Intern appreciation lunch for our spring 2011 interns (Left to right: Adam O'Connor Rodriguez (senior editor), Irene Costello (intern), Rhonda Hughes (publisher), Stefanie Fisher (intern)

We get a lot of requests from local folks hoping to do an internship at Hawthorne Books — unfortunately way more than we can accommodate. Every spring, fall and winter (and sometimes summer) we have two, 10-week, unpaid interns and they help us out immensely. Lately we’ve been getting double and sometimes triple the amount of applicants so we thought we’d publish a roundup of Portland literary internships so we have somewhere to point folks beyond Hawthorne.

Internships are a great way to gain experience and build your resume while helping a business or non-profit out. This list is most likely missing folks so please let us know who we’ve left out…

Gobshite Quarterly
andreview
The Attic
Beyond Words Publishing
Reading Frenzy
Independent Publishing Resource Center
Willamette Week
Portland Mercury
Oregonian
Portland Tribune
The Bear Deluxe
Bitch Magazine
Calyx Literary Journal
Dark Horse Comics
The Grove Review
Ink & Paper Group
Ink-Filled Page
Raintown Press
Timber Press
Tin House Books
Tin House Magazine
Wordstock
Write Around Portland
Writer’s Dojo

Our assembly line of Rhonda, Irene, Stefanie and Liz produced this -- review copies and award submissions for 2011 titles.

Every spring Hawthorne Books decides whether to have a summer internship or not. Summer is the slowest month in the world of publishing and so we often scale back to just HB staff. We’re doing that this summer (we always have our fall, winter and spring internships) so the last couple weeks of our spring internship were a big push to get all of the review copies out for our fall titles — The Luminist & Aftermath — as well as to get all of our award submissions out for our 2011 titles — The Luminist, Aftermath & The Chronology of Water.

We’re proud of our authors and titles and always submit for awards we think they deserve.

Our authors and titles have won too many awards to count including:

GLCA Award
Oregon Book Award
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award
OSU Short Fiction Award
Arizona Commission on the Arts Award
Samuel Golberg & Sons Fiction Prize for Emerging Jewish Writers
Doug Fir Fiction Prize
PEN/Faulkner Award
Another PEN/Faulkner Award

Awards that we submitted or 2011 authors/titles for this year:

PNBA Book Awards
GLCA New Writers Award
National Book Awards
Oregon Book Awards
NBCC Awards
PEN/Faulkner Award
Pulitzer Prizes
David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award

So many books, so little time...

As a Hawthorne Books intern, a hopeful future book editor, a person with an English degree, and a self-proclaimed bibliophile, it is embarrassing for me to admit, but I don’t always have time for books. Don’t get me wrong, I always have time for books as an idea, as a conversation topic, as a table decoration, but between my busy work schedule, my social life, and my attempts to go to the gym, I don’t always have time to read them.

I am not proud of this. In fact, more times than I can count, I have been poised with the question ‘what book are you reading?’ and have had to stammer my way through some excuse or lie, while the person opposite of me (who will undoubtedly tell me that they were able to get through five Bible-sized books within the last month) looks at me with contempt. I am one of those people, they think. I can’t quote Joyce, I don’t know Russian literature, and I am currently- gasp!- reading nothing.

I am, on paper, a horrible book-lover.

So a few of months ago when a friend of mine invited me to join a book club she had recently started, I said yes, thinking this would be a great way to force myself into being a better reader. If the pressure of a looming weekly discussion weighed over me, I figured, my sheer desire to seem somewhat intellectual would force the pages to turn. And I was right– for book one. But then book two was slow, and book three was boring, and the author of book four seemed like a jerk…and there I was again, not making time for books. And truth be told, I thought about quitting. I thought, maybe I should just stop going; tell them I am too busy for books.

Give it once last chance, my friend pleaded with me (club attendance was dropping dangerously low, turns out a lot of people don’t have time for books), read at your own pace; don’t worry so much about keeping up. Stop, she told me, making reading a chore.

A chore? A chore?! Had I made reading a chore? Yes. I realized I had. I had made reading (before, and during the book club) into this large looming task. READ SOMETHING, I would demand of myself, in the same way I told myself to clean the kitchen and start doing daily sit-ups. I had started to put pressure on myself to be well-read, and in the meantime, forgotten how much I truly enjoyed reading.

And so I took her advice. I stuck with the club. And guess what? I hated book five. I got half way through it and gave up. But that’s OK, my friend told me. Reading, she reminded me, is not about the end goal it is about the process.

And she was right. We started the sixth book, Lit by Marry Karr, last week and though I am still horribly behind everyone else in the club and I still can’t quote Joyce, I am starting to remember why I used to make time for reading, why I chose a life and career that involves literature. And this week’s book club was the best yet, I admitted to everyone I am a S-L-O-W reader, I stopped trying to pretend I was full of insight about every passage, and I just let myself enjoy the story, the company, and the wine, without pretense. So what if only can squeeze in a few pages per night while others can down 300? Who cares if I get bored, or distracted, or put it down and never pick it up again? There is no reading police, and there is no such thing as too busy for something you love. Because when I stopped making reading a to-do, it became enjoyable again.

