I just came back from a trip to my grandmother's, a place where every room not only has a stack of books, but they follow a theme of the room (i.e. princess stories in the girls' room, sports in the boys', old works of Tennyson and Jefferson in the living room). Many of her books range from old to ancient, in varying degrees of condition and it got me thinking about why I love books, not just literature but hold in your hands, need light to read, books. And more than that-- why I love buying them. I like having them on my shelves at home, I like loaning them out to people, I like being able to spill on them and turn the corners down to mark the page, and I even like getting rid of them either by passing them on to a loved one, or by giving them to a second-hand shop where someone else will find them, hold them, love them.
Also on this trip, we drove up hells canyon to the 10,000 year old pictographs etched on the rocks beside the Snake River. Examining these stories from an ancient time, even though I couldn't understand what they were about, I was endlessly amazed by their existence. Perhaps not created with the intent to communicate with people far into the future, they have achieved it none the less. I began to question what we would leave behind for future generations, species, cultures to surmise about our time on this Earth. It will not be our kindles, or iPads they peruse, it will be our buildings and our books. They will stumble upon great and beautiful libraries, monuments standing testament to the eternal quest for knowledge. They will find our homes, our bookshelves, they will guess who we were and what we loved by looking at the stories we kept, and how we arranged them. To me, this is the best possible prospect. It makes me proud to be a reader, and even more, to be a bookseller. I feel honored to help people build their character in life, and the legacy we will all leave behind. Thank you for letting us be a part of this journey, and thank you for being a part of ours.
Grass Roots Books and Music
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Happy Sunday!
My favorite magazines featured in the store are:
Under the Radar gives you a glimpse of Indie musicians before they hit the big time. Nee says this is where she first heard about The Lumineers, before she heard them on the radio! MGMT is featured in the current issue.
If you like to write, you will find this magazine tempting. Not only does it have interviews with current beloved authors such as Jesmyn Ward, but it also has information about upcoming writing contest deadlines, like the Narrative 30 Below Contest which offers $1,500 and publication of your poem, short story, essay or excerpt in Narrative magazine if you are under the age of 30.
My favorite magazines featured in the store are:
Under the Radar gives you a glimpse of Indie musicians before they hit the big time. Nee says this is where she first heard about The Lumineers, before she heard them on the radio! MGMT is featured in the current issue. If you like to write, you will find this magazine tempting. Not only does it have interviews with current beloved authors such as Jesmyn Ward, but it also has information about upcoming writing contest deadlines, like the Narrative 30 Below Contest which offers $1,500 and publication of your poem, short story, essay or excerpt in Narrative magazine if you are under the age of 30.
And! Excitingly, it is Banned Books Week! September 22-28 is a time to push to the forefront the books that have been thrown off the shelves, recently or historically. We've got a display of past and current banned books in the store, from 50 Shades of Gray by E. L. James (for reasons maybe obvious, maybe not) to Where's Waldo by Martin Handford!!! Make sure you ask us about why that last one was banned, it's a pretty funny story.
Onwards into the new week!
~By Maddy
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
On Being an Indie Bookseller
It's hard. And incredibly delightful.
Let me clarify that I mean Indie as in independent not in the coffeeshop-macbook-eccentric-dressing sort of way (though we do enjoy those customers when they come in). I say it's hard because sometimes it seems that no matter how hard we work, we will inevitably be replaced by online book buying or giants like Barnes & Noble. But really, the extreme pleasure outweighs that struggle. I am endlessly grateful to be a part of this legacy of a bookstore, which prides itself on its relationships with customers more than anything else. Every day we get to have one on one conversations with the variety of people we have coming into the store, and in this way, we learn so much about what the public holds close. We hear about the passions of one couple to push for a better health care system, the dreams of another to be a writer someday, and sometimes we can even help them get on their way.
That's my favorite part about this store. It's been around for 42 years and has yet to become complacent or stagnant. We continue to back local artists and writers who are just getting started, sell tickets to local events, work with charities and promote reading among children by supporting schools and educators. Grass Roots has worked hard to serve the changing needs of the community; in one way by selling Kobo e-readers, which in my opinion is the e-reader that was made for true readers in mind. Many things have stayed the same though, like our monthly book club and our continuing tradition of author events.
