DESCRIPTION
George Venn's memoir gathers eleven personal essays from fifty years of writing about the Pacific Northwest,
PRAISE FOR KEEPING THE SWARM
"The collection is personal and universal, grounded in the small towns of the Inland Northwest that Venn knows so well..."
--Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
"In his latest collection of essays, Keeping the Swarm, Venn again reflects his strong ties to and affection for the Pacific Northwest...Intensely personal and intimate, these essays reflect a thoughtful nostalgia and gentle sensibility...Venn offers many memorable moments."
--Kirsten Rabe, ForeWord Reviews, Winter 2012
"This welcome essay collection by the sharpest-eyed Northwest writer conjures the region he knows so intimately. His careful portraits of mining towns, wheat harvest, bee keeping, snowland wonders ring clean and true... This venerable voice blesses every reader with another brave and rewarding book."
--Craig Lesley, author of Burning Fence
"Keeping the Swarm is an intimate, powerful portrait of community. Dipping his pen into a mix of blood and honey, George Venn braves the scabrous terrain of memory. Venn's prose is powerful, his narrative vulnerable. The Poet's abiding respect for creatures and for environment, for song and for languages...shines brightly here. This book will make you thirst for the clear water of the mountains, and hunger for the amber-nectar of home."
--Karen Spears Zacharias, author of A Silence of Mockingbirds
"George Venn is a gentle radical: In lyrical prose he enchants us with the closely observed words and acts of ordinary people--from the Northwest's small towns to classrooms in post-Cultural Revolution Hunan--always connecting this fabric of local life to the global issues of social justice and human interdependence. 'Who says literature makes nothing happen?' Venn asks. His memorable essays inspire us to go beyond humanities to humanitarian work."
--Jennifer Eastman Atteberry, author of Up in the Rocky Mountains
"In Keeping the Swarm, George Venn both asks and answers the question, "After all, what are writers for?' ...In clear-eyed, honest, and eloquent fashion, Venn examines the places and people of his childhood and adulthood, proving that the pedestrian and the profound exist...[and] coalesce to form our most sacred guidebook for us to examine our own piece of the world, to recognize the beauty, grace, and peril..."
--Robert Stubblefield, University of Montana
"In his latest collection of essays, Keeping the Swarm, Venn again reflects his strong ties to and affection for the Pacific Northwest...intensely personal and intimate, these essays reflect a thoughtful nostalgia and gentle sensibility...touches of powerful writing [and] many memorable moments."
--Kirsten Rabe, Foreword Reviews, Winter 2013
"From the gorgeous cover photo by California beekeeper-photographer Kodua Galieti to the very personal family photos and gentle boyhood remembrances, Venn paints a picture of beekeeping and family forever intertwined."
--Fran Bach, Washington State Beekeepers Assoc. Newsletter, Nov. 2012
--Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
"In his latest collection of essays, Keeping the Swarm, Venn again reflects his strong ties to and affection for the Pacific Northwest...Intensely personal and intimate, these essays reflect a thoughtful nostalgia and gentle sensibility...Venn offers many memorable moments."
--Kirsten Rabe, ForeWord Reviews, Winter 2012
"This welcome essay collection by the sharpest-eyed Northwest writer conjures the region he knows so intimately. His careful portraits of mining towns, wheat harvest, bee keeping, snowland wonders ring clean and true... This venerable voice blesses every reader with another brave and rewarding book."
--Craig Lesley, author of Burning Fence
"Keeping the Swarm is an intimate, powerful portrait of community. Dipping his pen into a mix of blood and honey, George Venn braves the scabrous terrain of memory. Venn's prose is powerful, his narrative vulnerable. The Poet's abiding respect for creatures and for environment, for song and for languages...shines brightly here. This book will make you thirst for the clear water of the mountains, and hunger for the amber-nectar of home."
--Karen Spears Zacharias, author of A Silence of Mockingbirds
"George Venn is a gentle radical: In lyrical prose he enchants us with the closely observed words and acts of ordinary people--from the Northwest's small towns to classrooms in post-Cultural Revolution Hunan--always connecting this fabric of local life to the global issues of social justice and human interdependence. 'Who says literature makes nothing happen?' Venn asks. His memorable essays inspire us to go beyond humanities to humanitarian work."
--Jennifer Eastman Atteberry, author of Up in the Rocky Mountains
"In Keeping the Swarm, George Venn both asks and answers the question, "After all, what are writers for?' ...In clear-eyed, honest, and eloquent fashion, Venn examines the places and people of his childhood and adulthood, proving that the pedestrian and the profound exist...[and] coalesce to form our most sacred guidebook for us to examine our own piece of the world, to recognize the beauty, grace, and peril..."
--Robert Stubblefield, University of Montana
"In his latest collection of essays, Keeping the Swarm, Venn again reflects his strong ties to and affection for the Pacific Northwest...intensely personal and intimate, these essays reflect a thoughtful nostalgia and gentle sensibility...touches of powerful writing [and] many memorable moments."
--Kirsten Rabe, Foreword Reviews, Winter 2013
"From the gorgeous cover photo by California beekeeper-photographer Kodua Galieti to the very personal family photos and gentle boyhood remembrances, Venn paints a picture of beekeeping and family forever intertwined."
--Fran Bach, Washington State Beekeepers Assoc. Newsletter, Nov. 2012
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poet, essayist, literary historian, editor, linguist, and educator, George Venn is a distinguished figure in western literature. In 1988, his third book, Marking the Magic Circle, was awarded a silver medal from Oregon Institute of Literary Arts. From 1989-1994, he designed and directed the OREGON LITERATURE SERIES for which he received the Stewart Holbrook Award for "outstanding contributions to Oregon's literary life." In 1999, West of Paradise was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. In 2005, the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission honored Marking the Magic Circle as "one of the 100 best Oregon books in two centuries." His C.E.S. Wood monograph Soldier to Advocate (2007) and his Word War II Fred Hill collection Darkroom Soldier have recently earned high praise. For more see his website at:www.georgevenn.com