Support your source for independent reporting on OPB in 2024 and beyond! Culture Tom Spanbauer in Portland, Ore. during the summer of 2024. Spanbauer influenced a generation of Pacific Northwest authors through his “Dangerous Writing” workshops. Often hailed as the Godfather of Portland’s literary world , author Tom Spanbauer spent nearly three decades shaping a […]
Guide on how to start writing books If you ever felt the urge to write but found yourself held back by a nagging voice of doubt? What if you could silence that voice and let your creativity flow freely? Many writing beginners struggle with fears of inadequacy and perfectionism, but the good news is that […]
His memoir began when he was a child, watching his father die young. Mine started when my young children learned their father died by suicide. We were drawn to each other’s perspectives, thought they could inform our own. In a writing class, students often make alliances such as these, friendships based on narrative bonds and […]
Photo by Cathryn Lavery via Unsplash Of all the craft books I’ve read in my life, perhaps none have stuck with me quite as clearly as the assertion, at the beginning of Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook , that, rather than waiting for inspiration to strike, an aspiring writer must sit down regularly for an […]
At a recent visit to the doctor, I could hear “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” long before I could see its musicians. It was a jaunty rendition, with synth beats and a full-sized xylophone echoing off the long corridor I had to walk to reception. I suppose it did exactly what it was meant […]