My point in discussing all these things is to remind you what is magical about small bookstores. That as soon as you walk in, you are among family -- people who share a love and commitment to the same things as you: the sharing of knowledge with integrity and joy. You come into a place with a world of learning instantly available at your fingertips, with passionate guides to help you on your way.
The most loved book on my shelves at home is a worn and tattered copy of Harry Potter, each ding and blotch is a reminder of the many journeys we have taken together, the innumerable lessons it has taught me. This bookstore is much the same to me-- the scars in the brick, the mixing of new and old structure, all stand testaments to the generations of readers it has served and grown with.
By Kendall
Let me clarify that I mean Indie as in independent not in the coffeeshop-macbook-eccentric-dressing sort of way (though we do enjoy those customers when they come in). I say it's hard because sometimes it seems that no matter how hard we work, we will inevitably be replaced by online book buying or giants like Barnes & Noble. But really, the extreme pleasure outweighs that struggle. I am endlessly grateful to be a part of this legacy of a bookstore, which prides itself on its relationships with customers more than anything else. Every day we get to have one on one conversations with the variety of people we have coming into the store, and in this way, we learn so much about what the public holds close. We hear about the passions of one couple to push for a better health care system, the dreams of another to be a writer someday, and sometimes we can even help them get on their way.
That's my favorite part about this store. It's been around for 42 years and has yet to become complacent or stagnant. We continue to back local artists and writers who are just getting started, sell tickets to local events, work with charities and promote reading among children by supporting schools and educators. Grass Roots has worked hard to serve the changing needs of the community; in one way by selling Kobo e-readers, which in my opinion is the e-reader that was made for true readers in mind. Many things have stayed the same though, like our monthly book club and our continuing tradition of author events.
My point in discussing all these things is to remind you what is magical about small bookstores. That as soon as you walk in, you are among family -- people who share a love and commitment to the same things as you: the sharing of knowledge with integrity and joy. You come into a place with a world of learning instantly available at your fingertips, with passionate guides to help you on your way.
The most loved book on my shelves at home is a worn and tattered copy of Harry Potter, each ding and blotch is a reminder of the many journeys we have taken together, the innumerable lessons it has taught me. This bookstore is much the same to me-- the scars in the brick, the mixing of new and old structure, all stand testaments to the generations of readers it has served and grown with.
By Kendall
Saturday, September 14, 2013
HOLY MOLY NEW MUSIC
We got in an abundance of new music this week, which is exciting not only because we now have new demos to play but also because we know you've been dying for new music too!
Big E: Salute to Steel Guitarist Buddy Emmons
Surrounded
The Worse Things Get the Harder I Fight -- Neko Case
These Changing Skies -- Elephant Revival
After the Fair -- Tish Hinojosa
World Boogie is Coming --North Mississippi Allstars
Silver Gymnasium -- Okkervil River
Meet Me at the Edge of the World -- Over the Rhine
Long Night Moon -- Reckless Kelly
Sweet Relief 3: Pennies from Heaven
Live at the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco -- Ry Cooder and Corridos Famosos
Feels Like Home -- Sheryl Crow
Privateering -- Mark Knopfler
Tell the Ones I Love -- Steep Canyon Ranger's (My favorite)
Savor Flamenco -- Gipsy Kings
Big E: Salute to Steel Guitarist Buddy Emmons Surrounded The Worse Things Get the Harder I Fight -- Neko Case These Changing Skies -- Elephant Revival After the Fair -- Tish Hinojosa World Boogie is Coming --North Mississippi Allstars Silver Gymnasium -- Okkervil River Meet Me at the Edge of the World -- Over the Rhine Long Night Moon -- Reckless Kelly Sweet Relief 3: Pennies from Heaven Live at the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco -- Ry Cooder and Corridos Famosos Feels Like Home -- Sheryl Crow Privateering -- Mark Knopfler Tell the Ones I Love -- Steep Canyon Ranger's (My favorite) Savor Flamenco -- Gipsy Kings
MATT THE ELECTRICIAN AND IAN DOESCHER
The wonderfully talented and hilarious Matt the Electrician will be performing at the Harris Bridge Winery at 7pm on September 27th! We can't wait to go, and we hope you come out too. I've seen him live twice before and he's one of my favorite performers, funny insightful and kind, he always puts on a good show!
Plus, look at him with his awesome beard holding a chicken!
Also coming soon is Ian Doescher. His delightful take on Star Wars through the words of Shakespeare has been a huge hit and we're so lucky to have him coming to the store on October 12 at 2:00 pm. He'll be talking about the book and singing copies so come on down!
