrap Fellowship program, including a list of past recipients, is available at www.fishtrap.org.

Summer Fishtrap 2011: Migrations & Passages
Workshop leaders confirmed so far include: Joanne Mulcahy, Elizabeth (Beth) Taylor, Robert (Bob) Pyle, Rosanne Parry, Gary Ferguson and Myrlin Hepworth, with others you'll love in conversation with us now. The Gathering will also be amazing, with confirmations so far from Pramila Jayapal, Eva Castellanoz, David Laskin, and Ellen Waterston, who will be joined in conversation by our workshop faculty. The Saturday night featured speaker is 90% confirmed, so we hope to have an announcement soon. We think you'll be thrilled. Block these dates: July 10-17. And, if you were closed out last year due to how quickly things filled, be assured that we are taking steps to open up more workshop spots this year. Watch for more details on all of this coming in January.

Yearlong Writing Workshop with Karen Fisher
Details on the application process for the upcoming Yearlong Writing Workshop in Historical Fiction with Karen Fisher will be out on the website the first week of January. We'll remind you in the next newsletter. Meanwhile, if you haven't read Karen's extraordinary novel, A Sudden Country, we recommend it. You'll discover why we are so excited to have her return this year to teach and lead our next Yearlong Workshop.

Those interested in applying should start putting together up to 20-pages of written work to submit and a 5-page letter describing the project they hope to dive into with Karen's help. February submission deadlines and more info coming soon, as promised!

Fishtrap Executive Director Search Is Open
The Fishtrap Board is actively seeking the next Executive Director. Please spread the word far and wide. We are looking for someone with a strong administrative and management background, a passion for literature and a devotion to Fishtrap's mission in particular. Must also long to see fox and deer along the trail... or at least enjoy small town life. Details here.

And now, a few notes to catch up on doings here the past month or so...

Molly Gloss at Fishtrap
A huge thanks to author Molly Gloss for the rich presentation she gave at the Fishtrap Coffin House in early November. Her talk, entitled "Alone in Her Room," was generously sponsored by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). In advance of her visit, Molly sent the following thought: "As readers, we all know the feeling of falling wholly inside a novel, losing ourselves in a world that was imagined and made real by some writer sitting alone in her room. I want to speak about that intersection where writers and readers meet on the page—the synergy that happens every time a reader opens a book and falls in. And of course every writer begins to be a writer by first being a reader, so I also want to share how my own writing life and my work have been shaped by the books I have fallen into--especially books by women." It was a great talk, and we are hopeful it might become an essay at some point, so it can be shared more widely. But on November 6, it was standing room only here at Fishtrap.

Welcome Jon Rombach
Many of you may have had the pleasure of sharing a workshop or writing group, time at the Summer Fishtrap Outpost or the Imnaha Writers' Retreat, a float on the river with Winding Waters (where he formerly was a river guide), or a beer at TG with Jon in the past. Please join us in welcoming him as the newest member of the Fishtrap staff. Jon is serving as Fishtrap Program Coordinator and will be helping out with the full array of our programs. Among other things, he'll be taking the reins from Janis Carper for many of the event registration logistics for Summer and Winter Fishtrap so she can concentrate more time and attention on the Fishtrap website, the Anthology, and a variety of other publication and graphic design projects. Jon also writes a regular column for the Wallowa County Chieftain and is a former radio personality on local station KWVR. We feel very lucky to have Jon as an official member of the Fishtrap team.

Recent Travel Series at Fishtrap
Kathy Hunter, Jean Falbo and the dynamic duo of Liza Jane Nichols and Adele Nash recently presented slides and reflections of their international travels in three separate events here at the Fishtrap Coffin House. Kathy journeyed to China with a group of storytellers, gathered stories, and learned what it means to be a fair skinned redhead in a culture that reveres both. Jean and Clem Falbo made a trek to Europe to visit the great opera houses and shared humorous and inspiring highlights and history with us. And this week, "slow food" activists and mother-daughter team Liza Jane Nichols and Adele Nash regaled us with tales of their recent trip to Turino, Italy, as U.S. representatives of the slow food movement. Each of these events packed the Fishtrap house, even on dark, slippery nights. A huge Santa bundle of thanks to all four presenters.

Those of you attending Winter Fishtrap might just get a chance to hear a mini version of Liza Jane and Adele's presentation, and even taste some of the food they and other slow foodies produce here in Wallowa County. Just one more reason to sign up...

On behalf of the entire Fishtrap staff and board, here's wishing you a peaceful and kind holiday season.

Barbara Dills
Interim Executive Director

PS: Write to us to let us know how Fishtrap has changed your writing or reading life. We love to include those personal stories in reports to the foundations that support us so generously. With thanks!

Reminder: WED., DEC. 1 and WED., DEC. 15: Two great travel adventures at Fishtrap

2010-11-30T18:08:00.000-08:00

Dear Local Fishtrap Friends,

Just a quick newsletter reminder about several upcoming local events at Fishtrap.

JEAN FALBO PRESENTS A GRAND OPERA TOUR... AND MORE
Wednesday, December 1 at 7 pm
Fishtrap Coffin House, 400 E. Grant Street, Enterprise

This Wednesday, Joseph residents Clem and Jean Falbo will share their two-month journey to visit the great opera houses of Europe with an evening of highlights, history and photos.Travel along to Milan, Venice, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna and Paris as Jean reveals details they learned beyond the impressive architecture they enjoyed… such as the accidental death in Box 13 at the Paris Opera House which inspired “The Phantom of the Opera.” As Jean says, "Opera houses have stories to tell and history to reveal."

This photo-illustrated lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served and donations are appreciated. Proceeds benefit Fishtrap and the Wallowa Valley Music Alliance.

A VISIT TO TERRA MADRE WITH LIZA JANE NICHOLS and ADELE NASH
Wednesday, December 15, 5:30 pm (note the earlier than usual start time)
Fishtrap Coffin House, 400 E. Grant Street, Enterprise

And while we're traveling... how about Italy?

Mark your calendars! Adele and Liza will be presenting a slide show and tell the stories of Terra Madre in Torino, Italy, where they were hosted recently as delegates from the U.S at an international gathering of "slow food" enthusiasts.

Terra Madre is a network of food producers, cooks, educators and students from 150 countries who are united by a common goal of global sustainability in food. The "food communities" of Terra Madre come together biennially to share innovative solutions and time-honored traditions for keeping small-scale agriculture and sustainable food production alive and well. This is a rare opportunity to learn about this wonderful event from the inside. Liza Jane and Adele were chosen based upon the traditions they uphold in ranching and the values they maintain in raising food. Adele also mentioned her aspirations to become a restaurant owner and chef.

There will be snacks and, of course, wine -- come early to have time to sample. Donations will be gratefully accepted to cover food and beverage costs, with any additional proceeds going to Fishtrap.

Please note that the presentation will start promptly at 5:30 and will end in time so that folks can make it to the Wallowa Resources sponsored event on hydropower opportunities at 7 pm down the street at Tomas Conference Room.

All the best from Fishtrap,

Barbara, Jon, Janis, Kathy, Heather and Rich!

Travel to China with Kathy Hunter, the Fishtrap Benefit Sale at Fire Works Pottery... and more local news

2010-11-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends here in the windy valley,

Blow yourselves on over to the Fishtrap House this Wednesday evening to hear stories and see selected slides from Kathy Hunter's recent remarkable trip to China. And join us Saturday at Fire Works Pottery for their third annual Fishtrap benefit holiday sale. Details on these and other upcoming local events below.

Travel to China with a red-haired celebrity!
Kathy Hunter will share her tour of China's historic sites with the Nu-Wa Delegation, and their visit to tiny Gengcun, "The Village of Stories," where six hundred years of tales have accumulated in oral tradition. Wednesday, November 17 at 7:00 pm at the Fishtrap Coffin House. Free and open to the public.

Hear the story of the Dragon Lady, China's fabled Empress. Get mobbed in crowds of adoring Chinese. Learn the wrong way to say "thank you" to a shopkeeper. Meet Chinese food -- fancy and freaky. Find out about split pants on toddlers and the dreaded squat toilet. Here is China at its most memorable, through the eyes of Fishtrap's gifted (and funny!) storyteller.

***

Third Annual Fishtrap Benefit and Holiday Sale at Fire Works Pottery
Anne and Jim Shelly welcome one and all to their beautiful studio on Hurricane Creek Road. Enjoy this festive shopping opportunity. They are joined this year by Arrowhead Chocolates and the Reininger family, who will have delicious and delicate treats for sale as well. A percentage of all proceeds goes to Fishtrap.
When: Saturday, November 20, starting at 1 pm
Where: 62378 Hurricane Creek Road, 1-1/3 mile beyond the Hurricane Creek Grange
Why: Great gifts... and a chance to support Fishtrap's local community programs, which bring writing and writers to students in Wallowa County schools
What: They'll have a kiln load of new work. Crack pots and odd bowls (aka 2nds). Delicious Arrowhead chocolates, too.
What else: Stay and enjoy a fabulous Wallowa County potluck at 5:30. Then you can roll right down the hill to the Old Time Dance at Hurricane Creek Grange Hall. Or stay and visit with old and new friends.

Visit www.fireworksclayart.com for directions and to preview pottery. More info by calling Anne and Jim at 541-432-0445. Heartfelt thanks to the Shellys and Reiningers for this generous support of Fishtrap.

***

More news...

Winter Fishtrap 2011 registration is now open. Theme: "Getting Small." Information and registration forms are available at www.fishtrap.org, by calling Fishtrap at 541-426-3623 or writing to jon@fishtrap.org. (That's Wallowa County's very own Jon Rombach, who joined the Fishtrap staff this week as our new Program Coordinator. More to come in an upcoming newsletter on that good Fishtrap fortune!)

Tour the Opera Houses of Europe with Jean Falbo. Slide show and presentation Wednesday, December 1 at 7:00 pm at the Fishtrap Coffin House.

Fishtrap's Annual Good Book Sale: Saturday, December 4, starting at 8 am until the books are gone, at the Fishtrap Coffin House.

Fishtrap is located at 400 E. Grant Street, Enterprise, 541-426-3623
www.fishtrap.org for more info or to make an online donation. Your support keeps us strong!

Winter Fishtrap registration, Molly Gloss to visit, and Yearlong Workshop with Karen Fisher

2010-10-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends,

The news and announcements are piling up here at Fishtrap like too much wood for the shed or all those apples forced off the trees by Sunday night’s heavy rain. There were plenty of apples at the local cider pressing party last weekend, and when you get to the end of this newsletter, you'll see a few photos from that event. But for now it looks like our beautiful, warm October weather (see photo at right from my morning walk last week) is finally giving way to the season that our bones and the birds-in-flight over the Wallowas know is on its way. We had a dusting of snow in Joseph last night! Time to start thinking seriously about Winter Fishtrap, applying for our 2011-2012 Yearlong Workshop in Historical Fiction, or making your way to the Fishtrap house to hear Molly Gloss on November 6.

Without further ado, here are all those details, plus a whole lot more. We’ll do some looking ahead… and some grateful looking back. Upcoming local events are featured toward the bottom of the email—so, Wallowa and Union County friends especially, be sure to read all the way to the bottom so you don’t miss out.

Winter Fishtrap – Dates and Deadlines
Our Winter Fishtrap 2011 “Getting Small” program featuring Winona LaDuke, Charles Goodrich, Tammy Stobel, Amy Minato, and the duo of Kate Power and Steve Einhorn (with ukuleles) is set. The full brochure is out on the website and hitting the mail later this week. NOTE: Scholarship deadline is November 10; check out the application guidelines. Registration for this February 25-27, 2011 event opens November 15. We will once again run a bus from Portland, and writer Amy Minato is cooking up some special fun for the drive out. Plan to reduce your carbon footprint by riding—and writing—along!

2011-2012 Yearlong Writing Workshop with Karen Fisher
Karen Fisher, author of the gorgeous book A Sudden Country, who also taught a weeklong fiction workshop for us this past summer, will be leading a group of seven or eight writers for a year of focused work in our next Yearlong Workshop. The goal? To get a substantial start on a draft manuscript or to put the polish on one that’s been gathering dust in your drawer. Have you always wanted to research a topic or figure in history and then weave a novel from that particular warp? This could be your chance to do it with Fishtrap-style guidance and support. As one who benefited greatly from this approach as a student in John Daniel's Yearlong on Memoir, I strongly recommend it.

Full details and application guidelines will be available online by mid-November. The format will be similar to how we've structured the Yearlong Workshops for the past three years. You can read about Jane Vandenburgh's current workshop to get an idea.

Writers-in-Residence Sought for Grant and Harney Counties
We're still working with the local committees in beautiful, remote Grant and Harney Counties to select their writers-in-residence for early 2011. It’s not too late to apply. If you have some experience teaching, are a serious (and preferably published) writer with some flexibility in your schedule, please consider this rare opportunity to explore beautiful country, meet new friends, and support young writers in rural communities. Write to me at barbara@fishtrap.org.

2010 Fishtrap Anthology: $500 still needed in order to publish
The 2010 Fishtrap Anthology is coming together, thanks to all the great submissions from last Summer’s Fishtrap participants and faculty. But we can’t send it off to the printer until we raise the full $1000 in support needed each year to make it a reality. If you sent work in or have enjoyed being published in past Fishtrap Anthologies, please consider being an 2010 Anthology sponsor—Janis can help create a small display ad for your service or business, or as a way of honoring someone you admire. For $50, you get a quarter-page ad, a half-page is $100. Please do what you can to help us publish “Matter and Spirit.” Smaller donations are also welcome.

House Party Thanks… and Thinking About Some “Fishraps”
In the flurry of last spring and summer's transitions here at Fishtrap, we didn't do a very good job of thanking our hosts for the two Fishtrap house parties we organized, one in Olympia at the home of Melissa and Al Josephy, and one in Pasco at the home of Jenepher and Louis Field. These events helped us introduce newcomers to Fishtrap—invaluable outreach for us in places where we haven't had much visibility in the past. Hearty and belated "thanks" to Al, Melissa, Jenepher and Louis for opening your homes to us in support of good writing. Your warmth and generosity was much appreciated!

Having learned what people most enjoyed at those events, we are starting to envision a version of a house party we might call a "Fishrap"—not the stinky kind, but rather a gathering of friends with a live reading component in the spirit of the Fishtrap open mics that are so popular at our Summer and Winter Fishtrap events. Thanks to Kevin and Victoria Wheeler for cranking up the enthusiasm for this idea and for offering to host a trial Fishrap at their home in Milwaukie, Oregon. Still in the planning stages... watch upcoming newsletters for more.

And While We're Offering Thanks... Wordstock Thanks
A special shout out to Barbara Fankhauser, Gayle Seely, Ed Stover, Sue Knight, Michael Tevlin, Eve Slinker, Robin Schauffler, Christine Colasurdo, Judy Davis, and Elizabeth Oliver for helping staff our table at Wordstock a few weeks ago. We had fifty new people sign up for our mailing list and many more stop to visit with us. It was great fun, and we couldn't have done it without each one of these generous volunteers... Congratulations to Gordon Oliver and Richard Brown, winners of our Worstock drawing. Your Fishtrap hat (Gordon) and Fishtrap mug (Richard) are on their way in the mail. Thanks again for stopping by.

"Oregon Is Indian Country" Wrap-up
What a rewarding impact the Oregon Historical Society's traveling exhibit Oregon Is Indian Country had on the local community here. Fishtrap was honored to be its host in Enterprise. Thanks to speakers Tom and Woesha Hampson, David Lewis, Eric Quaempts and Joe McCormack, the Josephy Library at Fishtrap also hosted three informative and inspiring evening lectures in connection with the exhibit. We had fifty people at each one! Beyond that, Rich Wandschneider (pictured at right at the exhibit) got each of the speakers into local schools and worked with local teachers to bring school kids out to the exhibit and to Fishtrap to learn the real story of their Indian neighbors here in Oregon. Our finale was 90 Enterprise 4th, 5th and 6th graders packed into the Fishtrap house last Thursday to hear Eric Quaempts speak to them about "First Foods in Indian Country." We're sure Alvin and Betty Josephy would have loved to see that. Thanks to Rich and to all the local teachers who responded so warmly to this opportunity.

Upcoming Local Fishtrap Events
Tuesday, November 2, 7 pm: All-genre writing group reconvenes at the Fishtrap House after a summer's hiatus. Everyone welcome! Call Mary Emerick at 541-263-1156 for more information (but not this week—she's down at the Fishtrap Imnaha Writer's Retreat through Saturday, Oct. 30).

Saturday, November 6, 7 pm: Author Molly Gloss (The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek) will be here as our guest speaker at the AAUW-sponsored lecture entitled "Alone in Her Room." As readers, we all know the feeling of falling wholly inside a novel, losing ourselves in a world that was imagined and made real by some writer sitting alone in her room. Molly will speak about that intersection where writers and readers meet on the page—the synergy that happens every time a reader opens a book and falls in. And of course every writer begins to be a writer by first being a reader, so she will also talk about the ways her own writing life and her work have been shaped by the books she has fallen into—especially books by women. At the Fishtrap Coffin House, free and open to the public (male public included!).

Sunday, November 7, 5-7 pm: Annual Fishtrap Spaghetti Feed at Lear's in Enterprise. Come out and enjoy a festive and delicious evening in support of the Fishtrap College program, offering college-level English classes to local high school and community college students. Wait staff will be made up of Fishtrap College students, and Fishtrap staff and board members dressed like Italian waiters. You've got to see this!

Saturday, November 20, 1:00 pm on: Clay artists Anne and Jim Shelly host a benefit sale for Fishtrap at their studio on Hurricane Creek. Get an early start on your holiday shopping, stay for a festive potluck and dance, and help Fishtrap at the same time. The Fishtrap mugs so popular at this past Summer Fishtrap will be available. More details in the next newsletter, or write to Kathy@fishtrap.org.

