Congratulations to 2012 PNBA Award winner Lidia Yuknavitch!

Congratulations to Lidia Yuknavitch for winning the 2012 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for her gritty memoir The Chronology of Water! Composed of independent bookstores throughout the Pacific Northwest, The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association has recognized great writing in the Northwest since 1965. The award committee considered more than 200 published works before awarding Lidia Yuknavtich and five other Northwest authors with this prestigious honor. Previous recipients of the award include Chuck Palahniuk, Sherman Alexie, John Krakauer and Ivan Doig.

Yuknavitch is also nominated for the 2012 Oregon Book Award for The Chronology of Water. Her memoir has also been cited by many as one of the best books of 2011, including HTML Giant, Flavorwire, The Rumpus and Powell’s Books.

But here at Hawthorne Books, many of our authors have received awards and commendations for their brilliant works. Here’s a quick look at what some of the Hawthorne Books authors have accomplished:

Peter Donahue, the author of Madison House: A Novel, won the Langum Prize for Historical Fiction in 2005.

As the author of many books, including Clown Girl, Monica Drake has received the Arizona Commission on the Arts Award, The Alligator Juniper Prize in Fiction, a Millay Colony Fellowship and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship at the Sewanee Writers Workshop.

Peter H. Fogtdal has garnered The Francophonian Literature Prize (Le Prix Litteraire de la Francophonie) for the novel Le Front Chantilly. He is also the author of The Tsar’s Dwarf.

Gregory Martin earned the Washington State Book Award for his memoir Mountain City. His book Stories for Boys: A Memoir is due out in October of 2012.

Marc Mordue won the Australian Pascall Prize for Critical Writing in 2010. He is also the author of Dastgah: A Headtrip.

Scott Nadelson’s The Cantor’s Daughter won The Samuel Goldberg & Sons Prize for Emerging Jewish Writers and the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories was the winner of the Oregon Book Award for Short Fiction and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award in 2006.

Toby Olson won the PEN/Faulkner Award for The Most Distinguished Work of American Fiction for his novel Seaview in 1983.

Loretta Stinson has received the 2007 Doug Fir Fiction Prize and the 2008 Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship in Fiction. She has written one novel, entitled Little Green.

Richard Wiley received the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Best American Fiction for his first novel, Soldiers in Hiding.

Congratulations once again to Lidia Yuknavitch and all the writers at Hawthorne Books who have accomplished so much!

Another intern -- Emily Shannon -- preparing reader gift packs for a book club that's reading The Luminist.

Here at Hawthorne Books, we love our readers and want to provide them with a reading experience that is engaging and interactive. One of the best ways to do this is to reach out to book clubs, which is what we’ve been doing lately.

There are tons of book clubs out there, and if you look hard enough, you will most likely find one that fits your needs, as specific as they are. Actually, as I was researching book clubs for one of my projects at Hawthorne Books, I came across a broad range of clubs, from those dealing with existentialism to those encouraging women to share the thrilling experience of reading naked. Since the weather’s getting colder, I’ll understand if you want to keep your clothes on for now; however, this won’t change anything to the fact that it’s always a pleasure to discuss how you relate to a book and to hear other people’s opinions about it.

Here at Hawthorne Books, we are excited to introduce the works of new authors to the public. We believe that the books we publish have great potential to generate intriguing conversations. Indeed, if you’re fascinated by the human condition and the intricacies of relationships, then Scott Nadelson’s short stories are for you. If your book club is attracted to raw and honest literature, you might want to consider reading Lidia Yuknavitch (wait, I hear the people at Hawthorne Books are going to publish another novel by Yuknavitch next spring).

The novel I’ve been assigned for my book club project, The Luminist, will satisfy different kinds of literature lovers, from historical fiction addicts to those who like a book with a strong female lead. It will also appeal to those interested in the beginnings of photography, not to mention those who, like the members of the International Book Group in Utah, “read to learn about other countries, customs, and cultures.” Depending on how you look at it, The Luminist will reveal its various facets, and as interesting as they are on their own, they make an even better whole. If that is not the definition of a great book club contender, then I’m not sure what is.

But there is more: David Rocklin, author of The Luminist, is excited to take an active part in book clubs that discuss his novel. He was happy to write a reader’s guide with pertinent questions that readers will definitely find useful to start a conversation or a debate. He also agreed to participate in book club discussions via Skype, which will definitely spice things up because it’s always a great opportunity to be able to talk to the author directly—those of you who have seen Rocklin at one of his readings certainly remember that he enjoys sharing stories that make for good discussion material.