Plus, look at him with his awesome beard holding a chicken!
Also coming soon is Ian Doescher. His delightful take on Star Wars through the words of Shakespeare has been a huge hit and we're so lucky to have him coming to the store on October 12 at 2:00 pm. He'll be talking about the book and singing copies so come on down!
FALL IN CORVALLIS
With the arrival of September we're all in the mood for fall over here! I'm prematurely donning boots and sweaters even though it's still plenty hot, but it's worth the discomfort. Start getting in the mood with us! Grab a pumpkin latte at New Morning Bakery and pop on over to Grass Roots and check out the tons of new titles we just got in.
Fall coming in also means some great events in Corvallis:
Corvallis Farmer's Market continues Wednesdays and Saturdays through November
OSU Football August through November
Quilt County 2013 August through October
Cycle and Sip September 1-21
Corvallis Beer Week September 9-15
Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire September 14-15 (Neé and I are working and so bummed to be missing it, so come in and tell us all about it!)
Rhapsody in the Vineyard September 21
Corvallis Fall Festival September 28-29
U-Pick Pumpkins & Corn Mazes (Neé's favorite) October
The Great Pumpkin Run October 13
Halloween with Harry [Potter] (Kendall's favorite) October 27
Trick or Treat Downtown October 31
Neé is so excited for picking pumpkins and doing the mazes, while I can't wait to attend my first Halloween with Harry (where the OSU Symphony Orchestra plays the music of Harry Potter). Mostly though, I'm excited to see the way this town is beautifully transformed in autumn. There are already some leaves changing color and falling to the ground. Their golden and fiery hues make fall seem more like a season of life and rebirth, than of death. And the beauty makes school starting up again a little more tolerable.
Fall coming in also means some great events in Corvallis:
Corvallis Farmer's Market continues Wednesdays and Saturdays through November
OSU Football August through November
Quilt County 2013 August through October
Cycle and Sip September 1-21
Corvallis Beer Week September 9-15
Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire September 14-15 (Neé and I are working and so bummed to be missing it, so come in and tell us all about it!)
Rhapsody in the Vineyard September 21
Corvallis Fall Festival September 28-29
U-Pick Pumpkins & Corn Mazes (Neé's favorite) October
The Great Pumpkin Run October 13
Halloween with Harry [Potter] (Kendall's favorite) October 27
Trick or Treat Downtown October 31
Neé is so excited for picking pumpkins and doing the mazes, while I can't wait to attend my first Halloween with Harry (where the OSU Symphony Orchestra plays the music of Harry Potter). Mostly though, I'm excited to see the way this town is beautifully transformed in autumn. There are already some leaves changing color and falling to the ground. Their golden and fiery hues make fall seem more like a season of life and rebirth, than of death. And the beauty makes school starting up again a little more tolerable.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Grass Roots' Green Thumb
As I observe the streets and neighborhoods of Corvallis, the abundance of home gardens, edible front yards, and native landscaping makes me feel a little at home. It's a good feeling. Coming from Austin, I am no stranger to growing my own food. Even in the strangest places people find ways to grow their own food. While I totally love going to the Farmer's Market and supporting local farms, I also love, am obsessed with, and thoroughly enjoy getting my hands dirty. So I like to subsidize my diet with food I grow myself. It saves a little money, but more importantly, keeps me busy with a mentally and physically stimulating hobby.
Through my years in Texas, I was able to garden in many different settings - nice big back yards, teeny weeny ones, concrete balconies and even community gardens. I've learned a lot but, I still need guidance sometimes, okay, a lot of times.
While the gardening culture does remind me of the hot box I once called home, the weather and growing season here are very different. In a good way. I am uber-excited to learn this new territory and dive into Pacific Northwest gardening. What better way to get educated and acquainted than with a solid, regional guide? Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon, fits the bill.
It should be a staple in the gardener's library and is a great reference for choosing the right vegetable variety as well as creating rich soils, controlling pests, proper irrigation and four season harvesting. Solomon has a fluid voice and is easy to follow. You can tell he definitely knows what he's talking about. Actually reading through the entire book is very helpful and he has a lot of great tips, but he also wants home gardeners to use methods that are good for them and explore and learn on their own. What I will use most, and like best about this book, is the instruction on cultivation for each vegetable. It helps to plan what I will try to grow myself (i.e. what I have space for, will be abundant, is easy/difficult) and what I will buy from local farmers (things that just aren't practical or cost effective for me at home).
