Portland State Magazine Fall 2021

FALL 2021 // 39 bookshelf BOYS OF ALABAMA GENEVIEVE HUDSON ’13 LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING In this debut novel, Hudson breathes new life into Southern goth, following the life of a young boy as he discovers love, magic and the power of all things fried and cheesy. Max explores his masculinity with the “cool kids,” drinking beers and shooting guns, but soon finds his true home with Pan, a mysterious boy dressed in black and dubbed the school witch. Max navigates religion, immigration and young love in the sticky Alabama heat on a journey to discover what’s more important, staying true to your roots, or staying true to yourself. Boys of Alabama was a finalist for the 2021 Oregon Book Awards. It was also named as a Best Book of the Year by Esquire and Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, Lambda Literary and Southern Review of Books. Hudson received an MFA in fiction from Portland State, and has published work in magazines including ELLE, Oprah Magazine, McSweeney’s, Catapult, Bookforum, Bitch and Tin House. Hudson is a visiting fiction faculty member at the Antioch University-Los Angeles MFA Program. —JENNIFER LADWIG MS ’21 FUNERAL FOR FLACA Emilly Prado ’12 FUTURE TENSE BOOKS Emilly Prado retraces her experience coming of age as a prep-turned-chola- turned-punk in this collection that is one part memoir-in-essays, and one part playlist, zigzagging across genres and decades. Co-founder of Portland in Color and director of youth programs at Literary Arts, Prado is a Blackburn Fellow and MFA candidate at Randolph College. A SHIELD FOR THE COLUMBIA RIVER Friedrich Schuler, history faculty AMERICAN HUMANITIES PRESS As the saying goes, history repeats itself, and a quarantine station in Knappton Cove, Washington, sits at the mouth of the Columbia River across from Astoria, Oregon, as a reminder that this region had to manage infectious diseases long before COVID-19 arrived. A timely new book, A Shield for the Columbia River , by Friedrich Schuler offers the stories behind the founding of the Columbia River Quarantine Station. FROM THE CAVES Thea Prieto MFA ’16, English adjunct faculty RED HEN PRESS Sky, Tie, Mark and Teller have been driven into the depths of a cave in the wake of an environmental catastrophe. To survive, they must look to stories of the dead, pieced together from fragmented histories and recycled knowledge. From the Caves , Prieto’s first book, won the Red Hen Press Novella Award. Prieto is a recipient of the Laurels Award Fellowship and her work has appeared in New Orleans Review, Longreads, Entropy, The Masters Review and more. FINDING THE VEIN Jennifer Hanlon Wilde MA ’08 OOLIGAN PRESS Located outside of Portland, Heritage Camp is a summer retreat for adopted international children where adoptees can explore their identities and bond over their shared experiences. When camp counselor Paul goes into fatal anaphylactic shock one evening, everyone believes it to be a tragic accident—well, almost everyone. Hanlon’s debut mystery, published with PSU’s student-run Ooligan Press, stems from her experiences as a nurse practitioner and teacher.