That's the news for now.

Stay dry and warm... and keep writing!

Barbara
Barbara Dills, Interim Executive Director

PS: And now the photos from the apple pressing party, a welcoming Wallowa County tradition, generously hosted by the Chris and Chuck Fraser family.That's a flatbed truck holding all the potluck goodies!

Winter Fishtrap News; Janie Tippett's book; and David Lewis

2010-10-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends,
It's October, which means we've just welcomed our first group of writers to the Imnaha Writer's Retreat. We kick the month off with a poet, a cowboy western novelist, two writers working on memoirs, and one jack-of-several-genres who's known for weaving in humor no matter what flows from his pen. I'd love to be a fly on the wall during their evening sessions around the fireplace, wouldn't you? (Get on the list for April now.)

On September 24, I spent the day at the Driver's beautiful place with Janie Tippett and Pam Royes. We did some cleaning and supply inventory for the upcoming retreats and had a sunny picnic on the porch overlooking the river. On the drive down, Janie pointed out landmarks from her new book, Four Lines a Day (more on the book below), and we stopped at the Royes' place on the Imnaha to take in Pam's amazing garden. When Janie saw the tree in the photo, she couldn't resist... and with a little coaxing, neither could Pam.

There's lots happening here, always, and Wallowa County friends should take special note of the lecture Wednesday evening, Oct. 6, at 7:30 at Stage One with David Lewis, PhD (details below).

If you're active on Facebook, be sure to "Like" the Fishtrap page -- click the Wall tab to read and comment on recently posted poems. (Thanks to all who submitted... keep them coming.)

Now for our breaking news about Winter Fishtrap. We're beyond excited and hope you will be, too.

Winter Fishtrap 2011: "Getting Small"
We're delighted to announce that Winona LaDuke, Charles Goodrich, and Tammy Strobel have accepted our invitations to be presenters at Winter Fishtrap 2011. With their help, 80 or so of us will consider what it means to live smaller and more sustainably in a world mostly hell bent on bigger, faster, better. Dates: February 25-27 at the historic Wallowa Lake Lodge. All the details will be arriving in your mail and posted on the website soon. Registration opens November 15.

Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe) is an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two time vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party. Winona is the author of All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming, and Food is Medicine: Recovering Traditional Foods to Heal the People.

Charles Goodrich, a beloved past Fishtrap faculty member, former Fishtrap Fellow, and the 2009 Werner Writer-in-Residence at Billy Meadows, is Director of the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word at OSU in Corvallis, Oregon. The author of The Practice of Home, Insects of South Corvallis, a Fishtrap-published chapbook In the Chesnim Country, and his latest collection of poems, Going to Seed, Charles frequently writes about small but significant things.

Tammy Strobel blogs regularly at www.rowdykittens.com about "social change through simple living" from her small home in Portland. She was profiled in the NY Times article "But Will It Make You Happy?" in August of this year. Tammy is also the author of two e-books: Smalltopia: A Practical Guide to Working for Yourself and Simply Car-free: How to Pedal Toward Financial Freedom and a Healthier Life.

As a special added treat, musicians Kate Power and Steve Einhorn will join us again with their big spirits, bright songs -- and, if we're really lucky, ukuleles (talk about getting small!). Kate and Steve have recently downsized and simplified in their own lives. The ukes are just one part of that story...

Again, registration for Winter Fishtrap opens November 15 and we expect to fill quickly, so mark your calendars. We will once again charter a bus from Portland if there is enough interest (let's lower our collective carbon footprint). A limited number of scholarships are available. Scholarship information is on the website. NOTE: Scholarship application deadline is November 10.

Four Lines a Day by Janie Tippett
Okay, we held off as long as we could to let Janie recover from all the local autographs she's signed and the orders she's received from the readers of her column in the Agri-Times Northwest ... but we're not waiting any longer! Here's the scoop on the book.

Forever Fishtrapper, Janie Tippett, chronicles the life of her longtime friend, Imnaha rancher Mary Marks, in this delightful memoir/biography, Four Lines a Day, published by Wallowa County's own Rich Wandschneider-led Pika Press. If you've ever spent a week at the Imnaha Writer's Retreat (or even if you haven't!), this is a must-read. Mary's life -- and Janie's, too -- will inspire you to do the most with your own, wherever and however you live.

Order your copy online from Pika Press or by sending shipping information and a check for $18 ($15 for the book plus $3 to cover shipping) to Pika Press at PO Box 38, Enterprise, Oregon, 97828.

Janie signs all her emails to me "Fishtrap love." That pretty much says it all. Back at you, Janie!

Tuesday Evening All-Genre Writing Group Starts November 2
Beginning November 2, on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6:00 pm, an all-genres writing group (poets, playwrights, prose writers at any stage of their writing) will meet informally at the Fishtrap house. They typically work with some writing prompts if the group wishes, then those participants who want to can read from something they are working on and receive thoughtful advice. It's a cheerful group that usually shares some wine and laughter along with good writing and inspiration! Call Mary Emerick at 541-263-1156 for more information.

Other Upcoming Events Here at Fishtrap

This Wednesday, October 6: David Lewis, PhD, Cultural Resources Director of the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde Community, speaks on "Treaties and Sovereignty in Indian Country" in connection with the Oregon Is Indian Country exhibit. 7:30 pm at Stage One, 117-1/2 Main Street in Enterprise. This is the closing day for the exhibit, which will be open starting at 6:30 pm. If you haven't yet visited the exhibit, please come early to enjoy it before the talk.

October 14 at noon: Tom "Hutch" Hutchison will lead the first Josephy Library Brown Bag Reading Group. Copies of "Naming the Nez Perce" are at the Joseph and Enterprise city libraries, at the Bookloft, and here at Fishtrap. It's only about 18 pages long. And it was the first piece Alvin Josephy published on the Nez Perce, back in 1955.

October 20: Eric Quaempts, the Natural Resources Director of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, and Joe McCormack of the Nez Perce Tribe's Fisheries will speak on “First Foods in Indian Country” and other topics related to indigenous relationships to land and natural resources. 7:30 pm at the Fishtrap Coffin House, 400 E. Grant Street, Enterprise.

Be well, and keep writing,

Barbara Dills, Interim Executive Director

Indian Summer

2010-09-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

September 18, 2010

Dear Fishtrap Friends:

Indian Summer is here at last, and with it warmer days and nights. The home canners are fired up and so are their kettles, rolling and tumbling to seal beets, pickled cucumbers and green beans, tomatoes, peaches, jam and more in jars for the winter. I pulled my black enamel pot out of retirement when I was in Portland last weekend, and it’s here with me in the County now, ready to join the fun. According to a recent piece I heard on NPR, canning has become trendy like knitting did a few years back, the latest do-it-yourself revival story. (Imagine, they're having canning parties in Boston and Manhattan.) So, get out your Ball jars, and while the kettle is boiling, pen a verse or two inspired by the sound, the scent, the stickiness. Send them to us at info@fishtrap.org, and we’ll share them on the Fishtrap website and Facebook page (which, as some of you have noted, needs a lift like this).

The Imnaha Writer's Retreat still has just a few openings for October. Call us at 541-426-3623 or write to me at barbara@fishtrap.org if you are interested. $150 for a week of writing in a beautiful spot among friends. Can't beat that.

Fun With Friends of William Stafford… and Introducing Vox
While in Portland, I stopped in at the annual Friends of William Stafford picnic in Lake Oswego last Sunday. What a feast of poetry and potluck converged there! Fishtrap’s very own Rich Wandschneider was the Master of Ceremonies, Oregon’s new Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen offered poems and stories about Bill, and many other Stafford fans got up to speak and read. A further highlight was the delightful spoken word chorus, Vox, whose group treatments of Stafford poems added another dimension to the day. We are hoping to be able to bring Vox out to Fishtrap sometime. "We take poetry from the page and speak it in interpretive chorus," says Eric Hull, Director of Vox. "It's an experiment in form and expression. Some of the words are spoken in unison, some are solo, and some are spoken in combinations or counterpoint.” I encourage those of you in the Portland area to catch Vox October 15-17 and 22-24 at Waterbrook Studio, 2127 N. Albina. Details at voxpdx.com.

Oregon Is Indian Country: An Evening Program with Tom and Woesha Hampson
Please join us September 23 at 7:30 at Stage One on Main Street in Enterprise to welcome longtime Fishtrap friends Tom and Woesha Hampson. They will be sharing thoughts related to the Oregon Is Indian Country exhibit panel “Traditions That Bind” in a talk entitled “Culture and Continuity in Indian Country.” The exhibit will be open starting at 6:30 pm that evening, so if you haven’t had a chance to visit it yet, this will be a great opportunity.

Tom Hampson is Executive Director of the Oregon Native American Business and Entrepreneurial Network (ONABEN) and was part of the creative team that produced the acclaimed play, The Ghosts of Celilo. He has been involved in business and cultural arts development for Northwest tribes for more than 20 years. Woesha Hampson is the granddaughter of Henry Roe Cloud, who was the first Indian admitted to Yale University, a noted educator, and eventually the Superintendent of the Umatilla Indian Agency. Tom and Woesha lived and worked on the Umatilla Reservation in the 1970s.

Next up:
October 6: David Lewis, Grand Ronde, will speak on "Treaties and Sovereignty in Indian Country"

October 20: Eric Queaempts, Umatilla, and Joe McCormack, Nez Perce, will speak on "First Foods in Indian Country"

Regular open hours for the exhibit are Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm through October 6, but special arrangements can be made for school and community groups at other times. We hosted the Wallowa 4th and 5th graders last week and will enjoy sharing the exhibit with the Enterprise 5th graders and the Girls Scouts this week. Come one, come all!

Fishtrap Anthology: Honor your friends, your fellow writers, your pets, or your favorite Fishtrap instructors
The 2010 Fishtrap Anthology is on its way to becoming a book, but it’s not there yet. Thanks to the 2010 Summer Fishtrap participants and faculty members who submitted, we have collected a very rich assortment of poetry and prose inspired by our 2010 theme “Spirit and Matter.”

As always, our ability to bring the Anthology all the way to print while keeping the purchase price affordable for everyone depends on raising additional funds through sponsorships and display ads. This year, we’re thinking about those display “ads” in a broader, more creative way. Here’s the deal: If you attended Summer Fishtrap this year or want to honor someone who did, or if you just want to tip your hat to your Fishtrap friends near and far, your beloved faculty presenters, your parents, your spouse, your kids, your pets, or your pet peeves… why not purchase a little corner of the book? We need a minimum of $1000 in sponsorships of some kind. That’s 10 of you at $100 or 20 at $50, or some combo of the two. Janis will work with you on the content and design of your display ad or listing. (And Heather will be happy to take your payments.) As long as your ad's not X-rated, we’ll run it. A photo of your corgi, bishon frise or basset hound? Sure. A tribute to your moth-er? Why not. In honor of _________. Celebrating _________. Stretch your thinking on this one. And if you have a service or business you’d like to promote to the Fishtrap audience, we’ll take those more conventional ads too, of course.

For more info or to float your craziest idea, write to janisc@fishtrap.org. This offer closes as soon as we reach our fundraising goal for the Anthology, so don’t delay. The sooner we reach that goal, the sooner the 2010 Anthology will become a book you can hold in your hands.

Wallowa County Writers’ Group
A writers’ group is now meeting weekly Tuesdays, 10 am -12 pm at the Fishtrap Coffin House, 400 E. Grant Street in Enterprise. Bring something of your own to read. Short writing exercises will sometimes be done at meetings. Prose, poetry, and other forms welcome. One week they wrote captions for New Yorker magazine cartoons. New members are welcome. Bring a lunch of you wish. For more information, call Dick Clover at 541-432-2205, or just show up on a Tuesday.

Fishtrap College Is in Full Gear
Nineteen students, including sixteen from the three local high schools, one home-schooled student, and two adult students, are attending Fishtrap College this fall. Under the generous guidance of instructor Zanni Schauffler, they meet every Friday at the Fishtrap House for Writing 121. Those who complete the course will receive 4 college credits from Blue Mountain Community College. This is one of the many programs Fishtrap offers to support and encourage good writing in Wallowa County, especially among young people. We are grateful to the Autzen Foundation, the Collins Foundation, and to all of you who make personal donations to Fishtrap throughout the year, for keeping this vital program strong.

Wordstock: Visit us October 9 and 10 at the Oregon Convention Center
Come visit us at Wordstock, Saturday and Sunday, October 9-10, from 10 am to 6 pm. You'll find us at booth 404, which we share this year with our friends from Write Around Portland. There's lots more to do and hear at Wordstock, too, so check it out. Thanks to all the volunteers who signed up to help us staff the Fishtrap table – it will be great fun to see you there.

2011 Fishtrap Dates to Remember
January 9 -- February 13: The Big Read in Wallowa County. The book for this year is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
February 25-27: Winter Fishtrap at Wallowa Lake Lodge. Theme: "Getting Small"
July 10-17: Summer Fishtrap at Wallowa Lake Camp. Theme: "Migrations & Passages"

More details coming soon for all three of those programs.

Happy autumn!
Barbara

Barbara Dills
Interim Executive Director

Summer Fishtrap News, Writing on the River, and a special traveling exhibit "Oregon Is Indian Country"

2010-07-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends,

At last, the newsletter resumes. We took a hiatus in the weeks leading up to Summer Fishtrap, but I'll be writing at least twice-monthly now as we head into fall and the calendar fills and ripens. Thanks for your patience as I settled into my new role here as Fishtrap's Interim Executive Director...

Summer Fishtrap 2010
We’re coming back to earth at the Fishtrap house after a glorious, spirited ride through the week of Summer Fishtrap, July 11-18. Those of you who had the chance to spend all or part of the week of readings, workshops and Gathering with us know how this year’s theme—"Matter and Spirit"—took us in some amazing directions, at times cracking us open… or cracking us up. The weather was perfect, the faculty inspired, the discussions deep, the readings lovely and provocative, and Gary Snyder all that we had hoped for and more. On Saturday night, he offered up a sampling of poetry from his earliest published work to recent poems in manuscript form. And he reminded us during his visit, through words and actions both, what clear thinking and good writing really mean. Gasho, Gary!

There is so much more to say about the experiences shared at the Wallowa Lake Camp and Billy Meadows Ranger Station this summer… look for our recap page on the Fishtrap website, which will be up soon and evolving over the next few weeks, with photos, participant and faculty comments, and other highlights. Thanks to all who supported the event with your participation, instruction, financial assistance, volunteer efforts, words of encouragement, and kind thoughts sent to us from afar. We could never pull Summer Fishtrap off without all of you and all of that.

A wonderful summary of the week through an outsider's lens was published in The Observer last Thursday. Thanks to Joyce Osterloh and her husband Ron for the thoughtful coverage.

Reminder to Summer Fishtrap instructors, special guests and participants: Please help us make the 2010 Fishtrap Anthology a rich reflection of the inspiration we all received at this Summer Fishtrap by sending your submissions to us, postmarked or email stamped by August 10. Anything written at or stimulated by Summer Fishtrap Workshops or the Gathering is appropriate. Please refer to the full submission guidelines for further details.

Save These Dates
Winter Fishtrap 2011: February 25-27, 2011 at the historic Wallowa Lake Lodge. Theme: “Getting Small.”
Summer Fishtrap 2011: July 10-17 at Wallowa Lake Camp & Resort. Theme to be announced this fall.

Film showing: The Practice of the Wild: A Conversation with Gary Snyder and Jim Harrison This film was a big hit at Summer Fishtrap recently. An Official Selection of this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival but not yet available to the general public, The Practice of the Wild came to Fishtrap courtesy of Summer Fishtrap faculty member Jack Shoemaker, one of several long-time friends and associates of Snyder interviewed in the film.

The film follows Snyder and novelist Jim Harrison (Dalva, Legends of the Fall) as the two old friends wander along the trails of the central California coast. They debate the pros and cons of everything from Google to Zen koans. The discussions are punctuated by archival materials and commentaries from Snyder's literary contemporaries, friends and intimates. The film runs just under an hour. A half hour of additional interviews not shown at Summer Fishtrap but available on the DVD will be included in this showing.

Please join us for this special screening of The Practice of the Wild on August 2, 7:30 pm, at the Fishtrap Coffin House, 400 E. Grant Street in Enterprise. This event is free, but donations are always appreciated. Popcorn and other light refreshments will be served.

For more background on the film, check out the San Francisco Film Festival blurb and the YouTube trailer.

Writing on the River with Annik Smith
August 26-31: For the second year, Fishtrap brings you Writing on the River. Spend five glorious days on the Snake River in the company of writer and film producer, Annick Smith, writing in the mornings and evenings and rafting down the river in between. As a participant in this river adventure, you'll be in the good hands of our friends Paul and Penny at Winding Waters River Expeditions. This event is a fundraiser for Fishtrap, so you can do what you love best and help Fishtrap stay afloat at the same time! Call Fishtrap at 541-426-3623 for more info or to register. (Space is filling fast and limited to 12, so don't delay.)

OHS Traveling Exhibit -- Oregon Is Indian Country: The Nine Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon
Starting in September, Fishtrap and the Josephy Library at Fishtrap will co-host the Oregon Historical Society's free traveling exhibit entitled Oregon Is Indian Country, which provides text and historical and contemporary photographs about the nine Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon. Themes include: The Land, Federal Indian Policies, and Traditions that Bind.

The exhibit will be installed on September 8 and 9 with special events to follow, and it will remain up for approximately one month. Dates, times and other details regarding the exhibit and related events will be included in our next newsletter and on the Fishtrap website.