The thing about gardening books is that there are a whole lot of them. It can seem you're swimming in a sea of opinions and methods. How do you know which is best for you? My answer is usually found in having a few that I use in companion with each other. While I will most likely wear out the pages of Solomon's book for it's cultivation reference, when it comes to soil and planting methods, I'm also a big fan of double digging. Which isn't something that Solomon focuses on.
For this reason, I'm a fan of John Jeavons. His book, How to Grow More Vegetables, is in it's eight edition. I visited his research farm in Willits, CA and was impressed. The method he researches and writes about is bio-intensive. In Jeavon's book he makes that method, which is a sustainable form of agriculture found in places all over the world, available to the home gardener and smaller space gardeners. His climate is a little different than ours, but his ideas and methods of sustainable gardening are universal. I know from experience that his methods work.
His books are usually pretty easy to understand, but there have been some criticisms on translating the bio-intensive method in writing. Like I said, it's hard to take just one gardening book and say its the one. By combining a couple, or a few, you are able to learn, start making educated decisions and create a method that works for you. Which is what our relationship with plants is all about.
During the journey of gardening I have learned many things, most importantly is that what you put in, is what you get out. Permaculture is something I started trying to implement because of that. Our relationship with plants, with nature, with the world around us is what Permaculture is all about. But I can't do it perfectly, and sometimes need guidance. Thankfully, Toby Hemenway has made it a little easier for us with Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture.
Hemenway's book explains Permaculture in an understandable and applicable way. I love that the book has lots of illustrated designs to makes planning the garden a little more tangible. Permaculture isn't just about growing food, it's about creating a little ecosystem. His instruction includes incorporating animals into your garden, sustainable water use methods, companion planting, and attracting pollinators. Another unique part about Gaia's Garden is the incorporation of community as your ecosystem. Community is a big part of Permaculture and Hemenway talks about creating community gardening guilds. As much as I love Toby Hemenway, as a renter of a pretty small yard, some of the ideas aren't always feasible for me. (Although I dream of the day I will be able to do all the things he talks about.)
Because I am, first and foremost, a small space gardener, I need books that address those needs. I like to explore project based books and add them to my repertoire of educational/reference books. This works for whatever your first and foremost is. Perhaps you are first and foremost a chicken herder, in that case we have Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom. Whatever your niche is, there's a project book for that. These books usually also include information on cultivation, soil and compost too, but I use them to compliment the more in-depth aforementioned titles.
My top two project books for small spaces right now are Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden, by Andrea Bellamy, and Vertical Vegetables & Fruit: Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up in Small Spaces by Rhonda Massingham Hart.
Andrea Bellamy has a blog about west coast urban gardening called Heavy Petal, and her book is a product of that. It has a lot of great ideas for tiny yards, balconies, using solely containers, or adding containers to what you already have. The best aspect of this book is the design ideas. The pictures of the gardens are really beautiful and have sparked my creative side. It's very much like edible landscaping and she give tips on what to mix together to both produce food and be aesthetically pleasing. She includes practical things about rotating your beds seasonally and how to save money using reclaimed materials as well.
Rhonda Massingham Hart's book on vertical veggie and fruit gardening is also really great. The chapters are broken up by fruit/vegetable so I can peruse, or flip to exactly what I'm looking for. The trellising techniques she presents are really creative and have given me a lot of great ideas. She helps to open the door on some space loving fruits and veggies I didn't think I could fit into my yard.
When it comes to niche and project based books the possibilities are endless and the creative inspiration they offer are well worth the purchase. But, they alone do not a great garden make. Gaining a greater, in- depth understanding of multiple methods and concepts from people like Steve Solomon, John Jeavons, and Toby Hemenway are also key to growing great grub! Good luck in your gardening adventures!
Through my years in Texas, I was able to garden in many different settings - nice big back yards, teeny weeny ones, concrete balconies and even community gardens. I've learned a lot but, I still need guidance sometimes, okay, a lot of times.
