Authors on the Map Breakfast
Monday, September 19 - 7:45 - 9:00 am
Hotel Murano Venice Ballrooms
(Tickets required)
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Kevin Maloney / The Red-Headed Pilgrim
Portland author and web designer Kevin Maloney’s new novel, The Red-Headed Pilgrim (Two Dollar Radio/IPS), is a provocative, poignant and ultimately hilarious take on love, chance, wanderlust and parenthood. The novel follows the adventures and misadventures of 42-year-old Kevin Maloney, coincidentally a web designer from Portland, in pursuit of enlightenment, meaning and self-fulfillment, not to mention pleasure. His search takes him from Beaverton to San Diego to Helena, Montana, until love changes everything. Kevin Maloney is the author of Cult of Loretta and the forthcoming short story collection Horse Girl Fever, and his short stories have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. Maloney’s employment history is as rich and varied as a character in a novel. The Red-Headed Pilgrim will be published in January, 2023. |
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Janet Yoder / Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of the Lushootseed
The preservation and revitalization of the Lushootseed language is a bright spot on the map of endangered indigenous languages, and is largely attributable to the efforts of one woman – Upper Skagit elder Vi Hilbert. In Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of the Lushootseed (Girl Friday Books/IPS), Janet Yoder draws from numerous interviews and conversations conducted over her thirty-year friendship with Hilbert to pay tribute to the woman whose determination and passion helped to breathe life into her language and culture through teaching, speaking, storytelling and publishing. Janet Yoder’s work has been published in a variety of literary journals, including Chatauqua and American Literary Review. She lives (literally) on the water in Seattle. |
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Neil Cochrane / The Story of the Hundred Promises
Portland writer and artist Neil Cochrane reimagines the tale of Beauty and the Beast in his new novel The Story of a Hundred Promises (Forest Avenue Press/IPS). Exiled from home, trans sailor Darragh Thorn has made a new life among people who love and accept him. Called home to reconcile with his ailing father, Thorn knows he will need the help of a mysterious enchanter to survive the emotional journey ahead, but the enchanter has not been seen in more than a hundred years. Thorn’s quest, aided by magical trees and a wise fox, is a gentle, quirky and affirming fantasy tale. Neil Cochrane’s speculative fiction centers on queer characters overcoming obstacles and building families. He has previously published several novels and novellas under the pseudonym of C. M. Spivey. |
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Andrea Pons / Mamacita
Delicious recipes and a unique backstory make Andrea Pons’ Mamacita: Recipes Celebrating Life as a Mexican Immigrant in America (Princeton Architectural Press/Chronicle) a must-have for any cook’s bookshelf. Pons, born in Mexico and raised in the United States, began the cookbook as a way to celebrate the food she loved growing up. When her family was faced with the possibility of deportation, she turned to the recipes for help, selling self-published copies to help with formidable legal fees. This beautiful new edition features additional recipes and mouth-watering photographs, plus Pons’ commentaries on how food can connect us to our roots, and how a good meal shared can open the path to meaningful conversation. Andrea Pons is a production manager and food stylist; she lives in Seattle. |
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Rick Bleiweiss / Murder in Haxford
Rick Bleiweiss’ sartorially splendid sleuth Chief Inspector Pignon Scorbion returns in Murder in Haxford (Blackstone Publishing) when the bucolic Haxford Spring Fair suddenly turns deadly. Scorbion is called in to investigate as soon as it becomes clear that the balloonist who plummeted to earth died not in the fall, but rather from an arrow lodged in his chest. Once again, the quirky detective is aided by his friends from Calvin Brown’s barbershop in uncovering the dark places lurking in the picture-perfect village of Haxford. Rick Bleiweiss enjoyed a successful career in music, from rock performer to record company director, and has worked in the publishing industry before turning his hand to mystery writing. Murder in Haxford, to be published in February, 2023, is the sequel to Pignon Scorbion and the Barbershop Detectives. |
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Jason Tanamor / Love, Dance & Egg Rolls
