The March/April issue of THE WRITER’S CHRONICLE, a publication of AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), features interviews with two Wordcraft of Oregon authors, Thomas E. Kennedy and Linda Lappin.

Joyce J. Townsend interviews Kennedy, whose novel, IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS, is scheduled for simultaneous spring release from Bloomsbury USA and Bloomsbury UK.

Originally published as GREENE’S SUMMER (the third novel of the COPENHAGEN QUARTET) by Wynkin DeWorde of Ireland, IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS is “a powerful epic novel that maps the trajectory of half-a-dozen lives as they move through the rainy days and white nights of Copenhagen summer and the passion, danger, fear, yearning, and hope at the intersection of their fates: Bernardo Greene, a Chliean torture survivor gravitating toward the beauty he glimpses in the eyes of a young Danish woman, Michela, herself the survivor of a violent marriage trying to find her own strength; Voss Andersen, a young Danish lawyer in the grip of a vandalous passion; Thorkild Kristensen, an idealistic psychiatrist struggling against despair at the ugliness of the experiences he works to help Bernardo transcend; Mikhail Ibsen, fighting for a last understanding of his life before it is lost to disease, and his wife, Lise, wandering alone in a psychological twilight of memory.”

Kennedy is the author of four Wordcraft of Oregon books, the story collection, UNREAL CITY, the novels, THE BOOK OF ANGELS and A PASSION IN THE DESERT (a finalist for the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year in fiction), and a collection of essays, REALISM AND OTHER ILLUSIONS: ESSAYS ON THE CRAFT OF FICTION.

Sandy Sims interviews Linda Lappin, whose novel, KATHERINE’S WISH (an Ippy Award winner for historical fiction, an honorable mention for the Eric Hoffer Award in general fiction and a finalist for the ForeWord Magazine Book of Year in fiction), was published by Wordcraft of Oregon, and is excerpted at the end of the interview. KATHERINE’S WISH is based on the final years in the life of Katherine Mansfield.

A story by Misha Nogha, “Chippoke No Gomi,” first published in the Witness Anthology of Experimental Fiction, 1989, and later in her collection, Ke Qua Hawk As, published by Wordcraft of Oregon in 1994, has been included in the Wesleyen Anthology of Science Fiction which will be released in summer of 2010.

The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction “is designed to provide a historical survey of the genre and includes 52 works ranging from Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” published in 1844 to Ted Chiang’s “Exhalation” (2008). The anthology is geared for classroom work as well as for the general reader with supplemental material for a website being planned concurrently with the release of the book.

For more information on the anthology and it table of contents, please visit the website: http://dynamicsubspace.net/2010/01/06/amazing-new-science-fiction-collection-the-wesleyan-anthology-of-science-fiction/

Derek Alger, editor of the on-line magazine, PIF, has posted an interview with Lance Olsen which I highly recommend. I would particularly point to Lance’s advice to writers. Words of wisdom!!! 

http://www.pifmagazine.com/SID/939/

David Memmott’s long narrative poem, “Where the Yellow Brick Road Turns West,” has been published as an e-chapbook with an introduction by George Venn on Poets and Writers-Chaps, “World Voices,” Web del Sol. The e-chapbook series is edited by Walter Cummins and Thomas E. Kennedy. The poem is included in Memmott’s latest collection of poems, Giving It Away. Link to the e-chapbook is on the Wordcraft of Oregon homepage under Giving It Away.

The co-editor of The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield sent the following comment to the author, Linda Lappin:

“It’s not an easy or simple thing to write fiction which keeps faith with the life it is based on, so the reader will say, ‘There is nothing here that falsifies’, as well as ‘This has the imaginative flair of story telling, the freedom of its form.’  Linda Lappin has immersed herself in Mansfield’s life, and emerged from it with a story to narrate on her own terms; a fiction charged with the  enthusiasm of a  good researcher, and carried through with a novelist’s verve.”

In the October/November 2009 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle (Vol. 42, Number 2) readers have an opportunity to learn more about Duff Brenna, author of the contemporary American classic, The Book of Mamie, re-issued by Wordcraft of Oregon. Brenna is the author of six published novels and is the Fiction Editor of the on-line literary magazine, Perigee www.perigee-arts.com .  The interview reveals a writer of breadth and deep understanding of the human condition.

The interview was conducted by another Wordcraft of Oregon author, Thomas E. Kennedy, whose novel, In The Company of Angels, will be released in March 2010 by Bloomsbury Books and another scheduled for the following year. Bloomsbury has indicated the desire to publish all four of Kennedy’s Copenhagen Quartet. In The Company of  Angels was originally published as Greene’s Summer by the Ireland publisher, Wynkin de Worde. The Bloomsbury edition recently received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6701098.html 

Wordcraft of Oregon has published four of Thomas E. Kennedy’s books and we’re thrilled to see him finally get the attention he so richly deserves. Duff Brenna has two books either near completion or being circulated, the memoir Dancing With Mother and a new novel, Separation Anxiety.

We are blessed to have a relationship with these two great writers.

The 2009 Washington State Book Awards have been announced. This is the 43rd year for the award which is given to a book based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality. It was formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards.

White Jade and Other Stories by Alex Kuo was a finalist in the fiction category.

All About Lulu, Jonathan Evison won the fiction award.