Fishtrap writers and friends Pamela Steele and Bette Husted featured on OPB's "Think Out Loud"
Last Wednesday, July 21, Fishtrap hosted a session of Oregon Public Broadcasting's live call-in show "Think Out Loud" here at the Coffin House. It looked like a regular recording studio around here, with fancy microphones hooked to the big table in the main room and wires strung here and there. The featured guests were authors and Fishtrap friends Pamela Steele and Bette Husted. Their conversation with hosts Emily Harris and David Miller touched on each writer's relationship to place and people, and the role Fishtrap has played in their writing careers. If you missed the show or want to hear it again, you can listen to the archive and add your comments online. Please pass the link on to others who may or may not know about Fishtrap -- it's about as fine an introduction as you'll find.

We are grateful to Emily, David, Cassie, Julie, and the rest of the Think Out Loud team for taking the time to visit Eastern Oregon and for including Fishtrap in their swing through Wallowa County. And a huge congratulations and thank you to Pam and Bette for being here, for being so passionately real, and for all the good and beautiful words you have written about this special part of the world.

The Nez Perce Tribe's Precious Land Project in Joseph Creek was selected by National Geographic for inclusion in their "Tribal Lands" article in the August issue. It is a two-page spread with the picture and caption. Please let your friends know a picture from a portion of Wallowa County is featured in National Geographic in the August issue. Thanks to our friend Keith Lawrence for this news.

Farewell to Naomi
Finally, we bid farewell this week to our fabulous summer intern, Naomi Gibbs, who has been a delight to work with and without whom we might not have made it through Summer Fishtrap whole. She leaves us for her senior year at Whitman College, where she is majoring in Environmental Humanities under faculty advisor and Fishtrap friend, Don Snow. Naomi brought humor, honesty and energy to her role on our team. In addition to helping us at Summer Fishtrap, she created a guide to the businesses in Joseph and Enterprise and developed an extensive index of the many accomplishments of over 20 years of Fishtrap Fellows, which will be a valuable resource for years to come. Thank you for all that and more, Naomi! We will miss you.

Be well, keep writing, and stay in touch. The thunder is rolling here now...

Barbara Dills
Interim Executive Director

TONIGHT: William Johnson, A River Without Banks ... also, new scholarships available for Summer Fishtrap

2010-06-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

This is just a quick note to our subscribers in and around Wallowa County to keep you posted on a few local happenings that might be of immediate interest. First of all, TONIGHT:

William Johnson, author of A River Without Banks: Place and Belonging in the Inland Northwest
Book signing and reading
Wednesday, June 9, 7:30 pm
Fishtrap’s Coffin House
400 East Grant Street, Enterprise

Please come in from the garden this evening and join Fishtrap and the Bookloft in welcoming William Johnson, professor Emeritus at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, ID, as he reads from and discusses his new book, A River Without Banks: Place and Belonging in the Inland Northwest.

The book explores one family's encounters with a place still partly wild, whose communities and landscapes teach them how to respect the earth and each other. Moving from a family vacation spent observing moose, to a comparison of the creation myths from Genesis and the Nez Perce, to watching a raptor seeking prey, Johnson meditates on how places, animals, and people teach us “how to see, and how we do, and don’t, belong.”

A River Without Banks will appeal to readers interested in the literature of place, ecology, natural history, indigenous culture, and conservation. Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Conservationist Manifesto, says of the book, "In these resonant essays, William Johnson seeks to reconcile the inner landscape of memory and emotion with the outer landscape of rivers and mountains ... Here is a book to savor and celebrate.”

William Johnson is also the author of three volumes of poetry: Dogwood; Out of the Ruins, which received the Idaho Book of the Year Award; and At the Wilderness Boundary. His poems are widely published in journals, among them Poetry, Mother Earth News, Poetry Northwest, and Texas Review. His long interest in Thoreau resulted in a critical study, "What Thoreau Said: ‘Walden’ and the Unsavable.”

The reading begins at 7:30 pm, and is free to the public. Books will be available for purchase, and William will be signing after the reading. For more information, call Fishtrap at 541-426-3623.

*****

Summer Fishtrap: CALLING ALL KIDS, MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, and SONGWRITERS!

There are still openings in the Summer Fisthrap writing workshops for kids (age 8-12), teenagers (age 13-17) and songwriters (ageless). Some full scholarships have recently become available for these three workshops. Please help us fill these spaces!! Call 541-426-3623 (or visit www.fishtrap.org) to learn more, to inquire about scholarships, or to register.

*****

Gail Swart & Peter Donovan
Piano concert featuring solos and duets
Sunday, June 20, 3:00 pm
At the Dobbin House
Home of Catherine Matthias and Stewart Jones
65605 Dobbin Rd., Joseph

Limited seating, admission by donation
A joint fundraiser for Fishtrap and the Wallowa Valley Music Alliance
Call to reserve your seat: 541-426-0263

Reiko Hillyer, Rick hits the road, introducing Barbara

2010-05-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

May 24, less than four weeks before the Summer Solstice, and I’m still burning my wood stove. People are starting to grumble. What better excuse to come to an (indoor) discussion this Wednesday evening, May 26, at 7 pm, led by Reiko Hillyer, an Oregon Humanities Conversation Project scholar, on the topic "Marking Our Territory." Here’s the intriguing blurb from the Oregon Humanities catalog:

"The big house and the quarters; the front door and the back door; lunch counters, water fountains, the back of the bus. One of the most persistent ways people exert power over others is to control their access to space. Drawing upon the fields of architecture, environmental studies, urban design, and public policy, this discussion will pose the following questions: How do we mark our territory? How do the built environments we create reflect our values and aspirations? Whom do we include and whom de we exclude in the process?"

Touching on gentrification, the decline of public space, historic preservation, residential segregation, and suburban sprawl, Hillyer (who recently won a Teacher of the Year award as a history professor at Lewis & Clark College) will lead a conversation about how to read the history of our communities through the landscapes we build, and consider how we can be more aware of and more engaged in the creation of our surroundings. Please join us for what promises to be an engaging evening with Reiko Hillyer.

Well, the time has come.

This is the last email you’ll receive from me as the Executive Director of Fishtrap. This week marks the transition from me to Barbara Dills, who is stepping in as the Interim Executive Director here while the search continues for a long-term replacement for me.

Barbara’s got a great combination of qualities that suit her admirably to the task at hand. A skilled writer, a management professional with lots of experience working with non-profits, and a long-time Fishtrap participant and former Fishtrap Fellow, Barbara has already brought her great skills and attitude to bear here. Fishtrap is in good hands. Let’s all join in giving Barbara our thanks and support during her tenure.

Your emails to director@fishtrap.org will now be answered by Barbara, or you can email her directly at barbara@fishtrap.org. If you would like to correspond with me personally, you can reach me at rick@mossyoldtroll.com. I’ll be spending much of this summer in the Wallowa Mountains as a wilderness ranger with the US Forest Service, so I may not always be quick to respond. But I will respond.

Thanks to all of you for everything you have shared – your stories, your writing, your support, your engagement – with Fishtrap. Keep on!

Best wishes,

Rick Bombaci

HELLO FROM BARBARA:

Greetings Fishtrap Fans, Supporters, and Family, near and far,

First, let me say what an honor it is for me to have been asked to step into the Interim Executive Director role here, to provide a bridge until the next right person for the permanent position is identified and hired. I cannot begin to fill either Rick or Rich’s shoes (sizeable in both cases!), but hopefully I can at least protect their separate, amazing legacies here and keep the river flowing somewhat smoothly while the Governing Board’s search and selection process continues.

My discovery—and deep love—of Fishtrap goes back more than 20 years to a 1989 Jonathan Nicholas column in the Oregonian announcing that year’s Gathering. I headed east to Wallowa County for what turned out to be a wonderful weekend, and three years later found myself blessed with a fellowship for the entire week of Summer Fishtrap events. The work I did that week remains the basis for a memoir I am now working on—with John Daniel’s generous help—in this year’s yearlong workshop. And so the circle goes ‘round.

In between 1989 and now, I’ve attended Summer Fishtrap at least ten times and Winter Fishtrap once. The memories so plentiful and rich, I’ve lost count.

Since 1980, when I first moved to Oregon, I’ve gone from a tipi-maker in the hills outside Hood River to a corporate executive. Hopefully, the moss I gathered through all of that will serve Fishtrap’s needs—and yours—adequately over the next few months.

I look forward to seeing many of you at this year’s Summer Fishtrap, at local events here in Wallowa County, for tea or a meal on my jaunts to Portland to check in on my home there. Some of you I will meet first by phone or in email. I look forward to linking arms with all of you to ensure that Fishtrap continues to grow and thrive.

Until we meet...

My best,

Barbara Dills

FISHTRAP FRIENDS...

This Saturday, May 29, at 6:30 pm, Gwen Trice of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center invites you to an impromptu gathering at Fishtrap’s Coffin House with Marv and Rindy Ross, where they will be presenting a possible collaborative musical theatre project about the historical logging culture of the 1920's and 1930's in Wallowa County.

Marv and Rindy have also generously offered to perform a few songs from their previous musicals for your enjoyment.

Access to tools, puny human enterprises, and stupendous sights

2010-05-20T19:27:00.001-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

I’ve been carting around a copy of the Next Whole Earth Catalog for the past thirty years. The 608 page, 5 pound, 11 x 14 compendium was published in 1980. Its subtitle is “Access to Tools.” I suppose that’s what Fishtrap does, too – we give writers and readers access to tools to think clearly, write well, and appreciate the writing of others.

Lately, I’ve been leafing through the Catalog while eating bachelor meals. The big, dense pages lie flat, filled with illustrations and quotes and opinions and examples of tools for the mind, tools for the body, tools for society. The Nomadics category is further divided into sections on Bicycling, Road Life, and Foraging. Remember Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons? $3.95 ppd.

The afterglow of the the tumultuous 60's was still strong in 1980. It hadn’t been long since we had first landed on the moon, since Martin Luther King and Kent State and the Kennedys. There were still dreams walking the land.

Maybe they still do. La Grande native Steven Bender will be reading from his fine book, One Night in America: Robert Kennedy, César Chávez, and the Dream of Dignity. The reading will be tonight, Wednesday, May 19, 7 pm, here at Fishtrap’s Coffin House. Suggested $5 donation. (Maybe you’re getting this email on Thursday, in which case you either loved it or are regretting you didn’t go!)

When I first sent out the news about Steven’s reading, I got this reply from Molly Cook, a former Fishtrap Fellow:

“In 1969, those of us working at Chief Joseph Summer Seminars at the Buhler ranch [in Wallowa County] had gathered in the mess hall on the Sunday evening before camp for the usual orientation meeting. We were a bunch of hippies, of course, very sympathetic to the Farm Workers’ movement. As was Don Buhler, who flew in every summer from California.

“We had just begun the meeting when the door to the mess hall burst open and there was Don with a big grin on his face and a wooden crate in his hands. He walked to one of the tables, plunked that crate down and said, ‘Union grapes!’ The place went nuts. We enjoyed some of the very first union grapes thanks to people like Don and people like Cesar Chavez.”

*****

One captivating feature of the Catalog is a small panel at the bottom right of each spread, called the “Rising Sun Neighborhood Newsletter,” with wonderful tidbits like this one on page 417: “Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.”

Remember, the Catalog was published in 1980. Starting halfway through the Catalog, the Rising Sun panels feature a backdrop of a majestic mountain, which, when you fan the pages like a deck of cards, can be seen to emit, first a pencil, then a plume, then a cloud of ash and smoke. Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, thirty years ago.

To celebrate the event, Jerry Franklin and Ursula Le Guin joined Gary Snyder (who will be at Summer Fishtrap) at a special event in Portland sponsored by Illahee, “a forum for environmental innovators.” As the Illahee blurb said, “We often forget that the human enterprise is puny compared to nature writ large.” According to one Fishtrapper who made it there, the event, if puny compared to the event it commemorated, was a fantastic success. Thank you Ursula, Jerry, and Gary for sharing your stories about Mt. St. Helens.

And, what the heck, we’ve all seen it a hundred times, but it’s such a stupendous sight, I figured you wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

*****

A couple more note before going. I got this message from Emily Harris, the host of “Think Out Loud” at OPB (91.5 FM, www.opb.org/thinkoutloud). Like Gary Snyder, Ehud Havazelet will be one of our faculty at Summer Fishtrap.

“Ehud Havazelet, author of Like Never Before and Bearing the Body (both Oregon Book Awards winners) will be our guest on Think Out Loud, Thursday, May 20 on Oregon Public Broadcasting. The program is live on OPB radio from 9 to 10 AM, rebroadcasts at 9 PM and is archived online.

"We’ll talk about his work, writing and teaching, his novel-in-progress (his first set in the West), his own family history and the burden central in all his books: how hard it is to truly communicate.

"Listeners can call in during the show or post questions or their thoughts about his work any time on our website: http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/northwest-passages-ehud-havazelet/”

Finally, poet Penelope Schott invites everyone to hear The Cool Women Poets of New Jersey on their third Oregon visit. Says Penelope, “This group of nine outrageous women will be reading at Looking Glass Books in Portland (7983 SE 13th Ave, Sellwood) on Thursday, May 20th at 7 pm and on Friday May 21st at the Trash Bash in Manzanita. And you know what people say about Jersey girls. These poets – authors of four anthologies and 1 1/2 CDs as well as many individual books – will stop at nothing.”

*****

Until next week,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director, Fishtrap

Fishstock 2010 cancelled

2010-05-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends,

So I’ve been cajoling you to buy tickets to Fishstock in The Dalles on May 15, where you could hear Rosalie Sorrels, Robin Cody, Dan Maher, Clem Starck, and the Ukalaliens ...

And now I need to tell you that we had to cancel Fishstock 2010. Rosalie Sorrels gave us a call, saying she’s sick with a flu that just won’t give up. She’s doing well enough to get around, but didn’t feel like a trip from Idaho to The Dalles would be wise. Instead she’s going on a trip to the local doctor’s office to get some antibiotics.

Join us in wishing Rosalie a quick return to spring happiness!

All tickets that were purchased directly from Fishtrap at our website have already been refunded to you. If you purchased tickets in person, please go back to the place you bought them to get your refund.

Thanks very much, and we are very sorry to disappoint you. Think about next year!

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Uncle Sam, Enron thieves, and dreams of dignity

2010-05-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

Wednesdays are a big deal at Fishtrap for the next few weeks.

UPCOMING READINGS & LECTURES

When Literary Arts contacted us last year about their Oregon Book Awards Author Tour, we had the clever idea of holding the event outdoors on a warm August afternoon at the gazebo by the courthouse. We’d do it in conjunction with the farmer’s market, right after the Thursday music concert. It was probably a childhood memory of an old LP cover of the Boston Pops at Tanglewood that inspired that notion.

The clouds lowered, the wind blew, the mercury shriveled, and everybody stayed home – everybody but the poor authors and a handful of diehards. So this year, we had the more clever idea of holding the 2010 Literary Arts Oregon Book Awards Author Tour inside, at Fishtrap’s Coffin House, on Wednesday, May 12. Maybe it’ll snow 6 or 12 inches, like last week, but who cares? Come on over to hear three fine authors read from their work, at 7 pm. It’s free.

John Kroger, Attorney General of Oregon, will read from his book, Convictions: A Prosecutor's Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves, which won the Sarah Winnemucca Award in Creative Nonfiction.

Joining John will be Donna Matrazzo of Portland, finalist in creative nonfiction for Wild Things: Adventures of a Grassroots Environmentalist. Matrazzo’s work has appeared in numerous publications, on PBS and the Discovery Channel, and in national park visitor centers and museums around the country.

We’ll also be hearing from Jon Raymond of Portland, winner of the Ken Kesey Award in Fiction for Livability. Raymond is an editor at Plazm magazine and his writing has appeared in Bookforum, Artforum, the Village Voice and other publications.

Despite the gray chill last August, we liked one of the readers, Steven Bender, so well we’ve invited him back to read at greater length from his fine book, One Night in America: Robert Kennedy, César Chávez, and the Dream of Dignity. Stephen will be reading on Wednesday, May 19, 7 pm, at the same old place, Fishtrap’s Coffin House. Suggested $5 donation.

And a week later, on Wednesday, May 26, Reiko Hillyer, an Oregon Humanities Conversation Project speaker, will be visiting to talk about “Marking Our Territory.” Here’s the intriguing blurb from the Oregon Humanities catalog:

“The big house and the quarters; the front door and the back door; lunch counters, water fountains, the back of the bus. One of the most persistent ways people exert power over others is to control their access to space. Drawing upon the fields of architecture, environmental studies, urban design, and public policy, this discussion will pose the following questions: How do we mark our territory? How do the built environments we create reflect our values and aspirations? Whom do we include and whom de we exclude in the process?

“Touching on gentrification, the decline of public space, historic preservation, residential segregation, and suburban sprawl, Reiko Hillyer will lead a conversation about how to reading the history of our communities through the landscapes we build and consider how we can be more aware of and more engaged in the creation of our surroundings.”

Join us on the 26th at 7 pm. Suggested $5 donation. Just don’t mark the territory.

OTHER FISHTRAP NEWS

Last week I mentioned that we have a couple of new writers’ groups going – one is for all genres, and is held on 1st and 3rd Tuesday evenings here at Fishtrap. The second is poetry only, and is held on 2nd and 4th Tuesdays. Free, open to all regardless of experience, and typically graced with a bottle of vino.

Sure enough, that mention brought another bug to my ear: I forgot to mention that there is a children’s literature writers’ group, which meets once a month, on the first Sunday, from 1-3 pm, here at Fishtrap. If you’re interested in participating, contact Joan Madsen at jcreative@eoni.com. Her email address is not accidental. Joan is the graphic design expert who has been putting together our Summer Fishtrap brochures for years. So if you liked the “Matter & Spirit” brochure for this year, you can give Joan a shout out and a big thank you.

