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Ursula K. LeGuin on awards, fantasy today, and writing while parenting

Ursula K. Le  Guin is arguably the Northwest’s most famous writer. In an interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books, she offers sharp commentary on the importance of accolades as a woman writer, finding time to write while raising three children, and how some of today’s fantasy is lacking: “you can a mash lot of orcs and unicorns and intergalactic wars together without actually imagining anything. One of the troubles with our culture is we do not respect and train the imagination. It needs exercise. It needs practice.”

Student homeless rates on the rise in WA & OR

Northwest Public Radio details a disturbing trend: rising rates of homelessness among public school students in Washington and Oregon. According to the report, in the small eastern WA town of Orondo, nearly half of students don’t have adequate permanent housing. Oregon reported a 5.6 percent rise over last year, while Washington has nearly 40,000 homeless students statewide.

BC natural gas regulator hid methane leak data

Andrew Nikiforuk reports in The Tyee that the amount of methane leaking from 26,000 wells in British Columbia has been vastly under-reported by the BC Oil & Gas Commission. The investigation notes that hundreds of wells have been leaking methane into groundwater and the air, where it’s 30 times as potent as CO2 in its effect on global warming.

A Seattle city council member’s brief but eventful tenure

Crosscut offers a behind-the-scenes account of the 51-day career of Seattle city council member Kirsten Harris-Talley, who was appointed to fill a council seat vacancy after mayor Ed Murray’s resignation. Only the second African-American woman to serve on the council, Harris-Talley worked hard to draw attention to the houselessness crisis and increase the city’s budget for emergency assistance.

Eirik Johnson’s photos document moments of urban decay

Though Seattle is in the midst of an economic boom, there are a few places in the city where nature is slowly reclaiming the human world. In a photo essay at Arcade, a journal about architecture and design in the Pacific Northwest, Johnson’s photo essay “Portal” captures the moment when the march of global capitalism slows for a few moments. You can find out more about the photographer’s work here.

Non-profits doing great reporting in Cascadia

Today is #GivingNewsDay, a day to support non-profit outlets of journalism. The news business is in crisis, but thankfully things aren’t all grim. The Tyee in Vancouver reports that non-profit media outlets are filling the gap in BC. Across Cascadia there are plenty of nonprofits doing great work: Crosscut  and Investigate West; the South Seattle Emerald, The Tyee, and The Seattle Globalist are all worth your support. Without your help, they can’t do all the work they do every day.

And look to this newsletter for more info our effort to create a new nonprofit publication: Cascadia Magazine. We’re aiming to have our first “issue” of features, fiction, photography and poetry online before the end of the year. We’ll need your financial support to make it sustainable! Stay tuned for more details.

Okay, that’s all for today from the left-hand corner of the continent. –Andrew Engelson Photo credits: van in the bushes from Eirik Johnson’s series “Portal” at Arcade, photographer’s website here, image used with artist’s permission.