For more on book clubs in Portland, check out this February Oregonian article.

Visit a Multnomah Country Library branch today!

Given Portland’s fame as a literary center and reading city, it should come as no surprise that our library system ranks as one of the best in the country. In 2010, the Multnomah County Library announced that the previous year it had achieved the highest circulation in the United States for libraries serving cities of less than 1 million. According The Oregonian:

“The circulation of 22.7 million items in 2009 was an average of 31 items checked out or renewed for every person in the county, which has a population of about 700,000.”

In addition, in 2009 it received the highest award given to libraries and museums in the United States, the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, which “recognizes institutions for outstanding social, educational, environmental or economic contributions to their communities”. The library received the award due to its extraordinary push to enhance its service to the minority populations in Portland, increasing its number of bilingual staff dramatically over the six years before.

Going beyond book lending, the Portland library system also has a superb outlet for selling its castoffs at dirt cheap prices. As we noted before in the blog, Title Wave is a great place for bibliophiles to explore. They also have a great tradition of donating hundreds, possibly thousands, of used books to the Wordstock book festival, where they can be picked up for free by anyone whose eye they catch. Just last year I made off with a copy of Ron Hansen’s Exiles.

Libraries across the country also provide a free and simple means of supporting your friendly neighborhood publishing house. Publishers are assisted a great deal by sales to libraries, so a simple call or email to your local library will not only help keep Hawthorne Books going strong, but will also help get our titles to where they can be borrowed by you and your friends for free. Sounds like a win for everyone. Librarians depend strongly on patron feedback to determine their purchases, so no matter what library you use, make your voice heard!

Multnomah County Library
www.multcolib.org
Hours & Locations

One of Portland's many writing resources...

While larger institutions such as Borders bear the brunt of a recession and the rise of e-books, Portland’s independent literary community remains strong.

Classic hands-on resources for local writers, such as Southwest Portland’s Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC), are thriving through member support, volunteers and a strong creative community. IPRC offers a full schedule of workshops and how-to sessions, alongside readings and other events hosted by local zinesters, writers and other creative types.

The IPRC isn’t the only resource for local writers; here’s a list of a few more Portland writing staples:

Writer’s Dojo
www.writersdojo.org
503.706.0509
7518 (and 7506) N. Chicago Ave.
Portland, OR 97203

A thriving literary community for writers, readers and whatever’s left in-between. On the website you’ll find everything from basement writing workshops, blog listings and event postings to detailed advice on the query and submission game.

Attic Institute
www.atticinstitute.com
503.236.0615
4232 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97215

The Attic Institute is home to all sorts of writer’s resources and programs and the website is a go-to spot for newsletters and other member info.

Northwest Writer
www.nwwriter.com

Northwest Writer’s mission statement is, “Making Portland the Best Place on Earth to be a Writer.” Check out the website for advice on submitting work, and blog posts aimed to keep your literary knowledge and lingo as current as your workload permits.

Ooligan Press (at PSU)
www.ooliganpress.pdx.edu
Portland State University
P.O. Box 751
Portland, OR 97207

More than just a typical University Press, Ooligan offers writing contests and other publishing opportunities. Whether you’re a PSU student or a no-school-strings-attached writer Ooligan has something for you.

Literary Arts—Portland Arts & Lecture Series
www.literary-arts.org/pal
503.227.2583
224 NW 13th Ave. Suite 306 

Portland, OR
 97209

Literary Arts is priceless for authors, readers and budding writers as is its Portland Arts and Lecture Series. The Literary Arts website has all the details you need for local literary event listings and various writer resources.

Don’t limit yourself to this list. The best advice for both seasoned and emerging writers is to support your local literary community. Whether you do that by buying a book from a small press, attending a reading, or giving a local author you’ve never heard of a chance, Portland is, and always has been, a fantastic literary city.

Happy that Portlandia brings on the books.

IFC’s newest sketch comedy Portlandia, featuring Fred Armisen (SNL) and Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag), lightheartedly jabs at cultural quirks and characters that are distinctly Portland.

Among the bike nerds, dumpster divers, and other brands of hipsters and hippies portrayed in the show, Portlandia also features a humorous look into the local literary scene. Often mentioned in reviews from all over, the feminist bookstore sketch is garnering a lot of attention.

Armisen and Brownstein portray the hilariously unhelpful owners of Women & Women First based on In Other Words Feminist Community Center and Bookstore in Northeast Portland. Opening the sketch in episode 2, the scene points out some distinct local color in the shop owners’ over-the-top aversion towards anything mainstream that might jeopardize their image.

Brownstein: “This is a top-selling author. Do we want that in here?”
Armisen: “No, we want bottom-selling authors.”

Armisen and Brownstein’s characters go on to behave unbearably preachy and diva-like toward two customers that do not fit their desired clientele (Steve Buscemi entering the store only to use the bathroom in episode one, and in a later episode a college-age woman who pole dances on the side).

