Cascadia Daily, Dec. 7, 2018

by Andrew Engelson

Bookish events across Cascadia

As winter approaches, the bookish denizens of the Pacific Northwest look inward — mostly for a warm room with a cozy couch and a good book. Yeah, maybe we’ve got the Seattle Freeze, and we’re a region of introverts, but Cascadians do like to read. In addition to all those great book shops, King County (which includes Seattle) has one of the highest-used library systems in North America. And a recent poll found that Oregon was the second-highest ranked state in terms of readers of poetry, plays and fiction.

The coming week has several literary events of note. The Seattle Poetics Lab (SPLAB), which promotes poetry, spoken word, and founded the Cascadia Poetry Festival, is having its 25th anniversary celebration at 7:30-9pm on December 14, at the White River Museum in Auburn, WA. The celebration will include the launch of American Prophets, a collection of interviews with a variety of poets, activists, and thinkers by poet Paul Nelson over 25 years. More info here.

Seattle’s Hugo House is having a celebration of poetry by Ursula K. LeGuin  7-9 pm December 14, with readings from a new collection of Le Guin’s final poems by Jane Wong, Karen Finneyfrock, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, and Elaina Ellis.

At Powell’s Books in Portland, there’s a discussion at 7 pm Tuesday Dec. 11 about Ursula K Le Guin’s Earthsea novels featuring Charles Vess, Le Guin’s son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, Molly Gloss, Tina Connolly, and Ebonee Bell.

This Saturday, Dec 8 at 2 pm at the Vancouver Public Library, the City of Vancouver Book Award will be announced. Three writers published by Cascadia Magazine have been nominated: Chelene Knight, Travis Lupick, and Rachel Rose. Congrats!

And for your holiday book shopping needs, check out recommendations from the booksellers from Bellingham’s Village Books in the latest issue of Cascadia Weekly.

Cascadia apple exports plummet in trade war

Anna King reports for Northwest Public Broadcasting that apple growers in Washington and Oregon are seeing steep declines in exports to Mexico, China, and India thanks to the Trump administration’s escalating trade war. In other agriculture news, the Tyee has a great report on activist Jessie Housty’s work to help Indigneous communities on the central coast of British Columbia rediscover and grow native food plants.

ICE raids putting lives on hold in Yakima

The Yakima Herald reports on how immigration crackdowns are taking a toll on families in Yakima, in central Washington, which has the highest rate of deportation-related detention in the state. “There’s people who hang out in detention centers for a year, sometimes more than a year,” says an immigrant rights lawyer.

The toxic legacy of BC’s coal mines

Over at the Narwhal, you can read a detailed investigation into toxic selenium leaching out of coal mines in the Elk Valley of central British Columbia. High levels of the contaminant from Teck Resource’s mines are causing deformed fish, and residents and biologists on both sides of the border are concerned.

Seattle police accountability in question

Seattle’s rocky path toward police accountability was called into question by a US district judge after an officer who punched a black woman was reinstated, according to an article at Crosscut. Seattle’s Sound Transit security was also under scrutiny after it needlessly ejected a black woman from a light rail station. And in Oregon, a federal judge awarded $10 million in a suit against a private prison-management company whose negligent behavior resulted in the death of a female black inmate.

The untold stories of Wild Wild Country

The Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country, which won an Emmy for its telling of the crazy story of Oregon’s Rajneeshpuram cult has captivated legions of binge-watching fans. Over at Portland Monthly you’ll find a detailed account of some of the untold stories that Netflix left out about the antics in Antelope, Oregon in the 1980s, including widespread guns, MDMA-laced strawberries, and a cat named Popcorn.

An essay on poet WS Merwin by Michael Wiegers

Michael Wiegers is editor in chief at Copper Canyon Press, one of North America’s most heralded publishers of poetry, based in Port Townsend, Washington. In a lovely essay for Literary Hub, Wiegers write about American poet WS Merwin’s hermitage above the Dordogne River in France. “He came here not to get away, but to learn how to honestly participate in a troubled world, to learn how to be a poet, to learn how to “put life back into the world.””

That’s this evenings collection of news, arts, and culture from across the Cascadia bioregion. Have a restful and peaceful weekend. And good luck to the Portland Timbers in tomorrow’s MLS final! ⚽  –Andrew Engelson

Photo credits: Seattle police officers by Hollywata via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0