Speaking of Summer Fishtrap, if you think kids (8-12 years old) and teenagers (13-17 years old) deserve to enjoy the beauty of Wallowa Lake and the bounty of Summer Fishtrap, we need you to get the word out. At roughly $200 for 15 hours of workshop time in the wonderful setting of Wallowa Lake and the Eagle Cap Wilderness, these sessions are a great opportunity for budding writers. And we do want them to bud, don’t we?

The kids’ workshop will taught by Kirsten Rian, who has used poetry in places like Sierra Leone as a tool for literacy, healing, and storytelling within refugee and immigrant communities. Her anthology of Sierra Leonan poetry, Kalashnikov in the Sun, was the recent focus of a very powerful group reading in Portland. Just ask Rich, he was there. And that was all he could talk about for a couple of days.

The teens’ workshop will be offered by the energetic writer and teacher Beth Russell, who received a Presidential Scholars Distinguished Teaching Award in 2009. Those of you who came to Winter Fishtrap can vouch for the suitability of that award. Just the kind of person we want to engage those young folks.

Send out the word! (I thought of sticking in a photo of the famous “Uncle Sam wants you” poster, only to find hundreds of versions, take-offs, and parodies on the Internet. This one in particular caught my eye, because it’s NOT TOO LATE to get your tickets – from http://fishstockoregon.net/ – to Fishstock, May 15 in The Dalles, featuring Rosalie Sorrels, Robin Cody, Dan Maher, Clem Starck, and last but not least, those Ukalaliens Steve Power and Kate Einhorn. Which one posed here as Uncle Sam?)

And that is enough words from me for now.

Until next time,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Fishstock: A Celebration of Words and Music, May 15

2010-05-03T22:54:00.001-07:00

Dear Fishtrap Friends,

I woke up the other morning with a vivid dream burning behind my eyelids. Was it Steve Einhorn, up on a stage in rainy, rural, upstate New York, playing the Star Spangled Banner on a ukelele, then lighting it on fire in front of a crowd of half a million Ukalaliens?

Or was it Steve and his partner Kate Power emceeing the fabulous Fishstock II at the historic Civic Auditorium in The Dalles on May 15, before an audience of, well, hundreds? Yes, it’s Fishstock time again – a celebration of words and music.

This year you can catch the legendary Rosalie Sorrels, whose recent album Strangers in Another Country, featuring songs by Utah Phillips, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009. The prolific Sorrels has recorded over 20 albums, and has written three books. An Idhao native who still lives in the log cabin her father built, she began her career as a folklorist in the 1950s. Studs Terkel wrote introductory liner notes for her albums; Robert Creeley wrote a poem about her. She was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966, and the University of California at Santa Cruz has set up a Rosalie Sorrels Archive as part of its Beat Generation Archives.

Joining the Fishstock lineup will be Dan Maher, who, as host of NWPR's Inland Folk for two decades, has opened a window into the world of folk music, tinted with his own stories and anecdotes. And Dan is quite a performer in his own right. I still remember that concert in the old “Medical/Dental” building on Main Street in Enterprise (before it got turned into a law and CPA office), when we had the ceiling joists shaking as we sang along with Dan.

Steve and Kate probably won’t burn ukeleles on stage, but they will undoubtedly “build community with harmony, guitars, banjo and two mighty little ukuleles,” sharing a “rare elixir of spellbinding harmony, eloquent songwriting and seasoned musicianship.”

Then there are the writers.

We are pleased to welcome Robin Cody, author of the novel Ricochet River, considered one of the 100 essential “Oregon books,” and of the award-winning Voyage of a Summer Sun, an account of Cody's 82-day solo canoe trip down the Columbia River. His most recent book, from OSU Press, is Another Way The River Has: Taut True Tales from the Northwest, which collects Cody's finest nonfiction writings, many appearing for the first time in print.

Joining Robin will be Clem Starck, whose poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. He has given readings in San Francisco and throughout the Northwest and has been a featured author at FisherPoets Gathering in Astoria several times. The man has done a whole lot of different, interesting kinds of work, grist for the poetry mill. His books of poetry include the award-winning Journeyman's Wages, plus Studying Russian on Company Time, China Basin, and Traveling Incognito.

There you have it. A couple of the Pacific Northwest’s outstanding writers, along with a cadre of fine musicians. Toss in some art work, good food and drink, and the company of a bunch of like-minded folk, and you have Fishstock. May 15, more info and tickets ($25) available at www.fishstockoregon.net.

WRITING GROUPS

We have two new writing groups that are meeting twice a month here at Fishtrap’s Coffin House (now you know what that means, remember?). A poetry-only group meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month, 7 pm. And an all-genres group meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, same time. Open to all, free, supportive, and friendly. Email info@fishtrap.org if you’re interested, and we’ll put you in touch with either or both groups.

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

Fishstock ain’t all that’s happening on the weekend of May 15. We’ve had Roberta Lavadour to Summer Fishtrap a couple of times, where she has offered bookbinding and book arts classes. She’s one of the most engaging instructors you’ll ever meet, and the stuff she makes and gets her students to make are works of art. In fact, some of her work resides at the Museum of Modern Art. Join the flourishing movement in hand binding of finely crafted books. Roberta's offering a class in Pendleton:

Introduction to Bookbinding, at the Pendleton Arts Center, with Roberta Lavadour, Saturday May 15, noon to 4:00 pm, and Sunday May 16, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. To sign up, or for more information, call 541-278-9201, or email classes@pendletonarts.org.

Charles Goodrich, our Outpost workshop instructor this year at Summer Fishtrap, was recently fectured on The Writer’s Almanac on NPR. Garrison Keillor read his poem, “Wild Geese,” and you can listen to it online at http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

It rained and snowed some today, and the weather forecast gossip is that we’re going to get 6-12" of snow in the next day or two. So it seems appropos to leave you with this poem that a local Fishtrapper sent to me. She thought it was too late in the season, but nature proved her wrong. Doesn’t it always?

WE DELIVER

Winter on the Wallowa waterway, sunny and cold and
All those rednecks and long waders in the river, silent for once.

Winter steelhead are coming. You can track migration by
the herds of dirty pickups and stockdogs parked and panting anywhichway.

It’s nearly noon. In a cloud of gravel and dust,
The faithful FedEx driver pulls his shiny white truck to a sudden stop --
Leaps out! Fishing rod in hand, he takes an uncharted break.

You could get lucky too: Lunchtime, winter, Minam canyon.

– Kathy Bowman

Happy Spring to all,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Loess, longboards, and secret handshakes

2010-04-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

A dozen local high school students recently completed a Fishtrap College writing course in argumentation here at Fishtrap’s Coffin House. You may find that an odd name for our headquarters. The house is named after Gwen and Gladys Coffin, the previous owners. Gwen was the long-time publisher and editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain, our local weekly newspaper. Rich is fond of pointing out that Gwen was one of the first editors to decry the U.S. internment camps for Japanese U.S. citizens during World War II. When Fishtrap was able to purchase this house in 2001 with the help of over 400 donors, foundations, and the generosity of the Coffin children, we named the house in the Coffins’ honor.

Anyway, our very own Janis Carper’s son Joe(y) took the class, arriving on his long board each day. (I once called it a skateboard, but was oh-so-quickly corrected.) I noticed his LONG board leaned up against the old manual typewriter that Gwen Coffin once used to write his editorials. Janis likes the photo, and Joe(y) likes his new-found skills in argumentation.

THIS WEEK

This Thursday, April 29, at 7 pm, Gypsy Java, the new coffeehouse at 118 West Main Street in Enterprise, will be hosting a Speak Easy event. “Share original poetry or a story, make believe or real,” says host Rose Caslar, one of that generation of young adults who grew up in Wallowa County, left for parts unknown, and decided that the old stomping grounds looked pretty good in retrospect. Rose is an exceptional young lady, and everyone I know is thrilled to have her back.

There are a few of us in Enterprise who habitually get around by foot or bicycle. Like drivers, we can recognize each other by our “rigs.” Rob has an orange mountain bike with 3-gallon white plastic buckets on either side of the rear wheel. I have an old green Trek road bike with faded red nylon panniers hanging from the front wheel. And Peter Donovan has one of those big lattice milk crates perched on top of his rear rack.

Peter may also be one of the smartest people I know. He keeps a low profile, but is always working on something interesting. Lately that interesting something is loess – the deep, fertile, wind-blown soil that makes up the Palouse (of which, I heard once, Wallowa County’s Zumwalt prairie is considered a part).

On Friday, April 30, at 7 pm at the Coffin House (now you know what that means), Peter, who founded the Soil Carbon Coalition, will host a film and discussion about loess – in China. Those interested in climate change, big government, watershed restoration, or desertification will find this a worthwhile evening. The event is free.

LESSONS FROM THE LOESS PLATEAU is a superb and fascinating 52-minute documentary about fixing poverty by restoring ecological function. The scene is north central China's loess plateau, the cradle of Han civilization, where centuries of poor agricultural methods had resulted in horrific soil erosion and persistent poverty. In the 1990s a project the size of Wallowa, Union, and Baker counties, combining land reform with massive restoration and terracing of erodible slopes, was initiated by the Chinese government with the cooperation of the World Bank. Filmmaker John Liu spent years documenting the project, gaining a deep understanding of the underlying social and ecological realities. This carefully crafted and moving film is an engaging look at rural China in the midst of changes that few have heard about.

COMING SOON

We had a heck of a thunderstorm here the other night. I had planned to go to a Ukalaliens ukelele workshop with Steve Einhorn and Kate Power. They’ve been spreading ukalalienism all over the country lately. As Arlo Guthrie taught us, “if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick,” but if three people do it, “they may think it’s an organization.” And if fifty people do it, “friends, they may thinks it's a movement.” So I, being one of those habitual walkers in Enterprise, was walking over to the Woodshed to join The Movement, and I decided to carry an umbrella. And it’s a good thing I did, because coming back, it rained 3-gallon buckets.

But, it occurred to me, this was one of the cultural differences between you city folks and them country folks. Country folks don’t use umbrellas, except maybe if they’re sittin’ watchin’ their kids play baseball. You don’t see cowboys herdin’ cows with a lasso in one hand and an umbrella in the other. But city folks do. Carry umbrellas, that is, not herd cattle.

I digress. Steve and Kate put on a great Ukalaliens workshop, including the teaching of the secret handshake. For those of you who know and love them, or who ought to know and love them, you should plan on going to Fishstock in The Dalles on Saturday, May 15. There will be a few other musicians and writers there, too. Rosalie Sorrels, who was probably singing “Alice’s Restaurant” along with Arlo way back when. Dan Maher of Inland Folk fame. And Clem Starck and Robin Cody will be reading. Tickets are $25, available at http://fishstockoregon.net. I’ll be there, and hope you will join us.

Gotta run,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Sewage ponds and the "liquid that flowed in the veins of the gods"

2010-04-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

I visited a couple of outlying Fishtrap programs over the past week. First it was to Harney County in southeast Oregon, home of the annual John Scharff Migratory Bird Festival, held on the first full weekend each April. At an elevation of over 4,000 feet, Burns was still more winter than spring. In between walks alongside the city’s sewage ponds, where 1,000, no 2,000, no, maybe 5,000 snow geese gabbled in the warmth, I met with this year’s Writer-in-Residence, Kristy Athens.

As Kristy emailed some friends a couple of weeks ago, “I am smack-dab in the middle of a two-month adventure in the Oregon outback. This is an amazing experience. The first week, I worked with the kids in Frenchglen, a town with 36 registered voters. In this two-room school, I worked with the K-3 grades (ten students) and then moved over to the 4-8 grades (four students). The younger kids drew ‘Word Pictures;’ the older ones went on to write fantastic Plein Air pieces.”

When I visited, Kristy was coaching some adults through another Pleir Air writing exercise. Lacking the warmth of the sewage ponds, these folks suffered gamely. Wrote one writer, Linda Harrington, “These are the hardest days for me in Burns. The ones where the wind howls and hisses and bellows at me as if to say, ‘Go away, newcomer, you will never adapt to this place.’ It is tough country.” (See www.fishtrap.org/eowir_hc.shtml for Linda’s full piece). Tough country, great material for writing. Thanks, Kristy and Harney County volunteers Kate Marsh-Copeland, Carolyn Koskela, and Peg Wallis, for making the Writer in Residence program a success this year.

Then it was down to Imnaha, where writers have been staying for a week or two during the month of April. I got there just in time for fresh steelhead. A big thank you to Penny Hetherington, who donated a week’s retreat to another happy writer. After hearing folks share what they’d been working on, I wandered outside and slept under the stars beside the Imnaha River, dreamt of a long-ago love, and woke before dawn to drive home past tentative deer and turkeys by the dim roadside. To learn more about the Imnaha Retreat, go to www.fishtrap.org/imnaha.shtml. There’s still plenty of room in October.

If you are in Wallowa County, go to the Mid-Valley Theatre performance of To Kill a Mockingbird this weekend at the Providence Academy in Lostine. Show is at 7 pm on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday at 2 pm. I have heard that it’s been standing room only at this “best-ever production.” Kudos to the all-volunteer cast, which has put in 3,000 hours of time to date.

The second edition of Fishstock will be upon us before you know it. Join us in The Dalles on May 15 for a fun afternoon and evening of book signings, music, and readings, with Robin Cody, Clem Starck, Rosalie Sorrels, Steve Einhorn and Kate Power, Dan Maher, and others. Thanks to Klindt’s Booksellers, Columbia River Music, and The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce for their support. Tickets are $25, available at http://fishstockoregon.net.

A few days before Fishstock, we will be hosting the 2010 Oregon Book Awards Author Tour, sponsored by Literary Arts. Join us on Wednesday, May 12 at the Fishtrap house to hear John Kroger of Salem, winner of the Sarah Winnemucca Award in Creative Nonfiction for Convictions: A Prosecutor's Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves, Donna Matrazzo of Portland, author of Wild Things: Adventures of a Grassroots Environmentalist, and Jon Raymond of Portland, winner of the Ken Kesey Award in Fiction for Livability. The event is at 7 pm and is free to the public.

Summer Fishtrap is mostly sold out, although we do still have some room in the songwriting workshop with Cosy Sheridan, Kirsten Rian’s writing workshop for kids 8-12 years old, and the teenagers’ writing workshop with Beth Russell. See www.fishtrap.org/sft2010.htm for details on these workshops.

And if you’d like to watch a 2-minute trailer for a film about Gary Snyder which we will be screening at Summer Fishtrap, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRS-UO8wOQU.

One night in Burns, a group of us ate food we’d never tried before, and played “fictionary.” You know, use the dictionary to pick a word that no one knows, and make up fake definitions to fool everyone else. Cut-throat contestant Terry Keim turned some of our favorite words of the evening into a poem:

Conenose

Oh, to knight or knout
the pesty conenose?
A bite from which then
flows a gloze
of ichor,
indicating either

you are easily wounded, or

you are a god.

Until next time,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Fishtrap thanks and upcoming events

2010-04-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

Thank you to musicians Heidi Muller and Bob Webb, and to Seattle writer Laura Gamache, for playing and singing and speaking at a Fishtrap House Party in Olympia, Washington. Thanks also to Al and Melissa Josephy for hosting the fundraising event.

Thank you to Wallowa County writer-in-residence Collier Nogues, who gave a final and fine poetry reading to a full house of 30 folks at Gypsy Java in Enterprise. Over the past two years as a Fishtrap College instructor, writer-in-residence, and adult workshop instructor, Collier has been a real credit to Fishtrap.

There will be an Italian Dinner at Lear’s Main Street Grill, 111 West Main Street, Enterprise, on Sunday, April 11, from 4-7 pm. Cost is $7 per person, $20 per family. The event benefits Fishtrap College, which provides college-level instruction to local high school students.

For this year’s Big Read, Fishtrap partnered with the Mid-Valley Theatre group in Lostine. The group will be performing To Kill a Mockingbird at the Providence Academy gym over the next two weekends. Show times are Friday and Saturday, April 9 and 10 at 7 pm, and Sunday, April 11, at 2 pm. The play will repeat the following weekend, April 16-18. Admission $7, $6 for seniors and students.

On Thursday, April 15, in partnership with the Bookloft, Fishtrap will host Susan L. Stoner, who will read from her new book, TIMBER BEASTS: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery. Free. Refreshments will be served. 7 pm at Fishtrap.

On Saturday, April 17 in Portland, there will be A Wine and Cheese Social at the Writers’ Dojo in St. Johns. Hosted by Molly Gloss, the event features Kim Stafford and former Fishtrap Fellows Vicente Guzman-Orozco, Barbara Dills, and Ceiridwen Terrill. Limited seating, RSVP to attend. Please contact Kathy Sewell, at kathy@fishtrap.org.

Tickets are on sale now for Fishstock 2010, coming on May 15 in The Dalles. Readings by Robin Cody and Clem Starck. Jonathan Nicholas will emcee. Music with Rosalie Sorrels, Kate Power and Steve Einhorn, and Dan Maher. Tickets are $25 at www.fishstockoregon.net.

There are still spaces available in the “Writing on the River” workshop. The five-day, fully catered combination writing workshop and whitewater rafting experience is slated for August 26-31, with renowned Montana writer and film producer Annick Smith. There will be writing prompts every morning and evening with Annick. Rich Wandschneider will also be along, as will Hells Canyon naturalist Jan Hohmann. See http://www.fishtrap.org/rivertrip.shtml for details. Cost is $1295 for adults.

Although the class is nearly full, we are still accepting registrations for the yearlong workshop “The Architecture of the Novel,” with author Jane Vandenburgh. Says one of her students from the 2008-2009 class, “She’s a powerhouse, a wizard, the most generous teacher I’ve ever had.” Learn more at http://www.fishtrap.org/yearlong.shtml.

