Now at Looking Glass Bookstore, 7983 SE 13^th Avenue in the Sellwood neighborhood 

Karin Anna, Looking Glass Bookstore owner, welcomes the group with refreshments, a good stack of the author's books and a comfortable setup. She opens the store—normally closed on Mondays—the 4^th Monday evening of each month, to welcome OWC members and the general public to this continuing series of writers reading and talking about different aspects of the writing craft. Organizers of OWC Presents! are excited about the move to Looking Glass Bookstore.  The reading space is bright and ample, complete with a glass wall that faces onto a garden.  (The little red caboose entry to the store belies the spacious rooms beyond.)  And, Karin Anna and her staff are warm and eager to welcome one and all.  Handicapped access is behind the store.

OWC Presents! is a series of FREE workshops for or about writers and writing. Workshops are held the 4th Monday of each month at Looking Glass Bookstore, 7983 SE 13th Ave., Portland (in the Sellwood neighborhood) 

7:00 p.m.

Here's what's coming in 2009

July 27

David Horowitz

David Horowitz, poet and small press entrepreneur, will discuss the advantages to the poet of writing in rhyme and meter; strategies to improve their use; and contemporary rhyme and meter in the Pacific Northwest in his presentation “Improve Your Use of Rhyme and Meter--or How to Avoid the True/Blue, Moon/June Syndrome.”

Horowitz founded and manages Rose Alley Press, which primarily publishes books featuring Pacific Northwest rhymed metrical poetry. His new poetry collection, from Rose Alley Press, is Stars Beyond the Battlesmoke. Other collections, from Rose Alley, include Wildfire, Candleflame; Resin from the Rain; and Streetlamp, Treetop, Star. Many of his poems have been published in fine literary journals, such as The Lyric, Candelabrum, and The New Formalist. Some of his recent essays have appeared in Exterminating Angel and the IBPA Independent, a journal specializing in helping small press publishers. In 2005, David won the PoetsWest Achievement Award. In 2007, he edited, as well as published, the Rose Alley Press anthology: Limbs of the Pine, Peaks of the Range. David gives frequent readings in and around Seattle, where he lives. His Web site is www.rosealleypress.com.

August, 24

Sami Scripter

OWC member Sami Scripter will offer her thoughts on being an unlikely author and provide tips for others who may see themselves in the same light.  Sami and her friend Sheng Yang are the co-authors of Cooking From the Heart:  The Hmong Kitchen in American (University of Minnesota Press, 2008).

Sami has often chosen avocation over vocation. Her interest in other cultures has led her to work in schools with multi-cultural populations, and for non-profits and government agencies dealing with internationals, always with the goal of bringing cultures and people together. Six years ago she retired from the Multnomah County Library system in Portland, Oregon in order to write Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America together with her "second daughter," Sheng.  Cooking from the Heart is the first cookbook to clearly set out the culinary traditions of the Hmong people as well as the cultural significance such traditions hold. The recipes are accompanied by anecdotes, stories, and poems that demonstrate the importance of food and cooking in Hmong culture, and they offer a dramatic perspective on the immigrant experience.