Jason Tanamor’s Love, Dance & Egg Rolls (Ooligan Press/IPS), offers teen readers a moving, at times humorous, look at finding your authentic self when your feet are planted in two different worlds. Being a teenager is hard enough, but trying to balance high school and friends with his involvement in Filipino folk dancing leaves Jamie Santiago wondering just who he truly wants to be. Honoring his heritage without losing what’s left of his social life pits Jamie against a racist bully at school and rising racial tensions in Portland. Jason Tanamor is the author of Vampires of Portlandia, Anonymous and Drama Dolls, and his work, often touching on his experiences as a Filipino-American, has been published in over two hundred journals and magazines. Tanamor currently lives in the Portland area. |
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Jenn Reese / Every Bird a Prince
Portland author Jenn Reese’s newest novel for middle-grade readers, Every Bird a Prince (Henry Holt & Co. BYR/Macmillan), is a contemporary fantasy featuring an intrepid heroine. Eren Evers is about to turn thirteen, but she just doesn’t care about all that stuff her friends want to talk about. She loves long bike rides in the woods, and wishes things could be the way they used to be. But Eren discovers just how different her world is becoming when a bird interrupts her solitary bike ride, and asks for her help in saving the bird kingdom. Jenn Reese is the author of the Above World trilogy, and A Game of Fox & Squirrels, named as an NPR Best Book of 2020 and a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards. |
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Lora Senf / The Clackity
Tween readers who like their books hair-raising and goosebump-producing will love Spokane writer Lora Senf’s debut novel The Clackity (Atheneum BYR/Simon & Schuster). Set in the seventh-most haunted town in America, the tale takes young Evie Van Rathe into an otherworld of witches, ghosts and monsters as she tries to rescue her aunt Desdemona, who has disappeared into an abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. That’s where Evie meets and makes a deal with a strange creature called The Clackity: Desdemona’s return in exchange for the ghost of a notorious serial killer. Lora Senf loves reading and writing tales dark and twisty, and credits her love of words to her parents and to the Public Library that was within walking distance to her childhood home. |
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Annie Carl / Nebula Variations
Bookseller and PNBA member Annie Carl makes her debut as an author with Nebula Variations (Extra Solar Press/Vertvolta), a thought-provoking novella about manifest destiny, obligations and one person’s attempts at understanding their disabilities in unexpected new ways. Mari Sparling’s dreams of going to space have always been confined within the pages of the books in her library. So, when she wakes up on a spaceship, centuries in the future, she knows something is seriously wrong. Annie Carl was born with a rare spinal birth-defect and is a Stage IV Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor. She owns and runs The Neverending Bookshop in Edmonds, and regularly visits writing groups and trade shows to advocate for disabled diversity and positive representation. |
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Yuvi Zalkow / I Only Cry with Emoticons
Portland author Yuvi Zalkow’s new novel I Only Cry with Emoticons (Red Hen Press/IPS), named as one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022 by The Rumpus, is a quirky comedy featuring a high-tech worker named Saul who just doesn’t get people. His boss wants to fire him, his ex-wife is miffed, and his seven-year-old son prefers living with his mom and her new man. When a blind date turns into a complicated relationship, Saul begins to realize that all the apps in the world are not enough to keep him connected to the people he cares about. Yuvi Zalkow’s short stories have appeared in a number of journals, including Glimmer Train and The Los Angeles Review; his previous novel is A Brilliant Novel in the Works. |
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Taylor Koekkoek / Thrillville, USA
Thrillville, USA (Simon & Schuster), is Portland writer Taylor Koekkoek’s remarkable debut story collection depicting the lives of Americans living on the margins of society. Set largely in the rural Northwest, Thrillville is as much a state of mind as it is a real amusement park, and the disaffected, underemployed and alienated characters in the nine stories are emblematic of so many in contemporary America. Yet as haunting as these stories are, they are not hopeless. Gorgeously written, they share a transcendental quality—an acknowledgment of and appreciation for the beauty in all things, even the most profane and grotesque. Taylor Koekkoek’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Tin House and elsewhere. Thrillville, USA will be published in March, 2023. |