Pilgrimmages

2010-04-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

“I decided that if I committed to the process of writing, the reason for writing might present itself.” – Pam Royes, Fishtrap writing workshop participant

Summer Fishtrap registration is open, and you can commit yourself to the process of writing by joining us for a writing workshop, or come for the subsequent Gathering to hear from those who have made that commitment for a lifetime. Or do both. Some workshops are already full, but there is still plenty of room. Go to www.fishtrap.org/sft2010.htm. The theme is “Matter and Spirit.”

I have been on a few long foot journeys – pilgrimmages, perhaps – in my life, including an end-to-end hike on the Appalachian Trail (2,167 miles, as I recall) back in the year 2000. On that particular trail, there are many fellow travelers, and I met and became close friends with one in particular, a devout Catholic, whose “trail name” was Gilligan, for the little white hat he always wore. And for being a very, very funny guy. As we walked north, we talked of everything under the sun, including, of course, religion. My trail name was “Mossy Old Troll,” for being hairy and old. And for being a very, very unfunny guy.

Twenty years his senior, I thought I had a few things to teach him, like cribbage. I carried a tiny, folding cribbage board with me, and proceeded to initiate him into the mysteries of the game. Funny thing was, he never lost. Not from the very first game. After a few hundred miles and a couple of dozen defeats in a row, I finally found myself in an unbeatable position. It was in the Grayson Highlands of Virginia, the high open meadows a welcome change from miles of leafy green forest. We had stopped to enjoy the setting, while other hikers marched by, intent on Maine, still 1500 miles away.

I was 25 holes ahead of him, in the “dead hole,” the last hole before going out. Finally, victory was a sure thing. I looked at him and said, “Gilligan, if you beat me in this game, I’ll convert to Catholicism.” A sunbeam played across the hillside as he proceeded to lay down a 20 hand, with another 12 in the crib. I was dead, all right.

I never have made good on the promise. About the closest we ever came to going to church together on that hike was when we got to Maine in October, and, with our “trail family” of Yak, Yetti, and Flipper, built ourselves a sweat lodge out of sticks and tent flies. Gets the toxins out of your system, they say. We all worked up a good sweat before diving, naked, into Nahmakanta Lake to the accompaniment of loons.

A couple of years later, Gilligan came to live with me for the summer. With the enthusiasm of youth, he decided I needed a sweat lodge in my back yard, and dug out a 15 x 15 platform for the lodge and a bathtub. Then he left. A local old-timer cowboy, Sam Loftus, bequeathed me an equally old bathtub before he passed away, and now the bathtub sits on that gravel pad in my back yard.

Although it took six and a half months, the Appalachian Trail was not the longest trail I’ve hiked. That honor belongs to a seven year journey I am just about to complete here at Fishtrap. After five years as Fishtrap’s first Development Director, and two years as its second Executive Director, I am stepping down to make way for that person who has the skills, commitment, and love for writing to carry Fishtrap on the next part of the journey.

When I was asked to step into Rich Wandschneider’s shoes (bigger, both literally and figuratively, than my own), it was with the understanding that, beyond an initial one year commitment, the future was open. Now, after two years and by mutual agreement with the board, I will be moving on. The timing is good. Programs have been going well, our finances are in good shape, and all the pieces are in place for a wonderful Summer Fishtrap.

I’m not leaving this afternoon. I’ll be hanging around camp to help out a bit while we wait for the next Executive Director to come out of the woods and join Fishtrap’s trail family. In cribbage parlance, you might say I’m in the dead hole. But I will have left before Summer Fishtrap starts. I’m afraid if I did come, Brian Doyle would make me make good on my promise to Gilligan.

If you’re interested in the job, or know someone who is, there is a position announcement available for download off Fishtrap’s website. Go to the home page at www.fishtrap.org, and look for the link at the bottom of the left hand side of the page. To be considered in the first round, submit a cover letter, resume, and references by April 14. You can email them to elizabeth@fishtrap.org or sbadgerjones@eoni.com. There may be other rounds. The start date is negotiable.

What’s next for me? Well, I think I’ll name that bathtub “Nahmakanta Lake,” and get that sweat lodge built. After that, who knows? Maybe I’ll go to Norway. I hear there are trolls there.

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Circumambulation

2010-04-02T01:05:00.000-07:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

I just returned from a little vacation, if you can call losing your clutch at that four way stop sign just outside of Ukiah a vacation. If you’ve never heard of Ukiah, maybe you can guess. If you do know where Ukiah is, I don’t need to explain.

But I did make it to Fossil and Condon, where I enjoyed a great meal and meeting with the committee of folks who have been leading the Eastern Oregon Writers in Residence program in those communities. (The program also operates in Harney County, Klamath County, and Wallowa County). With us was Geronimo Tagatac, author of The Weight of the Sun, who was just finishing a successful two month stint as the writer in residence in those towns.

On I limped to Portland, where I got the clutch replaced – nothing a small fortune couldn’t fix – before continuing by train to San Francisco. I got to visit the City Lights bookstore, but, honestly, spent more time at Vesuvio, right next door, bending an elbow with my daughter. That made up for the clutch, that and a circumambulation of Mount Tamalpais.

Back home, I found 249 emails and a Fishtrap calendar as full as ever:

Summer Fishtrap registration opens at 9 am on Thursday, April 1. Go to www.fishtrap.org/sft2010.htm to see the lineup of faculty, an agenda, and to register online.

At Summer Fishtrap, we will welcome five new Fellows, bringing our total to 102 since 1990. Our final judge, Charles Goodrich, had this to say about the 30 finalists he reviewed:

“I was impressed by the overall quality, and blown away by some pieces. There were many more worthy applications than there are fellowships. There were some interesting recurring elements, images, themes: lots of dogs, and rivers, often in combination. Encounters with dead animals—deer, mice, a whale—were common. The deaths of humans, too. The experience of being old is treated often, usually with great specificity and insight, unromanticized, courageous reporting from uncharted country. It's heartening to find so much good writing being done in so many distinctive voices.”

The winners are: Christine Colasurdo (OR), Dave Jarecki (OR), Christina Robertson (NV), Rob Williams (CA), and William W.Wright (CO). Congratulations, and thanks to all who submitted.

There’s plenty to keep up with between now and Summer Fishtrap.

Poet Collier Nogues is wrapping up her second superb residency here in Wallowa County. Besides working with students in four different schools, Collier taught an adult workshop, whose participants lauded her: “I would take any workshop taught by Collier,” “Collier’s feedback is good quality, and well thought through,” and “Gave great commentary, and pushed me to think, feel, beyond the boundaries of where I was at.”

You can hear Collier read her own poetry at Gypsy Java at 118 West Main Street, Enterprise, on Monday night, April 5, at 7 pm. Free.

Collier and fellow poet Zanni Schauffler have, between them, taught college-level English lessons to quite a few Wallowa County high school students over the past couple of years. While Zanni was teaching this year’s class, I waited in Portland for a new clutch, watching that old film classic, The Godfather. Killing time, you might say, while learning about the Corleone family’s personnel policies. What do Sicily and Wallowa County have in common? Help support Fishtrap College by coming to our second Italian Dinner at Lear’s Main Street Grill, 111 West Main Street, Enterprise, on Sunday, April 11, from 4-7 pm. Cost is $7 per person, $20 per family. Or else.

Meanwhile, Fishtrap’s Big Read is finally about to wrap up, with a home-grown live theater performance of To Kill a Mockingbird by the all-volunteer Mid-Valley Theatre group at the Providence Academy gym in Lostine. Show times are Friday and Saturday, April 9 and 10 at 7 pm, and Sunday, April 11, at 2 pm. The play will repeat the following weekend, April 16-18. Admission $7, $6 for seniors and students. You could catch the play on the 11th, then go have lasagna at Lears. Or else.

Check out http://preview.niot.org/blog/double-bill-kill-mockingbird-and-not-our-town for a quick peek at Wayne Inman, former police chief of Billings, Montana, who visited Wallowa County during the Big Read, talking about community responses to hate crimes. Thanks to Rhian Miller of The Working Group.

In a new partnership with our local mega-bookstore, The Bookloft, Fishtrap will be hosting a number of authors’ readings, free to the public. For starters, Susan L. Stoner will read from her new book, TIMBER BEASTS: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery, on Thursday, April 15, 7 pm at Fishtrap.

Also in April, on Saturday the 17th, is our Wine and Cheese Social at the Writers’ Dojo in St. Johns. Hosted by Molly Gloss, the event will include Kim Stafford and former Fishtrap Fellows Vicente Guzman-Orozco, Barbara Dills, and Ceiridwen Terrill. Seating is limited, so you must RSVP to attend. Please contact Fishtrap’s development director, Kathy Sewell, at kathy@fishtrap.org. It’s a fundraiser for the Fellows program, so bring your pocketbook. Or else.

Tickets are on sale NOW for FISHSTOCK 2010, coming on May 15 in The Dalles. Robin Cody, Clem Starck, Jonathan Nicholas, Rosalie Sorrels, Kate Power and Steve Einhorn, Dan Maher, Heart and Hammer. Tickets $25 at www.fishstockoregon.net.

Sheesh. My clutch is shot. I’ll be back next week with more news.

Ciao,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Scholarships to go to Mars, where humans are treated like humans.

2010-03-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

Dr. Suess had a birthday on March 2nd, and the high point of my week was getting asked into the elementary school to read to a roomful of 4th and 5th graders. You’re supposed to wear a hat and tie. So I did. “Looks like Mars,” said my young hostess, Breanna. We read a couple of my favorites – How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin and The Beginning of the Armadillos.

Registration opens for Summer Fishtrap at 9 am on April 1. (If you say, “Just kidding” on April Fool’s Day, are you serious?) Seriously. you can go online right now at www.fishtrap.org/sft2010.htm to view the great lineup of workshop faculty and Gathering presenters. Brochures will be mailed this Friday. Note that this year we are returning to the time honored tradition of taking registrations on a “first come, first served” basis.

We have SEVERAL SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE for young people and working women to attend Summer Fishtrap (www.fishtrap.org/sft2010.htm), and we’ve received very few applications. Don’t let them go begging. We are extending the application deadline to Friday, March 26. This is an “on our doorstep” deadline, not a postmark date. To repeat, we must have the application in hand (via either mail or email) by March 26.

The application is simple. People who are under 30 should apply for a Frank Conley or Bryn Lunde scholarship (criteria are the same for both, and any application for one will be considered for the other as well). Working women should apply for a Sally Bowerman Scholarship. Get scholarship info at www.fishtrap.org/scholarships.shtml. Email applications to director@fishtrap.org.

BIG READ home stretch ... really ... truly

Our Big Read finale was extremely powerful, with Mark Mathabane, author of the autobiography Kaffir Boy, about growing up in apartheid South Africa, holding a full house of 100 folks spellbound as he argued, in carefully chosen words, how important it is for people, in order to be fully human, to treat others as human. More than one member of the audience told me afterwards that it was one of the best Fishtrap presentations they had ever seen. Ever. The next day, Mark spoke to students in Enterprise School District, with similar results.

There is one more very special event that is part of our Big Read. The Mid-Valley Theatre group, headquartered in the Greater Lostine Metropolitan Area (pop. 230), will be performing To Kill a Mockingbird on the weekends of April 9, 10, 11 and 16, 17, 18. Sorry, I can't get ahold of Kate Loftus for show times and ticket arrangements. Sunday performances will be matinees.

And here’s one more note if you came to Winter Fishtrap, on the theme “Learning from Women.” Two more authors you might want to explore are Peggy McIntosh's writings on race and privilege (she's at the Wellesley Centers for Women) and Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms.

If you haven’t checked out board member Kathy Hunter’s “Fishtrap Storytime” on KWVR radio (92.1 FM, downtown Enterprise), you should tune in at 7 pm on Sunday evenings. She’s been having some great shows. For children of all ages.

Our “Director Emeritus” Rich Wandschneider has continued to work hard behind the scenes, assembling an impressive advisory board for the Alvin and Betty Josephy Library of Western History and Culture at Fishtrap. (We usually just call it “the library.”) Cataloging is ongoing of about 2,000 volumes of Alvin Josephy’s work, plus books by many past, present, and future Fishtrap faculty. Thank you to our many volunteers, especially Shannon Maslach, for all of your hard work! And the library is NOW OPEN, 10-1 on Saturdays.

If you’re in Wallowa County think about joining us for our second Little Italy Food Fest (OK, I made the name up) at Lear’s Restaurant in Enterprise on Sunday, April 11. The rumor is we’re serving lasagna this time around. Show up between 4 and 7 pm. Proceeds from this evening of Mediterranean High Culture will benefit the Fishtrap College program, which provides college level classes to Wallowa County high school students.

Did you know that since 1990, Fishtrap has awarded over 100 Fellowships to Summer Fishtrap? Fellows receive a free ride for the entire week, and the submission process is fair and free. It doesn’t get much better than that. We’ve just finished judging Fellowship submissions for 2010, and will announce those winners soon.

In the meantime, if you’re anywhere near the Greater Portland Metropolitan Area (pop. 2.2 million) on April 17, come to our Wine and Cheese Social at the Writers’ Dojo in St. Johns. Hosted by Molly Gloss, the event will include Kim Stafford and former Fishtrap Fellows Vicente Guzman-Orozco, Barbara Dills, and Ceiridwen Terrill. Seating is limited, so you must RSVP to attend. Please contact Fishtrap’s development director, Kathy Sewell, at kathy@fishtrap.org. It’s a fundraiser for the Fellows program, so bring your pocketbook.

And FISHSTOCK 2010 is coming on May 15 in The Dalles (pop. 12156)! Robin Cody, Clem Starck, Jonathan Nicholas, Rosalie Sorrels, Kate Power and Steve Einhorn, Dan Maher, Heart and Hammer. Tickets $25 at www.fishstockoregon.net.

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

Julie Weston began work on her book, The Good Times Are All Gone Now: Life, Death and Rebirth in an Idaho Mining Town (we usually just call it "the book") at Fishtrap’s Imnaha Writers’ Retreat. Julie recently appeared as a Literary Lion at the King County (pop. 1.8 million) Library System gala. Congrats to Julie! See her work at www.juliewweston.com.

Fishtrap friends Mark and Kathy participated in Fishtrap’s Big Read South. Said Mark,

“Hi Rick. Even though we are out of the county, we are reading To Kill a Mockingbird too. We also got the DVD from the library and watched it, and enjoyed the bonus features with interviews with the actors. Attached is a picture of Kathy engrossed in her reading.” Somehow, I don’t think they’re in Wallowa County.

This is the last you’ll hear from me for a couple of weeks. I’ll be riding the “Coast Starlight” to visit my daughter. One nice thing about Amtrak – they still believe in catchy titles. There’s the California Zephyr, and the Heartland Flyer, the Sunset Limited, and, of course, The City of New Orleans.

That’s plenty for now. Hope you’re enjoying Spring.

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Numb toes and the architecture of the novel

2010-02-25T21:40:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends of Fishtrap,

Ursula Le Guin, Molly Gloss, and Tony Vogt brought three distinct but complementary voices to the 19th Winter Fishtrap Gathering this past weekend, as a record crowd of participants explored the theme "Learning from Women." We were especially pleased this year to have healthy representation by the under-30 crowd.

While Summer Fishtrap emphasizes the "good writing" part of Fishtrap’s mission, Winter Fishtrap has traditionally focused on the "clear thinking" aspect, functioning as more of a think tank than a writing workshop. Still, we continued last year’s experiment to include more writing at Winter Fishtrap, and were delighted with the especially strong open mic session on Sunday.

Thanks to all for helping to making Winter Fishtrap a success!

On the homestretch with the BIG READ

I got home from Winter Fishtrap on Sunday afternoon, went for a 30-mile bicycle ride to clear my head under sunny skies (which didn’t keep my toes from going numb), then joined Fishtrap staff and volunteers on Monday in welcoming former Billings, Montana police chief Wayne Inman, who spoke to adults and students on the "Not in Our Town" movement which arose in response to white supremacist hate crimes in Billings.

From Portland to Wallowa County, Oregon has its share too, and Wayne held about 100 middle school students’ attention as we discussed the need for communities to take responsibility for responding to hate crimes.

Join us on Thursday night, February 25, 7 pm at the Fishtrap house for a discussion led by Peace and Justice and Non-Violent Communication representatives Nick Lunde and Walter Smith, as we focus on solutions rather than problems.

Former La Grande librarian Jo Cowling will host a noon brown-bag lunch seminar at the Toma’s Conference Room in Enterprise on Friday, February 26 on the subject of "Citizen Diplomacy in Iran." This will be another example of people working together to overcome fear and stereotypes.

And we still have a few tickets to the Finale event on Sunday, February 28 at 5 pm. It’s a potluck dinner at the Hurricane Creek Grange Hall. Fishtrap will provide barbecued pork ribs, the Grange members will bake Southern desserts and their traditional pies, and we ask you all to bring a side dish, Southern if possible. Dinner will be followed by a talk by Mark Mathabane, author of the best-selling authobiography Kaffir Boy, about growing up in apartheid South Africa. Tickets are $10, available at the Bookloft, the Wallowa public library, Mt. Joseph Foods, and Fishtrap.

WHAT HOMESTRETCH?

The Big Read will soon be over, but there are plenty of Fishtrap events coming up, including one for which you don’t have to leave home. Join us Saturday evening, February 27, at the "Stay At Home and Read a Book Ball." It’s a creative fundraiser for Fishtrap – stay home, read a book, and send us a donation for the dinner and show you didn’t go to. Oh, and include the parking meter charge, too. Go to http://readabookball.blogspot.com/ to sign up and tell us all what you’re reading.

Our second Fishstock celebration of music, words, and art in The Dalles will be Saturday, May 15. How about Rosalie Sorrels, Dan Maher, Kate Power & Steve Einhorn, Heart & Hammer for music, and Robin Cody and Clem Starck with the words? And MC’ed by Jonathan Nicholas? Sounds like a fine time to me. Go to http://fishstockoregon.net/ for ticket information.