While the gardening culture does remind me of the hot box I once called home, the weather and growing season here are very different. In a good way. I am uber-excited to learn this new territory and dive into Pacific Northwest gardening. What better way to get educated and acquainted than with a solid, regional guide? Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon, fits the bill.
 |
| Steve Solomon |
The thing about gardening books is that there are a whole lot of them. It can seem you're swimming in a sea of opinions and methods. How do you know which is best for you? My answer is usually found in having a few that I use in companion with each other. While I will most likely wear out the pages of Solomon's book for it's cultivation reference, when it comes to soil and planting methods, I'm also a big fan of double digging. Which isn't something that Solomon focuses on.
 |
| Jeavons's Willits Research Farm |
His books are usually pretty easy to understand, but there have been some criticisms on translating the bio-intensive method in writing. Like I said, it's hard to take just one gardening book and say its the one. By combining a couple, or a few, you are able to learn, start making educated decisions and create a method that works for you. Which is what our relationship with plants is all about.
During the journey of gardening I have learned many things, most importantly is that what you put in, is what you get out. Permaculture is something I started trying to implement because of that. Our relationship with plants, with nature, with the world around us is what Permaculture is all about. But I can't do it perfectly, and sometimes need guidance. Thankfully, Toby Hemenway has made it a little easier for us with Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture.
 | |
| Hemenway's Permcaculture Diagram |
Because I am, first and foremost, a small space gardener, I need books that address those needs. I like to explore project based books and add them to my repertoire of educational/reference books. This works for whatever your first and foremost is. Perhaps you are first and foremost a chicken herder, in that case we have Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom. Whatever your niche is, there's a project book for that. These books usually also include information on cultivation, soil and compost too, but I use them to compliment the more in-depth aforementioned titles.
My top two project books for small spaces right now are Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden, by Andrea Bellamy, and Vertical Vegetables & Fruit: Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up in Small Spaces by Rhonda Massingham Hart.
 |
| Andrea Bellamy growing wheat! |
 |
| Neat vertical technique. |
When it comes to niche and project based books the possibilities are endless and the creative inspiration they offer are well worth the purchase. But, they alone do not a great garden make. Gaining a greater, in- depth understanding of multiple methods and concepts from people like Steve Solomon, John Jeavons, and Toby Hemenway are also key to growing great grub! Good luck in your gardening adventures!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Lit-Mag-Love-Train
I love literary magazines. It isn’t hard to do. They’re packed with beautiful and strange and provocative material. I love them! So much! For the times they make my chest feel wonderfully inadequate, and for those when I have to squirm, often in awe, and for others when I don’t know what to know, or to think, really, except that there’s something to the words that I can’t keep myself from wanting.
I want as many people on my lit-mag-love-train as I can get; there are quite a few already, but I’m greedy: I want more. And it’s not even my train, I’m just a passenger. But I’m on it, I’m snacking, it’s fun, I’m meeting stories, poems and essays, reviews, critiques, interviews, sometimes people I know, a lot of times not. I make friends. I’m not the most outgoing person, but stories
(stories because they’re what I tend towards, although I’ve been lately very much enjoying interviews in The Paris Review, the reading of them feeling to me a little how I do when walking around at night as people’s curtains are wide and house innards visible, which is to say completely curious and sometimes covetous and other times comforted, maybe a little freaked out, as freaky as it may be to read what I’ve just revealed, but it’s true: I like to see what people are doing, or what a room does by itself, and interviews, in their many ways, provide that same satisfaction, about heads and processes and approaches; also, I’ll take any tight poem that wrings its extra out and leaves me with chewy, rich prose, which, really, is what I look for in stories, too, so we’re back, at last, to what I started with),
stories have a way of making me feel at home, even when I’m unfamiliar with the structure. But when I’m unfamiliar, I’m curious, so come the questions, to which I receive answers, or part of one, or nothing, really, that I can do much with at all, but even then, these bodies have invited me to ask, which is some of the most fun, revelatory engagement: how does the writer make this feeling in me, how does this character get away with saying that, how can something so mundane and originally familiar be suddenly so tilted and terrifying? How! Do! They! Do it?!
I sound a little like a nut. I’m some of one, sure.
Before I worked at G. Roots, I grew up visiting here, brought by parents to pick through kids’ books and, later, coming on my own to wander the store until I remembered a day contains time and tasks within its time needing done and then, because I’d lost all track of things, I skedaddled. And then I came back. This happened in high school, in college on breaks to home, and then when I moved home but worked elsewhere, and then again during times back from grad school, and now that I’m here and one of the GR bees I get to be with the shelves every day I’m in, and then on some days I’m not expected, too, because I just can’t help myself. All my time in here was, and is still, research – isn’t that the best? That all these guts be things that, to interact with, will yield good, even if I don’t always like or get it, and then the times that I do. Still, at some point down some road, I’ll benefit from having run into the material, I know it, I’ve felt it, I’ll feel it again. It’s fantastic.