I have to say–well done. Portland’s local-philia and taste for the obscure has earned it a TV show. But, one thing the writers of the show capture in a more subtle way through the parody is a Portlandian craving for fresh voices that support specific causes–like feminism. Despite their major annoyances, the feminist bookstore owners are lovable for their stubborn advocacy.

Sharing in in the namesake of the fictional bookstore’s location, it’s nice to know we have something in common with Women & Women First/In Other Words–books with a social conscience and new voices. We are, after all, a Portland publisher part of Portland’s strong literary scene. While we also love authors from other regions, we have titles that fit Portland’s distinct (and now worthy of satire) literary image.

So, feed your inner Portlander and check out these titles: the environmentally-conscious The Greening of Ben Brown by Michael Strelow, a look into domestic violence in Loretta Stinson’s Little Green, and an emotionally charged account of unlearning racism in Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead by Frank Meeink and Jody M. Roy.

In Other Words Feminist Community Center and Bookstore
www.inotherwords.org
14 NE Killingsworth St.
Portland, OR 97211-2624

Time to shake a leg and celebrate Little Green!

We’re all getting pretty excited over here counting down the days until the book launch party for Loretta Stinson’s Little Green. It’s fantastic to have a book launch party precede all sorts of great coverage from the likes of Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, The Rumpus, ForeWord Reviews and then some. When it comes down to it though we don’t need these publications to tell us what we already know. Little Green’s got it going on. Come celebrate with Loretta Stinson and the entire Hawthorne Books crew this Sunday night at Mississippi Pizza Pub!

Little Green Book Launch Party
No cover. All ages. Live music. Pizza and beer on us!
Sunday, July 18th 9:15-11:30pm
Mississippi Pizza Pub
3552 North Mississippi Ave.
Portland, OR
503.288.3231
www.mississippipizza.com

Live music from The Barkers
www.thebandthebarkers.com

Tools of the intern trade...

Over the years Hawthorne has had some fantastic interns and we thought it was about time we featured them here. A lot of our interns have gone on to do great work and below you’ll find just out what just a few of them are up to. (If we’ve left you out please accept our apology. Drop us a line and let us know what you’re up to and we’ll include you in the next roundup of amazing interns.)

Hawthorne Books has had its 10 week unpaid seasonal internships for several years and a lot of our interns come to us directly from Portland State University’s Book Publishing Program — although not all. If you’re interested in applying for our internship please read more about it here.

Kyle Cassidy, editorial director of Wend Magazine
Shannon Carson, adjunct professor of writing at Portland State University
Kyla Buckingham, project editor Help Worldwide, Inc.
Scott F. Parker, editorial assistant at Rain Taxi Review of Books
Liz Crain, (yep, me) editor at Hawthorne Books, author of Sasquatch Books title Food Lover’s Guide to Portland
Spencer Newlin-Cushing, executive assistant Dark Horse Comics
Haili Jones Graff, copy editor and proofreader at Bitch Magazine
Robert Wicks, publicity assistant of Oxford University Press
Katie Shaw, proofreader and assistant to the content coordinator at Formations Inc.

A conference attendee checking out Hawthorne Books titles at AWP's Annual Conference in Denver in April...

Before I began working as an intern at Hawthorne Books, I bought tickets to attend this year’s AWP (The Association of Writers & Writing Programs) annual conference mid-April in Denver with some of my peers from Portland State University’s publishing program. Ooligan Press, the student-run press connected to the publishing program, wasn’t going to have a table at AWP, but a group of us decided we couldn’t miss the opportunity to attend.

My decision proved fortuitous for multiple reasons—not only because my traveling partners and I were randomly upgraded to the historic, four-star Brown Palace Hotel & Spa, but also because it meant that Hawthorne Books senior editor Adam O’Connor Rodriguez wouldn’t be left to run the Hawthorne Books table all by himself for eight hours a day.

I spent the weekend doing double duty—both as intrepid student, out to glean as much information as possible, and as dutiful intern, helping out in any way possible.

Not everything went smoothly—Hawthorne’s table was tucked away in a back corner, and the banner that had been ordered to adorn it didn’t arrive on time. Even so, I had some great conversations with those who stopped by P8. Many stopped when they saw Frank Meeink and Jody M. Roy’s Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, saying, “Oh, I just heard this guy on Fresh Air the other day.” I also heard some great reviews of Hawthorne Books author Monica Drake’s reading at the conference.

As for the student side of things, I was able to check out some great sessions. From a discussion on the changing grounds of copyright, complete with a performance piece, to a panel of writers who intentionally blur the lines between genre fiction and literary fiction, a lot of great dialogue was happening. Keynote speaker Michael Chabon was engaging and entertaining, and there were scores of other great speakers and readings, including one of my personal favorites, Sherman Alexie, who read along with four other poets to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Beloit Poetry Journal.

Even with all I saw, I’m sure there was a lot that I missed. All in all, it was a great weekend, packed with sunshine, lots of free literary swag, and hanging out with my favorite kind of people—book people. Here’s looking forward to next year’s AWP conference in D.C.

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs
www.awpwriter.org