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Cascadia Magazine’s new fiction editor: Steven Genise
Here at Cascadia Magazine, our goal is to document the news, people, and culture that shape life in the Pacific Northwest. Publishing quality fiction by writers from across the region is big part of that mission, and to help us expand those offerings, we’re pleased to announce that Steven Genise will be joining our team as associate editor for fiction.
A writer and editor in Seattle, Steven has published work in Natural Bridge, Soft Cartel, and others, and in 2016 he was shortlisted for Epiphany’s Best Under 30 Award. Prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest, he interned for McSweeney’s, The Believer, Counterpoint Press, and National Novel Writing Month.
Welcome on board, Steven! We look forward to publishing more short fiction throughout 2019 with his help. If you’re interested in submitting short fiction, or know someone who might be, please visit Cascadia Magazine‘s submissions page.
And we can’t publish all this great writing without your help, so please visit our donate page and join the other supporting readers who make Cascadia Magazine and Cascadia Daily possible!
Cascadia Magazine original: Seattle’s HIV Hope
A Seattle medical research center best known for its work on cancer has made significant advances in the search for a cure for HIV. In a fascinating feature online now at Cascadia Magazine, Niki Stojnic talks to virologists and advocates for people with HIV about what a pathway to a cure might look like. You’ll meet Tranish Arzah, who’s HIV-positive and supports women who have the disease, as well as Keith Jerome, a researcher with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who believes the search for a cure is more possible now than ever. “It’s the right time,” he says.
Read the full article online at Cascadia Magazine here.
NDP candidate wins Nanaimo by-election
The Tyee reports that NDP candidate Sheila Malcolmson has won a closely-watched by-election in a BC legislative district that includes Nanaimo. The win strengthens the left-leaning NDP-Green coalition in the British Columbia legislature. In other Cascadia legislative news, Willamette Week looks at the issues progressive activists are pushing for in the Oregon legislative session, including bills on housing, criminal justice, and campaign spending. And oh, it turns out that a Seattle billionaire who made a bunch of money selling frappucinos and wants to be president of some poorly-functioning democracy only voted in 11 of 38 past elections.
WA looks to change vaccination laws after measles outbreak
OPB and KUOW report on the debate in the Washington legislature over whether to make it more difficult to opt out of childhood vaccinations after an outbreak of measles in southwest WA.
Canada may have overpaid $1 billion for BC pipeline
CBC reports the a federal parliamentary budget officer thinks the Canadian government paid $1 billion too much for the Trans Mountain Pipeline across British Columbia. Meanwhile, Washington’s Lummi tribe has joined the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation in opposition to any new ship traffic out of the port of Delta, BC in order to protect orca habitat. In related news, Crosscut looks at efforts by the Puyallup tribe and local residents to block a new LNG port in Tacoma, WA. And The Narwhal has an investigative report into how BC skirted environmental review to approve gas pipelines.
Salem counts homeless people on the margins
At the Salem Reporter, read about the volunteer effort to count the number of people living on the streets in Salem — and this year the count ventures out of downtown to places on the margins. Meanwhile Eugene Weekly reports that program to reduce small-time arrests of people without shelter is falling short of expectations. And the city of Seattle is looking at ways to reform laws regarding evictions — currently a person who misses just $100 in rent payments can be evicted and risk slipping into homelessness.
The importance of beavers in salt water environments
Hakai magazine has a great, detailed feature on biologists who are studying beavers living the the intertidal areas of the Salish Sea. Know primarily as a fresh-water species, beaver are also important engineers in estuaries near Washington’s Snohomish River, Ben Goldfarb reports.
Karen Thompson Walker on motherhood & intellectualism
Over at the Powell’s Books blog there’s a great essay, “Mothering as an Intellectual Pursuit,” by Portland writer Karen Thompson Walker, author of the novel The Dreamers. Walker talks about writing a novel through pregnancy and continuing intellectual inquiry through parenthood: “why this cultural blindness to the notion that mothering makes use of the brain?”
Asking hard questions about race in Vancouver
At SAD magazine, read Rebecca Peng’s contemplative review of Selina Thompson’s two contributions to the PuSH festival in Vancouver. Salt is a performance piece in which Thompson looks at slavery and race through the history and physical experience of salt; Race Cards is an interactive exhibit where viewers are invited to read a deck of 1,000 uncomfortable questions about race. PuSH runs through Feb. 3.
And at the University of Washington’s Jones playhouse I recently had the pleasure of seeing a production of “Rutherford & Son,” a long-neglected 1912 family drama by Githa Sowerby — it’s a compelling performance that examines class and patriarchy with a diverse and talented cast. You can still see it through Feb. 3.
That’s today’s collection of arts, culture, environmental reporting, and news from across the Cascadia bioregion. Have a great evening. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: Tacoma LNG protest courtesy of Backbone Campaign CC BY-SA 2.0