So maybe I’m not so much a nut as I am a smart cookie. Like one of those from the bakery two doors down, built of super dough full of seeds and carob and the sweet and the salt and the nuts, slivers of them, or meal, for texture, taste. Maybe.
Are you on my train yet? Have you heard its horn? Are you making your hands like a megaphone and yelling CALYX as we blow past, Corvallis, or is there a toot that sometimes sounds like a tone the eco(system) would make, or others like something tin, maybe a house in our valley’s rain and wind, and sometimes you can tell that it’s not in Paris anymore, though that’s where it began, that lilt. Sometimes it’s public. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s normal, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s the way a box might sound, a coffin, maybe, if somehow you got in it and shouldn’t have and were doing your best, then, to get out. To sound the alarm. Some! Are! Jubila(n)t! Others strictly poet(ry)ic.
In college, then grad school, I got myself into all the bookstores I could find, which, in grad school, in my little Wyoming town alone, made for four independents and a Hasting’s box, cruising their contents, looking not only for books but lit mags, too, old ones, new ones, going home and searching online for them, taking any found to my basement to cull, erecting towers of them on the bedside table. Researching. Because each one is an anthology, a sampler, of what the editors found interesting, what they felt fit their call for submissions, if they had one; what, at the heart of it all, moved them. It’s insightful stuff, seeing what moves people, and if you’re writing, that kind of information is indispensable. You might be hoping to publish. You might be hoping to start your own little animal to put on the train or maybe to have in your yard, to feed, to exercise, to love. Perhaps you’re hoping for direction. Perhaps you’ll find just the place that’s been looking for you, and you it.
This town, beaver as it is, is one lucky duck, too, beefy with writers, many of whom work at the university, and many in the MFA Program in Creative Writing. MFA meaning, among other things, even more writers working on collections or novels or chapbooks and, writers, am I lucking into you reading this? Will you be visiting us to find not only the books but the literary magazines, too, ready here to inspire, full of what the big guns and kids are doing these days with language and story, dripping with discoveries. And then: just who will you find who wants to eat your story or poem or essay because it’s too good to let go once received? Come and decide! Do you see this? Visit! We’ll sweeten the deal, up the ante, ticket you for the lit-mag-love-train by offering a discount to students who come for a journal and mention their studentness. Like: Hey, I’m in the MFA. Or: Hey, I’m in high school and dig journals. Or: Get this, I’m in undergrad and this whole literary magazine thing really, really revs me, you know? I know. I’ve been there. I’m there right now, which is here, ready to welcome all you about to stream in. To point you to shelves and hear your suggestions for more journals. I will nerd out about literary magazines with you any time you want. Seriously. And remember, I’m not the most outgoing. But when it comes to this, if nothing else, I grin a lot and flap my hands and yeah, I ooo and ahhh and point and elbow and everything. Whatever it takes to get you stoked about these gems with me, supporting writers sticking their prosey, poetic necks out, and editors and/or publishers sticking out their pockets, and all of them their hearts, giving us these thoughtfully arranged words to build worlds in our heads and make us feel.
I want as many people on my lit-mag-love-train as I can get; there are quite a few already, but I’m greedy: I want more. And it’s not even my train, I’m just a passenger. But I’m on it, I’m snacking, it’s fun, I’m meeting stories, poems and essays, reviews, critiques, interviews, sometimes people I know, a lot of times not. I make friends. I’m not the most outgoing person, but stories
(stories because they’re what I tend towards, although I’ve been lately very much enjoying interviews in The Paris Review, the reading of them feeling to me a little how I do when walking around at night as people’s curtains are wide and house innards visible, which is to say completely curious and sometimes covetous and other times comforted, maybe a little freaked out, as freaky as it may be to read what I’ve just revealed, but it’s true: I like to see what people are doing, or what a room does by itself, and interviews, in their many ways, provide that same satisfaction, about heads and processes and approaches; also, I’ll take any tight poem that wrings its extra out and leaves me with chewy, rich prose, which, really, is what I look for in stories, too, so we’re back, at last, to what I started with),
stories have a way of making me feel at home, even when I’m unfamiliar with the structure. But when I’m unfamiliar, I’m curious, so come the questions, to which I receive answers, or part of one, or nothing, really, that I can do much with at all, but even then, these bodies have invited me to ask, which is some of the most fun, revelatory engagement: how does the writer make this feeling in me, how does this character get away with saying that, how can something so mundane and originally familiar be suddenly so tilted and terrifying? How! Do! They! Do it?!