If you’re looking for a Fishtrap experience that’s a bit longer than one evening, check out one of these:

For five days guaranteed to generate lifelong memories, sign up now for our Writing on the River experience with renowned Montana writer and film producer Annick Smith. You’ll work with Annick every morning and evening, float the Snake River during the day, and enjoy fine food and company in the bargain. Fishtrap’s "Director Emeritus" Rich Wandschneider will be along, as will Hells Canyon naturalist Jan Hohmann. And we hope to rendezvous with Tracy Vallier, geologist extraordinaire. See http://www.fishtrap.org/rivertrip.shtml for details.

If you’re ready to give that novel inside you a chance to get out, we are accepting registrations NOW for the yearlong workshop "The Architecture of the Novel," with author Jane Vandenburgh. Says one of her students from the 2008-2009 class, "She’s a powerhouse, a wizard, the most generous teacher I’ve ever had." Learn more at http://www.fishtrap.org/yearlong.shtml. The deadline for manuscript submissions is May 1.

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

We were pleased to hear that former Fishtrap Fellow Jennifer Munro, former Fishtrap writer-in-residence Ellie Belew, and recent Fishtrap participant Ruby Murray were among 16 artists selected to participate in Artist Trust’s 2010 EDGE Professional Development Program for Writers. At the end of the program, the artists will present their work at Jack Straw Productions in Seattle, on Friday, March 26. See www.artisttrust.org for more info.

Winter Fishtrap participant Judith Johnson tells me that Sandra Steingraber, cancer survivor and author of the acclaimed book Living Downstream, will explore the environmental links to human cancers at a talk on March 4 at 7:30 pm at Chism Hall, Whitman College, Walla Walla.

That’s it for the moment. I won’t see you on Saturday night, as I’ll be home reading a book. Just finished Riding the White Horse Home, by Teresa Jordan (thanks, Molly Gloss, for that Winter Fishtrap suggestion). Think I’ll pick up Robin Cody’s new book, Another Way the River Has.

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci, Executive Director

Going viral, animal crackers, and revenge

2010-02-12T23:40:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends of Fishtrap,

The H1N1 virus has been a no-show in Wallowa County, but the BIG READ has gone viral. We keep finding out about groups of people who are reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and discussing it – at home, at work, with friends. Let us know if you are one of those groups or individuals reading the book along with us!

Fishtrap took over the Wallowa County courtroom for a presentation by Portland lawyer Steven Goldberg on the connection between legal battles and social change. His conclusion? Social activism is often a prerequisite for judicial decisions that change the status quo.

Meanwhile, Enterprise elementary school students were reading The Well, by Mildred Taylor, about ... well, let’s let the kids tell us what it’s about:

... if someone hits you and you hit back it could go on forever ... if you make a mess, you have to clean it up ... don’t be mean just because you can ... if you think you are the best, you aren’t ... be kind and treat people equally ... racism is wrong ... you can never be too sure about anyone ... use your head instead of your fists ... sometimes good things can come out of the bad ... hitting someone will resolve in bad ways.

And my favorite: ... revenge is not always so sweet.

Coming up:

To Kill a Mockingbird, the movie, 1962, black and white, Gregory Peck. At the OK Theatre, Monday, February 15, 7 pm. Admission by donation. Need I say more?

In a presentation entitled “Speak Peace in a World of Conflict,” Catherine Matthias, Nick Lunde, Judy Wandschneider, and Chris Geyer, Wallowa County residents all, will lead a discussion of the basic principles of nonviolent communication, universal needs, and the many shades of feelings. They will also do some role modeling of productive and nonproductive communication methods. At the Fishtrap house, Thursday night, February 18, 7 pm.

SUMMER FISHTRAP

Well, I guess I misspoke last week. Summer Fishtrap info is not yet online, but should be no later than the 18th. Brochures will mail on March 12, and registration opens April 1. This year the theme is “Matter and Spirit,” and our faculty will include:

John Daniel, Brian Doyle, Karen Fisher, Charles Goodrich, Ehud Havazelet, Holly Hughes, Ursula Le Guin, Jack Loeffler, Amy Minato, Robert Michael Pyle, Kirsten Rian, Beth Russell , Cosy Sheridan, Jack Shoemaker, Gary Snyder, Jane Vandenburgh, and Elizabeth Woody.

The scholarship application process for Summer Fishtrap is open now. Applications must be in our hands by March 15. Go to www.fishtrap.org/scholarships.shtml.

FRIENDS & FUNDRAISERS

Our good and longtime Fishtrap friend Mary Schlick was featured on OPB’s Art Beat recently. As OPB reminds us, Mary “has devoted the last four decades of her life to preserving Indian basketry traditions from the Mid-Columbia region. Using plant fibers gathered from the Columbia River Gorge area, including roots, grass, and birch bark, she crafts a variety of basket styles. More than simple bags to carry food, these baskets hold a wealth of symbolism for Native Americans.” You can watch the show online at http://www.opb.org/programs/artbeat/segments/view/660

No, this isn’t one of Mary’s baskets, it’s the oldest and classiest of our Fishtrap donation baskets. The newest and least classy is a clear plastic tub, formerly home to miniature animal crackers. And speaking of donation baskets, our Development Director Kathy Sewell has been hard at work bringing back Fishstock and launching some new fundraisers.

Fishstock 2010, Fishtrap’s one-day celebration of music, words and art, will brighten your day on Saturday, May 15, in The Dalles. Last year’s inaugural event was great fun – plan to join us this year for the second go-round, with musicians Rosalie Sorrels, Dan Maher, Kate Power and Steve Einhorn, and the duo Heart and Hammer. Writer Robin Cody (Ricochet River, Voyage of a Summer Sun) and poet Clem Starck will read from their work, and that eloquent Welshman Jonathan Nicholas will MC. More details soon.

By the way, Voyage of a Summer Sun is about Cody’s 82-day canoe trip down the Columbia River, so Robin should feel right at home in The Dalles.

And now for Kathy’s idea of a night out on the town:

"Hi everyone. Welcome to the ‘Stay Home and Read a Book’ Ball. I hope all of you will take this opportunity to read an old favorite, a new intriguing literary work, or just fulfill a hidden pleasure. Some of you may read our 2010 Big Read selection, To Kill a Mockingbird, while others might enjoy the time to look at one of the new exciting graphic novels that are being published. Please choose any book, then blog on at http://readabookball.blogspot.com and tell us what you are reading. Become a follower so that you can see what other Fishtrappers are reading. AND please support Fishtrap by sending us a contribution that would equal a ‘night on the town.’ You can donate by going to www.fishtrap.org/donate.shtml. We appreciate your on-going support, and I look forward to meeting you on the blog!"

I don’t know about you, but life is so busy here in Wallowa County that the thought of doing nothing but reading a book sounds pretty darn good. So that’s what I’m going to do.

Bye,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Who is YOUR Mockingbird?

2010-02-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

The Big Read is about half over, and I think most folks would agree that it has been a wonderful series of events so far. Other, that is, than one misguided attempt to show the film Blood in the Face while downloading it in real time over the Internet, amply demonstrating the inadequacy of Fishtrap’s connection speed as the film re-buffered. But it also gave moviegoers a chance to discuss, every 10 minutes, each scene from the film.

I was especially pleased with our recent group discussion, led by Katie Boyd, Angie Lunde, Don Harker, and Colleen Dunne-Cascio, entitled “Who Is YOUR Mockingbird?” It was an invitation to examine our own prejudices and privilege, and the audience participation was vigorous. Thanks to all for helping to make The Big Read a two-way street.

Monday night, February 8, we’ll be showing the 2008 film Prom Night in Mississippi. It’s a true story. “It may amaze many viewers that in this day and age, an American high school would retain separate proms for black and white students,” says Dennis Harvey at variety.com. “But such is the reality of Prom Night in Mississippi, which scrutinizes a pint-sized town’s travails when the school board finally consents to ‘try out’ a first-ever colorblind fete. An upbeat portrait of youth anxious to shed their elders’ prejudices.” Show time is 7 pm at Mutiny Brewing, Fishtrap, and the Wallowa Public Library.

But come an hour early, because on the 8th we’ll also be hosting discussion groups to share thoughts and responses to the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Each discussion will be hosted by a Fishtrap representative with a few starter questions to get the ball rolling at 6 pm.

And remember that on Wednesday, February 10, at 7 pm, Portland lawyer and activist Steven Goldberg will “take the stand” at the Wallowa County Courthouse to talk about unpopular legal causes and social change. You may want to read two relevant New Yorker articles beforehand. Links are available at www.fishtrap.org/tbr.shtml.

“How the work of lawyers relates to broader social movements is a very different perspective on the law than the one presented in To Kill A Mockingbird,” notes Goldberg. “The work Atticus did reflected his moral beliefs, but was related only temporally to the broader changes wrought by the civil rights movement. Of course we’ve always valued the strong moral stands taken by individual lawyers; many of the judges in the South took unbelievable risks in issuing decisions upholding equality under the law. But the question is whether lawyers and judges who see their work as a part of broader social movements are more instrumental in creating social change.”

If you’d like to hear To Kill a Mockingbird read in an authentic Southern female voice, tune in to KPBX radio on Monday through Thursday evenings at 6:30, when Susan Creed reads on The Bookshelf program through February.

Fellowship apps closed, but SCHOLARSHIP apps OPEN

The Fellowship deadline has passed, but not before we received over 130 submissions for Summer Fishtrap. Results will be announced by March 20. Up to five winners will get a free ride to a workshop and the Gathering.

On the other hand, applications are still open for several scholarships that Fishtrap offers to Summer Fishtrap. The application deadline is March 15. The Sally Bowerman Scholarship is for working women. The Bryn Lunde and Frank Conley scholarships are for people under 30 years old. Download complete scholarship info at www.fishtrap.org/scholarships.shtml.

Info on Summer Fishtrap will be posted at our website by February 11.

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

Poet Penelope Schott will be giving a number of readings in February and March. Among them are appearances at Broadway Books with Henry Hughes on 2/16, Looking Glass Books with Peter Sears on 2/25 (both in Portland), and the Cloud and Leaf Bookstore in Manzanita on 3/13. Penelope says, “I promise not to be boring or obscure.”

A worthy promise.

Until later,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Last call for Fellowships, and they don't call it the Big Read for nothing

2010-01-30T15:45:00.000-08:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

You get a two-fer this week.

LAST CALL FOR FELLOWSHIP SUBMISSIONS

This is your last chance to submit prose or poetry for a 2010 Summer Fishtrap Fellowship. The proceess is FREE, it is FAIR, and it gives up to five recipients a full ride to Summer Fishtrap. Submissions must be postmarked no later than February 1. See www.fishtrap.org/fellows.shtml for complete submission guidelines.

THE BIG READ

Kate Loftus and friends at the all-volunteer Mid-Valley Theater will be putting on a live production of To Kill a Mockingbird in March. Kate tells me she’s got a complete cast, but for one person – Reverend Sykes. If you’re interested in a small but important part, with what I think is one of the best lines in the book – “Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passing.” – let us know or give Kate a call. She said the pay is great.

Tickets are going fast for our Big Read finale at the Hurricane Creek Grange. As is now tradition, this will be a potluck. Bring your favorite Southern recipe. Fishtrap is supplying pork ribs, expertly barbecued courtesy of Eric Carlson. Southern desserts supplied by our favorite Grange ladies. And the program: South African writer Mark Mathabane, author of the best-selling autobiography Kaffir Boy, a true story of his coming of age under apartheid in South Africa. The book made the New York Times and Washington Post bestseller lists and was translated into several languages. Today, the book is used in classrooms across the U.S. Tickets are a mere $10, and are available at Mt Joseph Family Foods in Joseph, Fishtrap or the Bookloft in Enterprise, and the public library in Wallowa. And they are about half gone.

One-time Wallowa County resident Katie Kissinger is following The Big Read with us from her current home on the “Westside,” and has shared with us a list of her favorite children’s books that deal with the subject of skin color. Go to http://fishtrap.org/tbrchildren.shtml. Thanks, Katie.

Our friends at KPBX in Spokane will start a serial broadcast of To Kill a Mockingbird on Monday night, February 1, from 6:30 to 7 pm. Susan Creed will read on The Bookshelf program, Mondays through Thursdays, weekly, until she gets to “He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.” Please join us by the woodstove, tuning in to 89.5 FM in Wallowa County or on any one of KPBX’s many translator stations.

Portland lawyer Steven Goldberg asks, “Would Atticus Finch have represented civil rights workers who sat in at lunch counters, or were arrested attempting to register to vote? Maybe not.” Steven will address this question and others in a 7 pm presentation at the Wallowa County Courthouse on Wednesday, February 10.

Goldberg, who has practiced law in Oregon since 1975, has focused on the representation of labor unions and working people. He has also been involved in numerous political cases over the years: Representing prisoners challenging medical and mental health conditions in the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, representing Freedom Socialist Party in gaining access to the ballot, representing Emiliano Santiago in his challenge to the Army’s stop loss policy, and most recently being part of the legal team challenging the National Security Agency’s warrantless wireless wiretap of an Islamic charity in southern Oregon. Steven recommends two New Yorker magazine articles which are relevant to his presentation: "The Courthouse Ring: Atticus Finch and the limits of Southern liberalism," by Malcolm Gladwell and "State Secrets: A government misstep in a wiretapping case," by Patrick Radden Keefe. You can read them onl ine at:

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/10/090810fa_fact_gladwell

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_keefe

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

Nominations are still open for the sixth Poet Laureate of Oregon. Lawson Fusao Inada, the current Poet Laureate, will step down later this year. Nominations will be accepted until February 15, 2010. See the Oregon Cultural Trust’s website at http://www.culturaltrust.org/pdf/Poet_laureate_nomination.pdf

Well, I hear it’s the weekend. Guess I’ll go home.

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Big Read presentations, fellowships and scholarships, Summer Fishtrap 2010 lineup

2010-01-26T13:57:00.001-08:00

Hello Friends of Fishtrap,

A quickie this week. We're all hustling to stay on top of ...

THE BIG READ

I found myself in Portland this past weekend, and took advantage of the fact to enjoy an up-close and personal viewing of Profile Theatre’s fine staged reading of To Kill a Mockingbird. It was a fine example of “less is more,” as the cast used minimal props to maximum advantage while acting out Horton Foote’s Academy Award-winning screenplay. Meanwhile, here in Wallowa County, we’re just getting started:

Join us at Fishtrap’s Coffin House in Enterprise this Wednesday, January 27, to hear Whitman College history professor David Schmitz speak on “The Structural Origins of Racial Change in Mid-Twentieth Century America.” David, who gave a great talk for us back in 2006 when we were reading Fahrenheit 451, will examine the political and social structures of race relations during the 20th century, and the forces that brought forth the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement. 7 pm. Admission by donation.

And next week, on Tuesday, February 2, we will host a Big Read panel discussion on the question "Who is Your Mockingbird?" In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch teaches that mockingbirds cause people no harm, but only "make music for us to enjoy." And yet some people harm them.

In similar fashion, out of blindness, bias, or prejudice, we can harm others even though they cause us no harm. The panel, moderated by Eastern Oregon University Director of Student Relations Colleen Dunne-Cascio, will examine the ways in which we form our identities with respect to other groups, the ways in which we act with prejudice towards those "others," and the ways in which we can live with each other with respect. Other panel members include Wallowa County residents Katie Boyd, Don Harker, and Angie Lunde. Join us at 7 pm at the Fishtrap house. Admission by donation.

FELLOWSHIPS and SCHOLARSHIPS

We’re still accepting submissions for the Fishtrap Fellows program. It’s a free process, and the blind judging is totally impartial. Five fellowship winners will get a free ride to Summer Fishtrap. Submission deadline is February 1. Details at www.fishtrap.org/fellows.shtml.

We will also have scholarships available for Summer Fishtrap, and it’s not too early to check out the guidelines and send in an application. The Sally Bowerman Scholarship is for working women, and the Frank Conley and Bryn Lunde scholarships are for young people (anyone under 30 years old). Guidelines are available at www.fishtrap.org/scholarships.shtml.

SUMMER FISHTRAP LINE-UP

Speaking of Summer Fishtrap, we’ve got our faculty pretty well lined up, and full details will be available soon. Registration will start on April 1. The theme for 2010 will be “Matter and Spirit,” and we’re pleased to have the following folks joining us:

John Daniel, Brian Doyle, Karen Fisher (historical fiction), Charles Goodrich (Outpost), Ehud Havazelet (fiction), Holly Hughes (poetry), Ursula Le Guin, Jack Loeffler ("aural" history), Amy Minato (memoir), Robert Michael Pyle, Kirsten Rian (kids’ workshop), Beth Russell (teens workshop), Cosy Sheridan (songwriting), Jack Shoemaker, Gary Snyder, and Jane Vandenburgh (yearlong novel workshop)

This promises to be another fine Summer Fishtrap, so keep an eye out here for more details.

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

The Oregon Cultural Trust invites all with an interest in the literary life of Oregon to submit nominations for the next poet laureate of Oregon. There was a 16 year hiatus after the close of William Stafford’s tenure in 1989. Lawson Fusao Inada, the current Poet Laureate, will complete his second term in early 2010. Nominations will be accepted until February 15, 2010. See the Cultural Trust’s website at www.culturaltrust.org/pdf/poet_laureate_nomination.pdf for more details.

PageToFame is a writing contest that allows writers to have their work reviewed by a large audience of readers. An escalating series of submissions and reviews move your work along. The organizers have offered a submission fee waiver to Fishtrap friends. Go to their website at www.webook.com/poll/writers.aspx, and use this coupon code: WGFISH001.