So, if your book club is interested in reading either The Luminist or any of Hawthorne’s books, do not hesitate to contact us (you’ll even get 30% off list price on books!). Happy reading!

All Hawthorne Books titles

Hawthorne Books publisher Rhonda Hughes with a literary gift that keeps on giving at this year's Small Press Love Fest downtown at Portland's Central Library.

Although we may have been hearing jingly pop renditions of “The Little Drummer Boy” for at least a month already, the final countdown to the holidays is officially here now that we’ve hit December.

So if you’re still struggling to find those unique gifts that don’t involve a dreaded trip to the mall, might we suggest some literary themed presents that nurture the mind and soul and—even better—support small retailers, independent publishers and local authors. Rejoice in presents of the mind!

Books, Books and More Books!

Whether grabbing Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot at your neighborhood independent bookstore or looking for a local author’s debut foray into publishing, options abound in Portland. Here at Hawthorne, our fall titles continue to fascinate and garner praise. David Rocklin’s The Luminist explores the early stages of photography in a haunting historical novel set in 19th century India. Scott Nadelson’s new collection of short stories, Aftermath, explores the space in between loss and acceptance with both humor and heartbreaking reality.

Over at Tin House, our fellow Portland publisher, grab something truly different with their new release Moby Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page by Matt Kish. The gorgeous and mind-bendingly creative work offers a completely new approach, with images crafted from torn pages, pen and ink, marker, crayon and watercolor—one for each page of the 552-page classic. Or, offer inspiration to the aspiring writer on your list with Tin House’s writer series gift pack, including four books covering topics like plot, crafting essays and insights from other authors.

If you’re unsure about what the discriminating reader in your life might enjoy, there’s always the fail-safe option of a gift certificate to one of Portland’s many independent bookstores. Here’s just a few to check out:

Annie Bloom’s Books
7834 SW Capitol Hwy
Portland, OR 97219
503-246-0053

Broadway Books
1714 NE Broadway
Portland, OR 97232
503-284-1726

In Other Words
14 NE Killingsworth
Portland, OR 97211
503-232-6003

A Children’s Place Bookstore
4807 NE Fremont St.
Portland, OR 97213
503-284-8294

Murder by the Book
3210 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, Oregon 97214
503-232-9995

Powell’s
1005 W Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-4651

St. John’s Booksellers
8622 N Lombard St.
Portland, OR 97203
503-283-0032

The Gift of Inspiration

For the spouse who’s longing to write a novel but doesn’t know how to get started, or the blogging best friend who’s stuck in a rut, the gift of a writing workshop could provide the perfect support and inspiration. A wealth of local groups and organizations offer writing assistance, from one-day workshops to multi-week classes. Check out groups like PDX Writers, the Attic Institute, Write Around Portland, and the Writers’ Dojo.

For a regular dose of literary stimulation that arrives conveniently in the mail, give a subscription to a literary publication. From the most well known magazines like The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Ploughshares and Harper’s to local editions like The Portland Review and The Grove Review, nothing delights the reader and inspires the inner author like truly phenomenal writing.

Dinner and a Show

Alright, so the dinner part is optional, but for the best in local literary events, check out the Portland Arts and Lectures series. Sold by subscription only, the lecture series features some of the world’s most influential and celebrated modern authors, historians and journalists. Presented so far this season have been Pulitzer Prize-winners Annie Proulx and Stacy Schiff, with upcoming lectures by journalist and filmmaker Sebastian Junger, best-selling author Abraham Vergese and MacArthur genius grant-winner Chimamanda Adichie. Subscription levels vary, so check out the Web site for dates and prices. Have a very merry (and literary) holiday season!

Real life doesn’t end when the credits roll or the last page turns. There is always the slow, quiet drive home from the movie theater as we try to realign our own expectations with the temporary thrill of a good story. We did not just save the world from aliens or overcome all odds to find our soul mate. Instead we are left lingering in the stillness of our own choices, the anticlimactic wake of reality.

It is in this space that author Scott Nadelson introduces us to the characters in his new collection of short stories, Aftermath. A man trying to rediscover who he is after calling off his engagement with a fiancé who cheated on him, a teenage boy coming to terms with the abandonment of his father, a married couple struggling through a trial separation—each trying to understand exactly where they are suppose to go from here.

But Nadelson finds the beauty in that struggle, that stillness. He infuses a seemingly mundane reality with such heartbreaking authenticity that the truths uncovered by his characters are both touching and discomfiting in their applicability to our own lives.

In the collection’s title story, Richard Weintraub and his wife Alana have separated after almost seven years, and the reader follows Richard between alternating desires for freedom and the comfortable life he has become accustomed to.