I sound a little like a nut. I’m some of one, sure.
Before I worked at G. Roots, I grew up visiting here, brought by parents to pick through kids’ books and, later, coming on my own to wander the store until I remembered a day contains time and tasks within its time needing done and then, because I’d lost all track of things, I skedaddled. And then I came back. This happened in high school, in college on breaks to home, and then when I moved home but worked elsewhere, and then again during times back from grad school, and now that I’m here and one of the GR bees I get to be with the shelves every day I’m in, and then on some days I’m not expected, too, because I just can’t help myself. All my time in here was, and is still, research – isn’t that the best? That all these guts be things that, to interact with, will yield good, even if I don’t always like or get it, and then the times that I do. Still, at some point down some road, I’ll benefit from having run into the material, I know it, I’ve felt it, I’ll feel it again. It’s fantastic.
So maybe I’m not so much a nut as I am a smart cookie. Like one of those from the bakery two doors down, built of super dough full of seeds and carob and the sweet and the salt and the nuts, slivers of them, or meal, for texture, taste. Maybe.
Are you on my train yet? Have you heard its horn? Are you making your hands like a megaphone and yelling CALYX as we blow past, Corvallis, or is there a toot that sometimes sounds like a tone the eco(system) would make, or others like something tin, maybe a house in our valley’s rain and wind, and sometimes you can tell that it’s not in Paris anymore, though that’s where it began, that lilt. Sometimes it’s public. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s normal, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s the way a box might sound, a coffin, maybe, if somehow you got in it and shouldn’t have and were doing your best, then, to get out. To sound the alarm. Some! Are! Jubila(n)t! Others strictly poet(ry)ic.
In college, then grad school, I got myself into all the bookstores I could find, which, in grad school, in my little Wyoming town alone, made for four independents and a Hasting’s box, cruising their contents, looking not only for books but lit mags, too, old ones, new ones, going home and searching online for them, taking any found to my basement to cull, erecting towers of them on the bedside table. Researching. Because each one is an anthology, a sampler, of what the editors found interesting, what they felt fit their call for submissions, if they had one; what, at the heart of it all, moved them. It’s insightful stuff, seeing what moves people, and if you’re writing, that kind of information is indispensable. You might be hoping to publish. You might be hoping to start your own little animal to put on the train or maybe to have in your yard, to feed, to exercise, to love. Perhaps you’re hoping for direction. Perhaps you’ll find just the place that’s been looking for you, and you it.
This town, beaver as it is, is one lucky duck, too, beefy with writers, many of whom work at the university, and many in the MFA Program in Creative Writing. MFA meaning, among other things, even more writers working on collections or novels or chapbooks and, writers, am I lucking into you reading this? Will you be visiting us to find not only the books but the literary magazines, too, ready here to inspire, full of what the big guns and kids are doing these days with language and story, dripping with discoveries. And then: just who will you find who wants to eat your story or poem or essay because it’s too good to let go once received? Come and decide! Do you see this? Visit! We’ll sweeten the deal, up the ante, ticket you for the lit-mag-love-train by offering a discount to students who come for a journal and mention their studentness. Like: Hey, I’m in the MFA. Or: Hey, I’m in high school and dig journals. Or: Get this, I’m in undergrad and this whole literary magazine thing really, really revs me, you know? I know. I’ve been there. I’m there right now, which is here, ready to welcome all you about to stream in. To point you to shelves and hear your suggestions for more journals. I will nerd out about literary magazines with you any time you want. Seriously. And remember, I’m not the most outgoing. But when it comes to this, if nothing else, I grin a lot and flap my hands and yeah, I ooo and ahhh and point and elbow and everything. Whatever it takes to get you stoked about these gems with me, supporting writers sticking their prosey, poetic necks out, and editors and/or publishers sticking out their pockets, and all of them their hearts, giving us these thoughtfully arranged words to build worlds in our heads and make us feel.
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