Lost Horse Press is accepting submissions for the Idaho Prize for Poetry 2010, a national competition offering $1,000 plus publication by the press for a book-length poetry manuscript. Check out www.losthorsepress.org for more information.

That’s it for the moment,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Race relations, wizards, and the rest of "that" story

2010-01-19T21:25:00.001-08:00

The Big Read is off and running in Wallowa County, with full house turnouts of 125 and 135 people at our first two live events. Monday night, at the beautiful Joseph Methodist Church, we showed the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 speech in Washington DC. It has become known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, but two other memorable phrases that King used repeatedly were and “We will not be satisfied” and “Now is the time.”

Rich Wandschneider, who was in DC five years later when King was assassinated, followed with an eloquent piece of his own, which was so good that we’ve posted it on our website. Go to www.fishtrap.org/mlkrich.shtml to read Rich’s short speech.

Rich was followed by a wonderful performance by Seattle singer and songwriter Reggie Garrett, who soon had the audience in the palm of his hand. If you get a chance to hear Reggie, take it.

Our next Monday Movie, on January 25, is Blood in the Face (1991, NR). It is “an expose of the beliefs, history, and personalities of American White Supremacist groups, including neo-Nazis, fascists, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Aryan Nation.” (as reviewed by Murray Chapman at IMDB.com) Shows are at Mutiny Brewing in Joseph, Fishtrap in Enterprise, and the Public Library in Wallowa, 7pm at all venues, admission by donation.

“Race relations have long marred the idyllic portrayal of American democracy and freedom, and raised questions about the nation’s commitment to justice and equality. To Kill a Mockingbird provides a unique and trenchant insight into the role of race in American society at two different points of change, the period of the Great Depression and New Deal that provides the setting for the novel, and the beginning of the 1960s when the book was published,” says Whitman College history professor David Schmitz.

On Wednesday, January 27, Schmitz will lecture on “The Structural Origins of Racial Change in Mid-Twentieth Century America,” examining the political and social structures of race relations during the 20th century, and the forces that brought forth the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement. Join us at Fishtrap’s Coffin House, 7pm. Admission by donation.

Along the same lines, if you are in or near Portland, check out Susan Banyas’s new performance work, “The Hillsboro Story, ” shows at the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland on January 22, 23, and 24. It’s a story of a sleepy, segregated Ohio town (where Susan was in third grade), woken up when the “colored” elementary school went up in flames, sparking a fight which became a test case for the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The work is a mix of voice, images, and music. Go to www.susanbanyas.com or http://www.artistsrep.org/learn-about-us/new-work/hillsboro-story.aspx for details.

WRITING ON THE RIVER with ANNICK SMITH

Join Fishtrap, Winding Waters River Expeditions, and Annick Smith on a fully-catered five-day combination writing workshop and float trip on the Snake River of Hells Canyon. Annick is the author of Homestead, In This We Are Native, and Big Bluestem, and has written for Story, Outside, Orion, Audubon, Travel & Leisure, and the NY Times Traveler. She was also executive producer of the film Heartland and co-producer of A River Runs Through It.

The trip takes place August 26 - 31, and is limited to 12 participants. The cost is $1295 for adults. Go to www.fishtrap.org/rivertrip.shtml for details.

YEARLONG NOVEL WORKSHOP with JANE VANDENBURGH

“A book length work of fiction – be it a novel or a collection of linked stories – often fails to be completed for reasons of its own length,” says Jane Vandenburgh. “The narrative weight of all its novelistic material so easily defeats a story’s need to feel effortless. Structural problems are, in fact, almost always the reason these good books of ours are never given a chance – either never started or not completed.”

Jane is the author of two novels, a memoir, and a book on the craft of writing the longer narrative, Architecture of the Novel: A Writer’s Handbook (Plot, Story and the Mechanics of Narrative Time), which will appear in June 2010. “She’s a powerhouse, a wizard, the most generous teacher I’ve ever had,” said one of her recent yearlong students.

If you have a novel in you that deserves a chance, join Jane in Fishtrap’s yearlong low-residency novel workshop. The workshop starts at Summer Fishtrap 2010, concludes at Summer Fishtrap 2011, and includes a five day meeting in between. Go to www.fishtrap.org/yearlong.shtml for full details.

CROSS GENRE REVISION WORKSHOP with COLLIER NOGUES

Join Collier Nogues, our Writer-in-Residence for the next two months, in a workshop on Cross Genre Revision. “This workshop is designed to do two things,” says Collier. “First, help participants move a specific piece of writing from draft stage to near-final; and second, build a foundation of revision strategies useful across genres for other and future writing projects.” The 10-hour class will run every other Wednesday evening, 7-9 pm, starting January 20 and ending March 17. Cost is $50. Call us at Fishtrap at 541-426-3623 or just show up to register.

THANK YOU. When all was said and done, you responded like CHAMPIONS, donating over $13,000 to Fishtrap in response to our Fall Letter. While not as high as 2008, this exceeded our more modest goal of $12,000 for 2009. Many of you included friendly notes, and I hope that you all enjoyed your Fish Stickers.

OK, THE REST OF THE STORY

Valerie, from the Cannon Beach Book Company, reminded me of that “old saw” about theatre: “If you show a gun in the first act, fire it in the second.” So, about the chimney sweep and that garter belt: Years ago, when I was younger and more limber, a handful of us would get together to play hockey up at “Slinkers’ Pond.” We’d shovel the snow for an hour and skate for half that. Times have changed. These days Wallowa County, thanks to many volunteers, has what may be the only outdoor community ice rink in the entire Pacific Northwest, and we all wear full hockey regalia: helmets, pads, and long, thick leggings. Quite a contrast to the chimney sweep who, gallused and gravel-voiced, logger-booted and railroad-capped, came to clean my flue. I came home from work and saw his invoice sitting on my dining room table, right next to the brand new “hockey garter belt” I’d just ordered to hold up those pesky hockey leggings. Bang!

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

Elizabeth Quinn at High Desert Journal in Bend is looking for a Development and Outreach Director. The position can be based anywhere in the West. Contact Elizabeth at 541-419-9836 or at editor@highdesertjournal.com for more info.

That’s it for now, friends.

“All best,” as they say.

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

The Big Read and Martin Luther King Day

2010-01-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends of Fishtrap,

I was going to tell a little anecdote about how the chimney sweep, when he came to clean my wood stove flue, probably saw the new garter belt on my dining room table. But then, today in the Fishtrap College class, we watched the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, and that sure changed my mood. It reinforced for me the importance of this year’s Big Read, as we study To Kill a Mockingbird.

THE BIG READ

Charles Shields, author of the Harper Lee biography Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, did a great job as our Big Read kick-off speaker, addressing a standing-room-only crowd of over 130 people at the historic Odd Fellows Hall.

This Monday, January 18, Martin Luther King Day, you can see the brief but still powerful speech by King, then listen to Seattle musician Reggie Garrett play his unique blend of blues, folk, and ethnic music. Garrett, who has performed through the U.S. and Canada, performs original songs, traditional folk ballads, and contemporary folk music. The sound has strong rhythmic underpinnings, beginning with Garrett’s almost percussive guitar style. He has been compared to acoustic legends Richie Havens and Bill Withers by the national folk publication Dirty Linen. Join us at the Joseph Methodist Church at 7 pm. Admission by donation.

Other Big Read news: Wednesday, January 27 will be Whitman College professor David Schmitz on the history of race relations in the US. And if you have a buff-colored calendar handout, the panel discussion shown as February 3 is actually on February 2.

Those of you who are not in Wallowa County can still experience To Kill a Mockingbird. We’ve been cooperating with the good folks at Ada Community Library in Boise, who are also doing the Big Read on Harper Lee’s book. Even if you didn’t catch Charles Shields in Boise on January 14, you can catch Mark Mathabane there on March 1. The Spokane County Library District is also doing the Big Read, and KPBX in Spokane will be serially broadcasting the book on its Bookshelf program Monday through Thursday nights, starting February 1 at 6:30 pm.

And now through January 24, the Profile Theatre in Portland is showing a staged reading of Horton Foote’s Academy Award winning screenplay of To Kill a Mockingbird. Call 503-242-0080 or visit www.profiletheatre.org for more information.

Back here in Wallowa County, tickets are on sale now for the Big Read finale, Sunday, February 28, featuring Mark Mathabane, author of Kaffir Boy. We will have a Southern foods potluck at the Hurricane Creek Grange, followed by a presentation by Mr. Mathabane, who was born in a ghetto in South Africa, escaped from apartheid at age18, and touched the hearts of millions with the bestseller Kaffir Boy in 1986. Tickets are $10 each and are available at Fishtrap, the Bookloft in Enterprise, Mt. Joseph Family Foods in Joseph, and the Public Library in Wallowa. Seating is limited, so don't delay picking up your tickets.

For a complete Big Read calendar of events, go to www.fishtrap.org/tbr.shtml.

OTHER FISHTRAP NEWS

Fishtrap writing groups will continue to meet in 2010. The all genres group meets 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, 6 pm, next meeting January 19. The poetry group meets 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, 6 pm, next meeting January 26.

Our wildly successful 2009 Writer-in-Residence, Collier Nogues, has returned to Wallowa Country for a reprise in 2010. Collier, now a year older (happy birthday, Collier), will be offering a workshop on Cross Genre Revision. Says Collier, "How do you turn a promising draft into a polished piece of writing? This workshop is designed to do two things: first, help participants move a specific piece of writing from draft stage to near-final; and second, build a foundation of revision strategies useful across genres for other and future writing projects." The 10-hour class will run every other Wednesday evening, 7-9 pm, starting January 20 and ending March 17. Cost is $50. Call us at Fishtrap at 541-426-3623 to register.

Best to all,

Rick Bombaci

Executive Director, Fishtrap

In the winter, in the dark hours, when others were asleep...

2010-01-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends of Fishtrap,

The new year brings a full docket for Fishtrap. So let’s jump right in. But first, a note: Fishtrap now has a blog at http://fishtrapnews.blogspot.com, and a Facebook page. You can also access either from Fishtrap’s website. OK, on with it:

THE BIG READ

The Big Read, on the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, starts Monday, January 11, with 7 pm screenings of the film Capote in three Wallowa County venues: Mutiny Brewing in Joseph, Fishtrap’s Coffin House in Enterprise, and the Public Library in Wallowa. Admission by donation. Why Capote? Because Harper Lee grew up with Truman Capote, and they influenced each other’s work.

About the film: Capote (2005, R). 114 min. Truman Capote, played by Oscar nominated Phillip Seymore Hoffman, researches his book In Cold Blood. Nelle Harper Lee, a childhood friend of Capote’s, plays a major role in the film, accompanying him to the small Kansas town where a multiple homicide occurred.

Watching the film should warm people up for the Kick-Off event on the following evening. On Tuesday, January 12, 7 pm at the Odd Fellows Hall in Enterprise, we will feature Charles Shields, author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Shields will discuss Lee as described in his book, a New York Times bestseller. There will also be a free book raffle and refreshments. Admission by donation.

I’ll keep you all posted on a weekly basis about upcoming Big Read events. In the meantime ...

For the full calendar of Big Read events, go to www.fishtrap.org/tbr_calendar.shtml.
For an annotated list of recommended books, go to www.fishtrap.org/booklist.shtml
For an annotated list of recommended films, go to www.fishtrap.org/tbrfilms.shtml

Some other resources you may wish to consider:

Professor Quintard Taylor of the University of Washington recommends www.blackpast.org, “dedicated to providing information to the general public on African American history in the United States” and more.

And Portland lawyer Steven Goldberg, who will be speaking in Enterprise on February 10, suggests people read two New Yorker articles, one entitled “The Courthouse Ring: Atticus Finch and the limits of Southern liberalism,” and the other “State Secrets: A government misstep in a wiretapping case.” See them at

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/10/090810fa_fact_gladwell
and www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_keefe

Finally, we’re seeking good Southern cuisine recipes for our Big Read potluck and finale event on February 28. Got a good one? Share it with us!

FELLOWSHIP SUBMISSION DEADLINE APPROACHING

We are accepting Fellowship submissions until February 1, 2010. The application process is free, and the judging is a blind and impartial process. Up to five winners will get a free ride to Summer Fishtrap. Go to www.fishtrap.org/fellows.shtml for full submission guidelines.

SUMMER FISHTRAP 2009 ANTHOLOGIES AVAILABLE

These lovely little books, which we’ve been producing since 1991, contain pieces by participants and faculty from last year’s Summer Fishtrap. $8 each plus shipping. People whose work appears in the anthology get up to two copies for $5 each including shipping. Go to www.fishtrap.org/store.shtml to order. Thanks, Janis, for the nice publishing job!

CELEBRATE WILLLIAM STAFFORD

“In winter, in the dark hours, when others / were asleep, I found these words and put them / together by their appetites and respect for / each other. In stillness, they jostled. They traded / meanings while pretending to have only one ...” – William Stafford

Fishtrap, like many other groups around the state, will be celebrating William Stafford in January. Our event will be on Sunday, January 17, at 3 pm here at the Fishtrap House. We will feature poets Pam Steele and Shaindel Beers. And y’all are welcome to come and pick out a Stafford poem to read as well. For a list of Stafford events throughout the state, go to www.williamstafford.org.

CATCH A TASTE OF WINTER FISHTRAP

Although Winter Fishtrap at Wallowa Lake Lodge, with Ursula Le Guin, Tony Vogt, and Molly Gloss, is sold out, we still have about 15 Saturday Night Only tickets available for a mere $10 apiece. The price includes your choice of a dessert or beverage, as well as admission to an evening program of comments and discussion led by the presenters, followed by live music with Janis Carper, Carolyn Lochert, and Simon Tucker across the street at Glacier Grill.

You must pay in advance to hold your reservation. Please go to the Fishtrap website, www.fishtrap.org, and choose "Make a Payment" (at the bottom left of the home page) to pay online. Or call us at 541-426-3623, or send a check to PO Box 38, Enterprise, OR 97828.

The ticket price does not include dinner at the Lodge, but you can make reservations for dinner beforehand at Glacier Grill. Smoked prime rib will be the special, with other entrees available. Reservations are required. Call 541-432-9292.

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

Congrats to Ruth Wineteer who, according to an anonymous source, won $100 in a recent writing contest. Ruth, you didn’t know you were being watched, did you?

The application period is now open, until March 1, for the 2011 and 2012 Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Residencies at Dutch Henry Homestead in the Rogue River Canyon. If you would like to spend six to seven months in backcountry solitude with bears and old growth trees for neighbors, with the support of a $5,000 stipend, go to these links: For a full residency description and application instructions: www.johndaniel-author.net/oddsandends.php#residency. For a brief residency description with photos: http://writersconf.org/memdir/members/PNW00019.php.

Poet Ed Skoog, who taught a workshop at Summer Fishtrap in 2009, will be reading from his new book of poems, Mister Skylight, at the University of Idaho on Wednesday, February 17, 7 pm.

The 8th annual Tcha Tee Man Wi Storytelling Festival will be held in Corvallis on February 18-21. Go to www.tchateemanwistorytelling.com for more info. Jana Z hinted something about “late night Bawdy Tales.” And it’s free.

That's it -- plenty! -- for now. Get out there and write something.

Rick Bombaci, Executive Director, Fishtrap

Frozen pipes, mockingbirds, and the secrets basements hold

2009-12-29T09:41:00.001-08:00

Hello Fishtrap friends,

Frozen pipes are a fact of life in Wallowa County. I’ve experienced a few, including on my wedding night (“w-w-way back in ‘83), when the mercury jest plumb fell through the bottom of the thermometer (38 below, if you just want the facts). So we were all pretty proud of ourselves here at Fishtrap when we remembered to keep the faucets dripping during the cold snap we had a few weeks ago.

Then it "warmed" up, and we rested easy and went on with our lives. Until Rich, one day last week just before Christmas, went down into the basement and found, oh, a few inches of water on the floor. He shifted boxes of books to higher ground while I bailed with two buckets, all the while chewing on the question, “Where’s the leak?” No sign of frozen pipes anywhere in the house. But it turned out that we had, ahem, forgotten to have the city shut off the water to the lawn sprinkler system, and an outdoor valve box was gushing water underground and up into the basement.

The city turned off the water within seconds of our call, and Nick, Janis, Rich and I bailed and swept and vacuumed the afternoon away. We swabbed out the dark and musty coal room, now hosting just a lonely oil tank. I peeked into the root cellar, with an old freezer that the house must have been built around, and shelves of cans and bottles of dust-blackened mysteries. I took on the unenviable task of cleaning out this dungeon, when, poking out of a cardboard box, I saw some corked and foil-wrapped bottles. Ah yes, we’d forgotten about those.

We finished our gruesome task, Rich happily confirmed that the biggest damage had occurred in a box containing nothing but styrofoam peanuts, and we retired to the kitchen, where, thanks to one of Fishtrap’s many benefactors, we popped a cork and toasted our good work with a bottle of champagne.

Which is a roundabout way of saying, “Thank you!” to all who have contributed and will continue to contribute to keep Fishtrap, um, afloat.

Fishtrap’s fifth BIG READ, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, officially starts on January 12, 2010 with a Kick-Off event at the Odd Fellows Hall at 7 pm. This year we focus on Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Events will continue weekly through January and February, culminating in a Southern foods potluck at the Hurricane Creek Grange on Sunday, February 28. Copies of the book are available at all public libraries in Wallowa County and, of course, the Bookloft in Enterprise.

Downloadable PDFs of each web page will be available by Wednesday, December 31.

To Kill a Mockingbird, which won Harper Lee a Pulitzer prize, depicts the story of a white lawyer, Atticus Finch, who is appointed by the court in a small Southern town to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white woman. The story, told from the viewpoint of Finch’s young daughter, Scout, also involves a mysterious and reclusive man, Boo Radley, who both intrigues and scares Scout and her young companions.