When he finally called to arrange a meeting, the day after he visited Dawn in Philadelphia, Alana sighed and said, “Okay. I guess so,” as if he were asking her to help with some tedious chore, taking plastic bottles to the recycling center or scrubbing mold from his shower wall. Our Versailles, he called the meeting as they were making arrangements, and instantly regretted it. It was a stupid comparison, making him the defeated German, ready to accept all blame, all responsibility. Why did he feel like the wrongdoer, the one who deserved punishment?

The lives of the characters in Nadelson’s book are not wrapped up in neat little packages. The answers do not come easy, if at all, because things just don’t happen that way. We are left to wonder, along with the characters, whether or not they have made the right decisions, not knowing what will happen next but hoping for the best.

Aftermath: Stories
by Scott Nadelson
www.scottnadelson.com
www.hawthornebooks.com

We use a lot of shipping supplies here at Hawthorne for books, books and more books!

With so many titles published over the past ten years sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everything our authors have been up to. Here are a few highlights from the past several weeks. Please let us know anything and everything that we’ve left out!

Our fall title The Luminist, by David Rocklin, is getting fantastic reviews as he’s traveling around the country for his book tour. Here are some media hits…
www.forewordreviews.com
www.thefastertimes.com
www.nbcchicago.com

Our other fall title Aftermath, by Scott Nadelson, is getting great reviews too as he wraps up his regional book tour.
www.thenervousbreakdown.com/snadelson
www.portlandmonthly.com

Our spring 2011 title The Chronology of Water, by Lidia Yuknavitch, is still going strong…
www.thenervousbreakdown.com
www.opb.org

Advance reader copies of our spring 2012 title A Very Minor Prophet , by James Bernard Frost, have arrived!
We’re busy getting review copies organized and on their merry way. Lots of great things in the works for this one. We’ll keep you posted!

Purchase Hawthorne Books titles directly at…
www.hawthornebooks.com/catalogue

Wordstock 2011!

One of our fall 2011 Hawthorne interns, Emily Shannon, shares a few thoughts on her weekend at Wordstock…

In my excitement after the superb literary madness that is Wordstock, I hurried home, eager to scribble down all that I had heard, seen, and experienced. I felt motivated and inspired by the readings and conversations. My day seemed complete, especially after an accomplished morning: I finally started writing after weeks of tinkering with an idea.

The act of writing can be a painful process. “We trudge along,” as Anne Enright said at her reading of The Forgotten Waltz. “Editing is what makes the work seem flawless, as if the words magically flowed out of us in a steady stream.” Occasionally that may be the case. Hawthorne Books author Scott Nadelson demonstrated such ability at his reading from his most recent publication, Aftermath. Scott has a strong presence on stage. He has a sharp and concise manner of reading each sentence, and his tone is eager and thoughtful. It compliments the story itself, showing a concern for the narrative, for the character. This is one of my favorite parts from the story Dolph Schayes’s Broken Arm:

“We were just kids, and our relationship was brief and trivial and fumbling, and I’m sure she’s forgotten me long since. I might have forgotten her, too, if not for the suffering she caused me, which didn’t feel trivial at all, not then. Not now, either, in part because I’ve experienced similar suffering since, and its accumulation, I have to believe, accounts at least somewhat for the way I’ve lived my life, with the expectation that joy will always be tempered by deprivation or longing or loss.”

Before Nadelson’s reading, I went to the conversation My Censor, My Self. On panel was Lynn Connor, author of The Stones and the Poet, a creative nonfiction tale for children based off of the poem The Stones by Chinese poet Bai Juyi; Kerry Cohen, author of Loose Girl and Dirty Little Secrets; and Hawthorne Books author Lidia Yuknavitch, author of the memoir The Chronology of Water.

The focus of the panel was on memoir writing and the authors began by speaking about self-censorship in writing, how it hinders a writer and prevents them from writing the truth. Yuknavitch mentioned that it’s a matter of finding a way to write all the way through the fear and the shame and the judgment. It’s not just about that personal struggle; it’s a crucible. While reflection during the process may be taxing, it is important to remember that we are not alone in our experiences. We are writing on behalf of others knowing they will benefit.

Yuknavitch also expressed the struggle to talk bout the truth of a story. She doesn’t believe that it’s truth with a capital “T,” but many truths coming from a myriad of people who are involved in the story. This layered effect of truths makes the story more complex. While we try to write our own truth, we must be mindful of how others might interpret our words. “Good writing only happens when you have compassion for people,” Cohen said. In our compassion, we show an understanding and an admission to our own flaws.

