Portland State Magazine Fall 2009

CHARLES D'AMBROSIO An award-winning short story writer and essayist, D'Ambrosio joins the Portland State faculty this winter. The Dead Fish Museum, his second book of short fiction, won the Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Litera– ture and was a finalist for the PEN/ Faulkner Award . The Seattle native is also an accomplished professor of creative writing, having taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. WORK The Dead Fish Museum, short stories; Orphans, essays; The Point, short stories REVIEWERS SAY: "Funny," "Moving," "Soulful," "Really astonishing" EXCERPT "The ancient Chinese man was a brown, knotted, shriveled man who looked like a chunk of ginger– root and ran one of those tiny stores that sells grapefruits, wine, and toilet paper, and no one can ever figure out how they survive. But he sur– vived, he figured it out. .. " - from "The High Divide " People magazine, Good Morning America, and even The Tyra Banks Show all featured Gwartney's newest book, a memoir of her relationship with her daughters. A member of the nonfiction writing faculty since 2004, Gwartney's short stories, per– sonal narratives, essays, and articles appear in magazines and newspa– pers around the country. Her book, Home Ground, edited with husband Barry Lopez, is a unique dictionary of land and water terms. Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters; Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, with Barry Lopez "Profoundly mov– ing," "Harrowing," "Raw," "Un– flinchingly honest," "Builds to a magnificent, hard-won communion" • • "Amanda was getting more sullen the more she sliced her own skin and spilled her own blood, becoming a faint and frightening presence in our household-dark and sultry as a storm just over the mountain. I knew the cutting was more than a release." - from Live Through This Nationally esteemed poet St. John has been a member of the PSU Eng– lish faculty since 1973. A master of both brief lyric and longer narrative poetry, St. John's work has earned the Western States Book Award for Poetry and the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. In 2000 he was a finalist for poetry for both the Oregon Book Award and the PEN West Award. Communion: Poems, 1976- 1998; Dreamer; Love Is Not a Consolation "Idiosyncratic and evocative"; "Trolls fragmented, consciousness-laden waters"; "St. John achieves a calligraphic, haunting efficacy" The answer to everything Is a just peace (So we elected him President) Or better umbrellas That are not afraid" - from "Our Lady of Congress," Communion: Poems, 1976-1998 ■ JeffKuechle, afreelance writer, wrote "Oregon's Tour Guide" in the spring 2009 Portland State Magazine. Tom Bissell photograph by Hendrik Dey. All other photos by Kelly James. FALL 2009 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 13