The Kick-Off event on January 12 will feature Charles Shields, whose book, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, is the first biography ever written about Harper Lee. His book, a New York Times bestseller, “will not disappoint those who loved the novel and the feisty, independent, fiercely loyal Scout,” says Garrison Keillor.

The Kick-Off, which is free and open to the public, will also offer sign-ups for book discussion groups, a review of the full calendar of events, and a free book raffle sponsored by the Non-Violent Communication group. Refreshments will be served.

The popular Monday Night at the Movies series will start on January 11, the night before the Kick-Off, with 7 pm screenings of Capote at Mutiny Brewing in Joseph, the Fishtrap house in Enterprise, and the Public Library in Wallowa. Other films will include Blood in the Face, Ghosts of Mississippi, Prom Night in Mississippi, the documentary Not in Our Town, and, of course, the 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird, with Gregory Peck and Robert Duvall, which will screen at the OK Theater.

Other speakers will include historian David Schmitz, lawyer Steven Goldberg, former police chief Wayne Inman, and author Mark Mathabane. Residents of Wallowa and Union counties will lead several discussions, and singer/songwriter Reggie Garrett will perform American Roots music. There will be guest newspaper editorials, panel discussions led by Wallowa County residents, live performances of To Kill a Mockingbird by Mid-Valley Theatre, Southern cuisine cooking classes offered by Lynne Sampson, and stories for children on KWVR at 7 pm on Sundays. There will also be a writing contest for school students.

I'll write more about the details of each event soon. In the meantime, save January 11 and January 12 on your calendars!

There’s lots more going on at Fishtrap, but I’ll mention just two items:

Order anthologies from Summer Fishtrap 2009 at www.fishtrap.org/store.shtml.
Check Summer Fishtrap Fellowship submission guidelines at www.fishtrap.org/fellows.shtml.

A new year is coming, and it’s going to be a good one. Because down in the root cellar, there are a few more bottles of champagne.

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director, Fishtrap

Holidays and great consolations

2009-12-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hello friends of Fishtrap,

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. This year, as I sometimes do, I’ll be helping a slew of other volunteers put on a community Christmas meal – even if the weather hasn’t exactly felt like Christmas.

I was walking down an Enterprise street on gray concrete spattered with ice and black pools of water and chunks of gravel. A shroud of frozen fog muffled my breath. As I walked by the Range Rider, where, as a young Forest Service employee, I drank thin beer and breathed second-hand smoke in the days before micro-brews and smoking bans, I noticed in the window a small handwritten sign: “The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks. – Voltaire.” Proof, perhaps, of the insidious influence of Fishtrap in this remote corner of Oregon.

A friend and Fishtrap advisor, perhaps a student of Voltaire, told me what he thought about my recent fundraising letter: “It could use more BITE.” The readers, he said, need to know how expensive Fishtrap is to run and why now is an important time to give.

I’m afraid he’s right. Our donations so far this fall are the lowest they’ve ever been since we started sending out fundraising letters. In fact, they are running at about one HALF of what they were last year, both in number of donors and in dollars given. Last fall, we received $16,000 in donations. This fall, knowing that money would be tight for folks, we set the more modest goal of $12,000. But we’ve only received $7,000 to date.

Just how expensive IS Fishtrap to run? Summer Fishtrap costs nearly $90,000. The Big Read is a $25,000 series of events. Winter Fishtrap, at $35,000, has seen its food and lodging costs rise by 50% over the past few years. What these three programs have in common with nearly all of Fishtrap’s fifteen programs is that the registration fees we charge, if any, do not cover their full cost. Only with grants and donations from people like you can we continue to operate.

At a recent advisory board meeting, the director of another writer’s program, who was sitting in as a guest, expressed amazement that, with the equivalent of 2 1/2 employees, Fishtrap is able to do all it does. Yes, the staff work hard, and our board members and volunteers work hard. Help us keep helping people, to say what they think, and say it well.

If you have not donated to Fishtrap this fall, you still have time to make a tax-deductible contribution before year-end. You can give on-line with a credit card by going to www.fishtrap.org/donate.shtml. Or drop a check in the mail to Fishtrap, POB 38, Enterprise, OR 97828. And if you live in Oregon, remember that you can match your gift to Fishtrap with a gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust that doesn’t cost you a penny, because it’s a tax credit. Go to http://www.culturaltrust.org/ for more info.

Thank you, and I hope that you enjoy the holidays.

Sincerely,

Rick Bombaci, Executive Director
Fishtrap, Inc.

Potluck frenzy and fish tags

2009-12-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends of Fishtrap,

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I drove home from my brother’s, across scabland, prairie, and pines darkened by the early demise of the sun. There was snow over Tollgate, and I was thankful for my studded tires. I was thankful, too, for the moon, lightly veiled behind silver fishscale clouds, guiding me home to Wallowa County and holiday season, a.k.a. “Potluck Frenzy.”

To survive Potluck Frenzy, you have to learn to pick, choose, and recycle. And if you’re anywhere near us physically, two events you ought to choose are Fishtrap’s annual Pretty Good (Recycled) Book Sale, on Saturday, December 5, here at Fishtrap’s Coffin House starting at 8 am, and Anne and Jim Shelly’s clay art sale, which starts at noon (and benefits Fishtrap) on Saturday, December 12. Followed, of course, by a community potluck at 4:30. See more of their lovely work and get directions at http://www.fireworksclayart.com/.

Silver fish scales. We fervently hope that fish – of several colors, described below – will be in your future. Even if you’re NOT anywhere near us physically, please join us in spirit on the following voyage, which we recently shared with those on our (physical) mailing list:

*****

A couple of years ago, author Jon Turk came to Fishtrap and read from his book, In the Wake of the Jomon, in which he argues that Kennewick Man’s ancestors may very well have sailed from Siberia to North America, at least in part just because they wanted to see what was around the corner. Exploring.

This past year and a half has been exploratory for Fishtrap, as well. We’re in waters known to be treacherous for any organization – that period of time when a long-time, totally devoted, and charismatic (yes, you are, Rich) founding director has let go the helm, and the crew – staff, board, volunteers, faculty, participants, funders – all feel the vessel yaw and pitch, and, sometimes, wallow. But lately there’s been less tangling of oars, and we’ve been glancing at each other with little smiles as we pull. We’re still making headway, visiting new ports, and we’ve picked up some exotic, exciting fruit along the way.

For the first time, we offered a Summer Fishtrap workshop called “Outpost,” located at Billy Meadows in the outback of Wallowa County, where, under the guidance of Kim Stafford, participants tented, wrote with pencil, pen, and paper (!), traded stories around a campfire, and engaged a bit more intensely with the natural environment. In conjunction with Outpost, Charles Goodrich served as our first Werner Writer-in-Residence, spending the rest of July mostly in solitude, chasing the Muse in the quiet at Billy Meadows and writing about the natural world in Wallowa County.

Pramila Jayapal and Laura Pritchett provided writing prompts to participants in our first “Writing on the River” event, a mix of writing and rafting on the Snake River in Hells Canyon, with just enough whitewater to make it fun.

For the second time, we offered a Summer Fishtrap workshop for children, taught by Kirsten Rian. We’re pleased to include their work in the 2009 Fishtrap Anthology (which will be available soon). In 2010, we’ll add a workshop for teens. Also for the second year, we’ve got several writers enrolled in a year-long workshop, this time with John Daniel, in memoir.

The Eastern Oregon Writers in Residence project, which was launched in 2007, is entering its fourth year. Fishtrap has worked with local arts and culture activists in Fossil, Condon, Chiloquin, and the many scattered communities of Harney County to bring Peter Sears, Jon Rombach, Ellie Belew, Cheryl Hatch, Geronimo Tagatac, Laura Gamache, Carlos Reyes, and Angela Allen into their schools. I’ve enjoyed sailing on high desert winds to visit those communities, and to welcome a new partner, High Desert Journal, to help move the program forward. The whole project has been one big learning experience.

Then there was Fishstock in The Dalles, where Marv and Rindy Ross, Craig Lesley, Steve Einhorn and Kate Power, Molly Gloss, and a host of other Fishtrap friends helped put on a great evening of words and music as a fundraiser for us. That was a new port of call for us, but we found the locals friendly, and plan to return.

Exploring. We’re doing it, and hope that you will join us. Try a week at the Imnaha Writers’ Retreat, where Patricia Keith just said, “That was the best, most productive week of scriptwriting I’ve ever had!” If you don’t live in Wallowa County, hop on the Fishtrap Bus and come out to Winter Fishtrap this February to join Ursula Le Guin, Molly Gloss, and Tony Vogt. If you do live in Wallowa County, dive into The Big Read (this year it will be To Kill A Mockingbird). If it’s been ten years since you came to Summer Fishtrap, mark it on your calendar: July 11-18, 2010.

Of course, we do want and need you to contribute. Donations from folks like you make up nearly 15% of our budget, and without your help, our oars will get tangled again. To make it a little more fun, we will be awarding to everyone who donates to Fishtrap a “fish tag” based on your annual giving level. (Don’t worry, we won’t clip your dorsal fin.) After much, and I mean much, spirited discussion, we have settled on the following annual donor levels.

Sockeye Salmon, $5000 and above
Steelhead, $2500-$4999
Chinook Salmon, $1000-$2499
Coho Salmon, $500-$999
Kokanee Salmon, $250-$499
Rainbow Trout, $100-$249
Dolly Varden, up to $99

If anadromous fish like salmon and steelhead can find their way to Wallowa County, so can you. Come explore with us.

Cordially yours,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director

Aviatrixes, Fellows, 100,000 books, party 'til the wolves howl

2009-11-19T16:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

I’m just back from a lengthy road trip. My thanks to those of you who put me up – or put up with me – on my travels around the state. Among other things, I enjoyed listening to and meeting writers at the Nature of Words in Bend. A group of students from Fishtrap’s Eastern Oregon Writers in Residence program in Chiloquin came up to eat pizza, listen to some readings, enjoy some time with Sherman Alexie, spontaneously read Matthew Dickman’s poetry out loud to one another, and go to a bookstore, where we helped them pick out some good stuff. Incidentally, there is a used bookstore in Chiloquin with 100,000 volumes, according to the proprietor, who showed me every one. I believe him.

Winter Fishtrap opened for registration on Monday, and is already about half full. So don’t delay if you’re thinking of joining Tony Vogt, Molly Gloss, and Ursula Le Guin for readings and discussion about “Learning from Women.” I think they’re going to tie me to the mast and take the wax out of my ears for this one. Go to www.fishtrap.org/winter.shtml to register.

We are now accepting Fellowship submissions for Summer Fishtrap. A Fellowship provides you with a free workshop, participation in the Gathering, a special spot during open mike readings, food and lodging, and a modest travel stipend. It’s a very fair, blind judging process. And it’s FREE. So send us a sample of your best writing! Deadline for submissions is February 1, 2010. Go to www.fishtrap.org/fellows.shtml for full details.

Fishtrap’s annual Pretty Good Book Sale will be happening on Saturday, December 5, from 8 am to 3 pm. Here’s your chance to pick up good literature at bargain basement prices.

If you’re looking for a new book, consider Outpost: Voices from the Meadow, with writing and photography by participants in last summer’s Outpost workshop, which occurred during Summer Fishtrap. You can view and buy it online at http://www.blurb.com/books/909290. Thanks to workshop participant Don Witten for this labor of love, and to all who contributed.

Anne and Jim Shelly of Fireworks Pottery are graciously offering a holiday sale of their very fine clay art as a holiday fundraiser for Fishtrap. And, in the finest Wallowa County tradition, the sale will segue into a community potluck, starting at 4:30. Mark it on your calendar: Saturday, December 12th, “from noon til the wolves howl,” says Anne. See more of their lovely work at http://www.fireworksclayart.com/. Yes, but where are they in REAL space? Go 1.3 miles past the Grange Hall up Hurricane Creek Road, and they’re just past two old log miner’s cabins. Turn right at the light.

FISHTRAP FRIENDS

If you’re anywhere close to Enterprise, you really need to come listen to Heidi Muller and Dan Maher, who are embarking on their Good Road 20th Anniversary Tour to celebrate the years that Dan has used Heidi’s song “Good Road” as his theme song for the Inland Folk radio show. Join Heidi and Dan at the Fishtrap House on Monday, November 23, at 7 pm for a mere $10 donation. Expect a round-robin sharing of solos, duets and stories. Bob Webb will join them for other concerts in December. For the entire tour schedule, visit http://www.heidimuller.com/.

That's it until after Thanksgiving! Remember to give thanks!

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci, Executive Director

Stirring up pots with Fishtrap alchemy

2009-11-03T16:26:00.000-08:00

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

A long one this week, because I’ll be on the road for a while. But there’s good stuff here, even all the way at the bottom, so read on!

Molto bene! An SRO crowd jammed Lear’s restaurant in Enterprise for an Italian dinner fundraiser for Fishtrap College, which brings college-level composition and literature courses to adults and high school students in Wallowa County. Over 70 people enjoyed spaghetti con insalata e pane, e un po’ di vino rosso. The only rough spot in the evening was my singing – or singeing – of “That’s Amore.” Dino has nothing to worry about. But I did sing – hey, everybody sang – with feeling. Thanks to Steve and Kathy Lear, all you volunteers, and everyone who came to enjoy the evening.

I’m heading off to the Nature of Words in Bend for a few days, then will be rendezvousing with Laura Gamache and about 30 students from Chiloquin High School. Laura is one of several talented and dedicated writers and teachers who have participated in Fishtrap’s Eastern Oregon Writers in Residence (EOWIR) program, now three years old. This is Laura’s second year at Chiloquin, which is located about 20 miles north of Klamath Falls. Like Ellie Belew (http://www.elliebelew.com/), the feisty Washington writer who inaugurated the Fishtrap residency there in 2007, Laura will spend 9 weeks teaching in the school, offering workshops to adults, arranging for public readings and other events, and just generally stirring up the literary pot. In future emails, I’ll share a little about other locations where the EOWIR program is happening.

The Imnaha Writers’ Retreat is over for this year. Think of joining us next April or October down in the canyon country. It’s a fine place to spend a week or more getting a lot of writing done.

Winter Fishtrap brochures have gone out. Our presenters will be Ursula Le Guin, Molly Gloss, and Tony Vogt, on the theme of “Learning from Women,” February 19-21, 2010. See www.fishtrap.org/winter.shtml for more details. Registration opens November 17. Go to www.fishtrap.org/scholarships.shtml, for scholarship information and to download a PDF with complete instructions. WE MUST HAVE SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS IN HAND BY NOVEMBER 15.

A final shameless plug for a slide show I’ll be giving about an 800 mile hike I took through the Canadian Rockies last year. Wednesday, November 11, at the Mazamas, 527 SE 43rd, Portland, 7 pm. Free. “Where is the line between determination and madness?”

ANNOUNCEMENTS from FISHTRAP FRIENDS

Sometimes Fishtrap uses Stage One, located in downtown Enterprise, for events that are too big for our own Coffin House. Now Stage One needs help. Join local musicians Janis Carper, Rodd Ambroson, and Carolyn Lochert for an evening of refreshments, good company, and great music on Thursday, November 5, at 7 pm. Admission to this fundraiser is by $10 donation.

Heidi Muller and Dan Maher are embarking on their Good Road 20th Anniversary Tour to celebrate the years that Dan has used Heidi’s song “Good Road” as his theme song for the Inland Folk radio show. Join Heidi and Dan at the Fishtrap House on Monday, November 23, at 7 pm for a mere $10 donation. Expect a round-robin sharing of solos, duets and stories. Bob Webb will join them for other concerts in December. For the entire tour schedule, visit http://www.heidimuller.com/.

John Laursen kept a packed house enthralled last week with stunning photos and great stories from Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge 1867-1957. His tour continues:

Mon 11/16, Lakeview Library; Tues 11/17, Burns Library; Wed 11/18, Prineville Library; Thurs 11/19, Madras Library; Fri 11/20, Sisters, at the Paulina Springs Bookstore; Sat 11/21, Arlington Library and The Dalles Library; Wed 12/2, Hermiston Library; Thurs 12/3, Condon Library; Fri 12/4, Fossil, at the Methodist Fireside Room; and Sat 12/5, Moro Library.

Sheesh. Makes me tired.

Former Fishtrap Fellows send their greetings:

Eric Shaffer wrote to say, “I was one of the five fellows in Summer 2006, and my week there in the mountains working with Luis Urrea and the rest of the Fishtrap crew and attendees was one of the best experiences of my writing life.” Eric has just published his first novel, Burn & Learn, or Memoirs of the Cenozoic Era by Leaping Dog Press. And his fifth book of poetry, Lâahaina Noon, received an "Award of Excellence" in the Ka Palapala Po'okela Book Awards in Hawaii.

And Beverly Akerman, our one and only Canadian Fellow ever, sent kind words that I have to share: “Fishtrap has the most heart of any writing group I've had the pleasure to know. It has an ‘of, by, and for the people’ ambience that is unforgettable,” she wrote. “A piece I started because of a prompt by Luis Urrea–‘what the hands know’–just won first prize in Gemini Magazine's Flash Fiction Contest (http://www.gemini-magazine.com/)... I doubt I would have had the same experience anywhere else–the constellation of ages, ethnic backgrounds, the ex-marine seated next to the conscientious objector ... That’s alchemy, and it’s what Fishtrap does so well. ... All this to say thank you, once again, for what Fishtrap has and will continue to give me.”

Generous words from a 2008 Fishtrap Fellow. See some of Beverly’s writing at http://www.blueprintreview.de/22insight.htm and http://www.antigonishreview.com/bi-155-fall-08/155-fiction-prize2-beverly-akerman.html.

Write on!

Ricardo Bombacci