Yuknavitch also brought to light the fact that a woman writer trying to write explicitly about sex/sexuality (two separate things, she stressed) is going to be dismissed by most publishers and the media. They don’t want such things put in the public sphere, holding to the assumption that readers will be offended or find it distasteful. Little do they know how much readers want to hear the truth, even if it may make us uncomfortable. Yuknavitch prefers to call her memoir a body story. A woman’s sexuality is with her from the day she is born until the day she dies. A body story is about the authenticity and the truth and beauty in a single life, all that a person has endured.

I had my own literary hang-up recently. Trouble writing, for various reasons, or probably most simply out of fear and laziness (thank you Kicking and Screaming), but Yuknavitch accurately defined that delay as a threshold facing the white page. We must “get back to the joy of being inside the story, the rhythm, the language, the passion of writing.” One thing to think about, if there weren’t anyone around to read your writing, would you still create? I believe I would still write. Writing is a form of expression, a way for me to articulate how I perceive things, how I understand life and what it’s made of, with all it’s joys, fears, challenges, contradictions, and possibilities.

When it comes to facing the blank white page, Lynn Connor reminded me of how I usually see things when I begin to tell a story, but which frequently escapes me. I see things in pictures. So, if you can’t write it, think about what you can see or are going to see when you tell the story. Can you see your character? What’s s/he doing? What’s s/he thinking? What’s s/he feeling? And I reiterate, trust the language and let it lead the way.

The Wordstock hot seat from the 2010 festival.

Only a few weeks away!

We love Wordstock here at Hawthorne Books. We have all sorts of events slated for this year’s festival and I’ve laid them all out for you here. Every year we have a booth at the Book Fair in the main hall and that’s where you’ll find publisher Rhonda Hughes, senior editor Adam O’Connor Rodriguez and myself for a large part of the weekend. Hawthorne Books authors will also be joining us at different times on Saturday and Sunday to chat with folks and sign books too so please come by and say “hello.” See you at Wordstock!

Wordstock readings and workshops with Hawthorne Books authors:

David Rocklin — 2pm Sunday reading with Anna Solomon; 4:30pm Sunday writing workshop the How and Where: On Setting as Character in Fiction.
Scott Nadelson — 1pm Saturday reading with Rahul Mehta; 3pm Saturday workshop In the Beginning: Crafting Compelling Story Openings.
Lidia Yuknavitch — 12pm Saturday panel My Censor Myself with Ben Moorad, Kerry Cohen and Lynn Connor; 11am Sunday panel What’s with America’s Sexual/Literary Hang-up with Steve Almond, Cheryl Strayed and Viva Las Vegas; 4pm Sunday reading with Lisa Wells.
Monica Drake — 1pm Sunday screening and talk about Georgie’s Big Break with Andy Mingo, Brian Lindstrom.
&
Rhonda Hughes, Hawthorne Books publisher — 11am Saturday panel How to Win Over Agents and Editors.
Liz Crain, Hawthorne Books editor — 2pm Saturday panel Every Book is a Start Up.

Wordstock blog posts with Hawthorne Books authors:

Scott Nadelson’s guest blog post and Q&A.
David Rocklin’s guest blog post and Q&A.

Wordstock 2011
October 6-8 at the Oregon Convention Center
www.wordstockfestival.com

Once again the fields we mow 

And gather in the aftermath.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sometime during the summer of 2005, while working on a new story, I wrote lines of dialogue that surprised me. “The world died a long time before you were born,” a father tells his daughter and son-in-law, who are shocked and saddened by a recent bombing in Iraq, and even more important, deeply shaken by the slow rupture of their marriage. “There’s no point crying about it,” the father adds.

The lines are meant to be comic, and act mostly to reveal the father’s cynicism, narcissism, and desperate need for attention. But when I wrote them, they also opened up something for me that I hadn’t expected, pointing me to explore an aspect of life that most amazes and baffles me: how we carry the burden of horrific events, of great disappointments, of suffering and grief, and yet continue to pursue our desires, strive toward normalcy and even happiness, and accommodate ourselves to the possibility of failure. Despite the father’s subsequent words about Hiroshima and Auschwitz, the world hasn’t died; it continues to spin its cycles of tragedy and joy, of struggle and contentment, and the best the daughter and son-in-law can do is lean into the headwind and step forward into the unknown.

