TIMBERLINE REVIEW ON DECK

A New Chance To Find New Writers: Timberline Review.

Saturday, August 1, 2015 is the launch date for Timberline Review, a new publication from Willamette Writers. If that sounds exciting you’re in the right place.

Good readers and English majors share discovery in common. Readers may have a list, or wing it, and find the sort of writers they enjoy. They read their author and books from authors who endorse them. Find the right group and you’ll have years of reading ahead of you.

English majors have required reading from lit surveys, compilations, and novels. I find surveys of an era and compilations based on a common theme the best reads. These are books holding major writers and their back-ups.

What exactly does back-up mean in this context?

On Ernest Hemingway’s birthday many publications celebrated his life and work. Lesser literary lights disappear in his brightness, but that’s the business. Not everyone’s a star, but they might be the writer you’re hoping for if you’re disappointed in a big name’s book. Look for them in surveys and compilations.

An even better discovery is learning about writers’ lives. Do they use the raw material of their experience in their work, or go completely off the rails into new territory? Timberline Review promises such revelations. Hit this link and click on the authors’ faces for their bios.

Some of the forty six writers included might be familiar now, others will be familiar later. You gain insight into them by three common questions:

1. What is your creative process? Early bird or night owl? Writing group or lone wolf?
2. What are you reading right now?
3. What are some of your favorite books of all time?

If you find a favorite voice in Timberline Review, you’ll know what they’re reading and what sticks with them from their reading past. The perceptive reader will ask themselves the same questions, but they might sound like this:

1. Creative process? Is that when I feel most alive, or get the most work done?
2. If I say what I’m reading now will I be ‘Book Shamed.’
3. All time, like Br’er Rabbit to Pat Conroy’s latest dad book?

Timberline Review is an extension of Willamette Writers. It offers a nice platform, but you’d be wrong if you thought it’s all about Oregon and Oregon writers. From timberlinereview.com:

This first issue is all over the map. Really. We’re publishing 46 authors from three countries: the U.S., Ireland and Spain. Twenty-eight of our authors live in Oregon. The next most represented is California, with four. One each from these: Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

The cautious reader should attend a publication event if they need encouragement to dive into Timberline.

Broadway Books will host the first-ever reading of The Timberline Review, 7pm Tuesday, August 4. Several of the 46 writers featured in the inaugural Summer/Fall 2015 issue will read their work: Kate Ristau, Jack Estes, Jennifer Foreman, Evan Morgan Williams, Margaret Malone and others. Broadway Books is located at 1714 NE Broadway, Portland OR 97232. Free and open to the public.

Annie Bloom’s Books will host a reading at 7pm Tuesday, September 8. Authors on tap to read include Steve Theme, Brittney Corrigan, Rick George, Jennifer Foreman, Kate Ristau, Jack Estes, Liz Nakazawa, Christa Kaainoa, Jennie Kiffmeyer and Jill Kelly. Annie Bloom’s is located at 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219. Free and open to the public.

If you’ve attended readings, you know it’s one part performance art, one part pulling teeth, and the rest magic. Who doesn’t enjoy seeing reclusive writers thrust into the limelight? Some carry it off, some get carried off, and everyone in the audience thinks they could do a better job. Keep working and you may get your chance.

What happens after the first edition of Timberline Review hits the street? Work on the next issue is underway. Will your story fit? There’s only one way to know for certain.

Grab a copy of Timberline Review for $12 and find a new poet like Jeffrey Alfier, new fiction by Gary Devore, and new non-fiction by Debra Gwartney. Do all collections carry the scope of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry? Check out The Sun.

Think of Timberline Review as a rich reference for reading pleasure, or a test for English majors connecting this group of writers to their roots. Either way it’ll be a great time.

This is what you’re looking for: