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SPRING 2020 // 31 bookshelf 12 LITTLE SPELLS Esperanza Spalding CONCORD RECORDS Former Portland State student Esperanza Spalding won Best Jazz Vocal Album at the Grammys for her album “12 Little Spells,” described by the Rolling Stone as “radically inventive.” This brings the composer, jazz bassist and singer’s Grammy haul to four, including Best New Artist (2011), Best Jazz Vocal Album for “Radio Music Society” (2013) and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for “City of Roses” (2013). Spalding, a Portland native, enrolled in PSU’s music program in 2000 at the age of 16. She later received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, where she earned her bachelor’s degree and was hired as one of the youngest instructors in the college’s history at the age of 20. —JENNIFER LADWIG SAVAGERY Jessica Mehta ’05, MA ’07 AIRLIE PRESS This book of poems reflects on what it means to be indigenous in America today, acting both as a lens and a mirror to the topics of self, loss, love and place. “Savagery” is the ninth book of poetry from Mehta, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is a graduate of PSU’s Ooligan Press program and a poetry editor at Bending Genres Literary Review, Airlie Press and the Exclamat!on journal. THIS PARTICULAR HAPPINESS: A CHILDLESS LOVE STORY Jackie Shannon Hollis MSW ’94 FOREST AVENUE PRESS Described by Cheryl Strayed as “A gloriously wise memoir about one woman’s unexpected path to becoming,” this book follows author Jackie Shannon Hollis as she navigates her desire for children while married to a man who wants none. “This Particular Happiness” tackles the difficulty in making room for love and the nature of a woman’s role as a wife, daughter, sister, counselor and friend. Hollis is a graduate of PSU’s social work program. THE MYSTERIOUS SOFÍA Stephen J. C. Andes ’04, MA ’06 UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS In “The Mysterious Sofía,” author Stephen J. C. Andes uses the remarkable story of Sofía del Valle to tell the history of the power shift in Catholicism from north to south and the importance of women to its survival. Sofía, neither nun nor mother, was a devout Catholic who resisted religious persecution in an era of Mexican revolutionary upheaval, becoming a labor and education activist. Andes received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history from PSU. REAL DAUGHTER Lynn Otto ’13 MFA UNICORN PRESS Otto’s debut book of poems explores familial love and its entanglements as well as what it means to be authentic. “How is it,” she asks, “we each learn / one story, and every sentence ever after / sounds to us like it belongs to it?” “Real Daughter” was a finalist for the 2020 Oregon Book Award Stafford/ Hall Award for Poetry. Otto, a freelance academic copy editor and writing mentor, received an MFA from PSU.