The story, which wasn’t yet named, eventually became the title piece of my new collection, Aftermath. And though it wasn’t planned this way, it now strikes me as a strangely appropriate accident that the book will be published so close to the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. For a decade we’ve been living in the aftermath of inconceivable horror and sadness, and certainly those events and the horror and sadness and struggle they have since sparked were present in my mind as I wrote the stories in this book, even though I rarely addressed them directly. The world should have died, but it didn’t; we should have given up our striving but we haven’t. Our resilience in the face of suffering, our stubbornness in the face of failure, our stupidity and blindness in the face of repeated mistakes: all of these things continue to amaze and baffle me, but in writing these stories I have come to see them not as an exception or aberration but as the essence of our being, our very lifeblood.

In one important way, the father in my story was right: we’ve been living in the aftermath for far longer than the few hours following a bomb attack, the few months following a break-up, or the few years following a global tragedy. We’ve been living there all along, and its challenges and obstacles, its gloom and hints of light, have given us our strength, our stubbornness, and occasionally our wisdom. “None of this really matters,” the father says later in the story, referring both to world events and to his daughter’s marriage. But whether he’s right or not, his daughter and son-in-law go on living as if every thing they do, every word they say, matters more than the last.

Aftermath: Stories
by Scott Nadelson
pub. date September 1, 2011
www.scottnadelson.com
www.hawthornebooks.com

Scott Nadelson’s short story collection Aftermath is due to spread its wings in just TEN days! Its pub. date is next Thursday, September 1st and with that comes all sorts of great book events throughout the Pacific Northwest. Below is the current lineup. Please be in touch if you’d like to set a reading or anything else for this one.

Friday, 09 September 2011 :: 7.00 – 9.00 pm — Portland, Oregon
Broadway Books| 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232 T: 503-284-1726 :: Please join us for Scott Nadelson’s book launch party for Aftermath.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011 :: 4.30 – 6.00 pm — Salem, Oregon
Willamette University | Hatfield Library, 900 State Street, Salem, Oregon 97301 T: 503-370-6300 :: Scott Nadelson reads from his collection, Aftermath.

Wednesday, 21 September 2011 :: 7.30 – 8.30 pm — Portland, Oregon
The Press Club | 2621 SE Clinton, Portland, OR 97202. T: (503) 233-5656. :: Mountain Writers Series at The Press Club. Scott Nadelson and Lidia Yuknavitch read from their work.

Saturday, 08 October 2011 :: 1.00 pm — Portland, Oregon
Wordstock | 777 NE ML King Blvd., Portland, OR 97232. T: (503) 235-7575. :: Scott Nadelson will read from his collection, Aftermath.

Saturday, 08 October 2011 :: 3.00 – 4.15 pm — Portland, Oregon
Wordstock | 777 NE ML King Blvd., Portland, OR 97232. T: (503) 235-7575. :: Scott Nadelson will teach a workshop titled Compelling Story Openings.

Saturday, 08 October 2011 — Portland, Oregon
Wordstock | Oregon Convention Center :: Scott Nadelson reads from his collection, Aftermath.

Monday, 14 November 2011 :: 7.30 – 8.30 pm — Portland, Oregon
Powell’s Books | 3747 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214 T: (503) 228-4651 :: Scott Nadelson reads from his collection, Aftermath.

Friday, 18 November 2011 :: 7.00 – 8.00 pm — Corvallis, Oregon
Oregon State University Library | Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 541-737-1000 :: Scott Nadelson reads from his new collection, Aftermath.

Aftermath: Stories
by Scott Nadelson
pub. date September 1, 2011
www.scottnadelson.com
www.hawthornebooks.com

Portland publishers weighing in on ebooks in Portland Monthly...

Portland Monthly visited Hawthorne Books in the spring for this story about ebooks…
www.portlandmonthlymag.com

The Chronology of Water still garnering rave reviews!
www.word.emerson.edu/ploughshares

Our fall title The Luminist is already building quite a buzz…
www.blogtown.portlandmercury.com

Our other fall title Aftermath is as well. Here’s a recent interview with author Scott Nadelson.
www.cheekteethblog.com

Frank Meeink of Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead is the subject of an upcoming feature-length documentary by Joshua Seftel. Here’s a sneak peek.
www.seftel.com

Kristen Wiig is shouting out her optioning of Monica Drake’s Clown Girl…
www.abcnews.go.com

Loretta Stinson, author of Little Green, recently spoke with Portland Tribune about domestic violence…
www.portlandtribune.com

Peter H. Fogtdal, author of The Tsar’s Dwarf, is working on his next novel…
www.fogtdal.blogspot.com

Poe Ballantine author of Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere recently did an interview over at The Nervous Breakdown…
www.thenervousbreakdown.com

James Bernard Frost’s upcoming novel A Very Minor Prophet already getting a lot of advance praise…
www.hawthornebooks.com