Other finalists were:

Guernica, Dave Boling

Oxygen, Carol Casselia

The Other, David Guterson

The 2009 Washington State Book Awards are sponsored by the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. Authors will be honored at a public ceremony at 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 14th, at a public ceremony at the Seattle Public Library, at the Central Library branch, in the Microsoft Auditorium. The event, which is presented in partnership with the Elliott Bay Book Co., will feature remarks and readings by the award recipients. Books will be available for purchase and a reception and book signing will follow the program.

Wordcraft of Oregon is proud to announce that Leslie What’s story collection, Crazy Love, was named a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in fiction (the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction).

Other finalists were:

Miriam Gershow, The Local News (Spiegel & Grau)

Gina Ochsner, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight (Portobello Books)

Barbara Pope, Cezanne’s Quarry (Pegasus Books)

Jon Raymond, Livability: Stories (Bloomsbury)

The fiction this year was judged by Robert Olmstead. The winner will be announced at the Oregon Book Awards ceremony, which takes place Monday, October 26, 2009 at the Gerding Theater at the Armory. Tom Bissell will hose and tickets aare available at www.brownpapertickets.com

Congratulations to all the finalists. More information on finalists for other categories can be found at the Literary Arts, Inc. website www.literary-arts.org and www.paperfort.blogsppot.com

John Griswold has won the Delta Award from Friends of the Morris Library (Southern Illinois University-Carbondale) in recognition of an individual or organization that has written/published about southern Illinois with distinction. This recognition is primarily for his novel, A Democracy of Ghosts. Griswold joins such luminaries as John Gardner, Paul Simon and Robert Coover in winning this award. Congratulations, John!

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DIVERSE COALITION UNITES TO COUNTER

GOOGLE BOOK SETTLEMENT

Library Scholar Peter Brantley and Antitrust Expert Gary Reback Spearhead Open Book Alliance to Protect Consumers and Competition in the Emerging Digital Book Market

SAN FRANCISCO, August 26, 2009 – Librarians, legal scholars, authors, publishers, and technology companies today announced the formation of a coalition that will counter the proposed Google Book Settlement in its current form. The proposed settlement is between Google, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and the Authors’ Guild. Approval of the settlement plan currently is pending before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The deal is also currently being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department on antitrust grounds.

“Just as Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press more than 700 years ago ushered in a new era of knowledge sharing, the mass digitization of books promises to once again revolutionize how we read and discover books,” said Open Book Alliance co-chairs Peter Brantley and Gary Reback in a blog post at http://www.openbookalliance.org.  “But a digital library controlled by a single company and small group of colluding publishers would inevitably lead to higher prices and subpar service for consumers, libraries, scholars, and students.” 

“The public interest demands that any mass book digitization and distribution effort be undertaken in the open, grounded in sound public policy, and mindful of the need to promote long-term benefits for consumers rather than those of a few commercial interests,” continued Brantley and Reback.

Brantley is a director of the non-profit Internet Archive and Reback is a noted antitrust attorney who serves of counsel at the firm Carr & Ferrell, LLP.

Members of the Open Book Alliance include:

·        Amazon (amazon.com)

·        American Society of Journalists and Authors (asja.org)

·        Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (clmp.org)

·        Internet Archive (archive.org)

·        Microsoft (microsoft.com)

·        New York Library Association (nyla.org)

·        Small Press Distribution (spdbooks.org)

·        Special Libraries Association (sla.org)

·        Yahoo! (yahoo.com)

The Alliance will work to inform policymakers and the public about the serious legal, competitive, and policy issues in the settlement proposal.

In 2005, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Authors’ Guild filed suit against Google, objecting to the company’s mass digitization of millions of books on copyright violation grounds. The parties privately settled for $125 million and devised a scheme that would permit Google to charge libraries and consumers for access to the digitized books. Under the deal, Google, the Authors Guild and the AAP would gain significant new powers to control the fledgling market for digital books.

The New York court considering the settlement has established a Sept. 4 deadline for submissions on the settlement and indicated it planned to make a final decision on Oct. 7.

Following are quotes from some members of the Open Book Alliance on their concerns about the proposed settlement:

“The library community in New York is concerned by the ramifications of this settlement on libraries, their patrons and the common good.  Access, affordability and patron privacy issues are key concerns of ours that we do not believe have been adequately addressed so far. A public policy issue of this magnitude should be not be handled in this matter, but by Congress in a deliberative and open format that allows for greater input from concerned parties and the public.” — Michael J. Borges, Executive Director of the New York Library Association.

“We look forward to the day when a completely electronic, searchable, and universally accessible repository of digital books brings untold value and knowledge to individuals, organizations and libraries. In the meantime, we are greatly concerned about Google’s efforts here, and we believe that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) must look into the full ramifications of this settlement on issues of copyright, access, affordability and privacy.” – Janice R. Lachance, CEO, Special Libraries Association. 

“We’re seeing Google the Good morph into Google the Grabby in all of this. First, Google dangles the prospect of a huge, accessible, digital library in front of us.  But then it shows utter contempt for the people who wrote the books, by scanning them without the approval of copyright holders.  Google didn’t mind stomping on authors to get this project going. If the settlement goes through as it stands, sheer marketplace domination will mean every author will have to swallow the rules set down by a cabal of a registry board or sell no digital books or future, new digital inventions.” – Salley Shannon, President, American Society of Journalists and Authors.

The Open Book Alliance will add its voice and those of its members, to other organizations and noted individuals who have publically expressed concerns about the settlement

The Open Book Alliance can be found online at http://www.openbookalliance.org, and on Twitter @OBAlliance.