Turnstone Books of Oregon

08/06/2025

Oregon Authors:
Just a reminder that Turnstone is still accepting submissions for a companion anthology to "The Grace of Oregon Rain" to be called "Just Imagine: Oregon Horizons." Submit up to three poems in any form. Accompanying art will be eligible if in black and white. Work may have been previously published. If so, please include with your brief author bio a citation to its prior publication.

Some of you have wondered about the scope of this theme's focus. I'll include here 2 poems, both copyrighted by the author, to illustrate this idea of "looking out." I was hoping for more poems on our desert regions, farm regions, streams and waterfalls (say, looking out from under a waterfall), and mountains.

Penelope Scambly Schott

Here in Central Oregon Where the West Really Begins

Here in Central Oregon Where the West Really Begins

At the farthest east edge of the Mount Hood forest,
high over Fifteen Mile Creek, an open spot on the ridge:
long view of the home valley, past the last stand of trees,
toward rows of golden hills in the country of dry wheat.

At the east end of the valley past dwindling ponderosas,
a tidy march of orchards crests the rise, and two lines
of crowded cottonwoods squeeze the moving creek
past Ramsey Grange, down, gently now, down, through

the Dufur Valley on into town, small houses clustered
between hand-planted trees, hedges and lawns, the green
of good intentions, churches and school, post office flag,
hardware and grocery store, just one bar. Here in Dufur,

ranchers and wheat farmers drink coffee. Up in the fields,
cows munch wheat stubble. And this morning Mount Hood
glows freshly white, rising higher than silver grain elevators,
than meadowlark song in June, into a wide and perfect sky.

Everyplace is someplace, but this is where places meet.
Stop. From here you almost feel the planet rolling east.

Ruth F. Harrison

Night Lights

It’s 2:13 and she is not asleep

but trying. She’ll go warm herself some milk,

sit with the quiet, and look across the waves,

inhale the pine tree scent, and pause before

returning to her bed, take Christmas in:

plug in the lights, enjoy the silence, night,

the distant sound of surf, here near the glass.

The pane exhales a cool light essence, fresh

against her face.

She seems the only one

alive, awake here long before the dawn,

and watching the deep waves she knows are there

only because it’s west—that’s where waves are.

Across the black... nothing alive in sight.

And moments pass in solitude and dark

But now a spark appears and disappears

appears again. A crabber out there in

December’s endless night, his worklights bright.

On impulse, she unplugs the Christmas tree

and plugs it in again, to say hello

to light that speaks to her across five miles.

Three times the light blinks back, and she repeats

her greeting to the worker in the cold

before the boat is hidden by a surge

and swell of waters. She lets go that breath

when light appears again, and sparks in sign

of living presence in that larger earth

the darkness opens.

A repeat flash says:

We’re all right here because the land is there

And every soul’s alone, but that is how

life is for all of us who’ve had the luck

to be born, and will have the luck to die.

We know you’re there, the only spark in sight

this holiday. And thank you for the light.

Please submit your poems in a Word compatible attachment, not a PDF. The deadline is June 18. Turnstone's email address is [email protected]'t forget a brief author bio.
Best regards, Sandra Mason

04/06/2025

Café’ Chill in Waldport proudly announces a new monthly series by Oregon Legacy Author Alexandra Mason called PRO-TIPS. Each third Saturday at 2 p.m. Dr. Mason will discuss the writing process for one of her books, giving professional advice on all aspects of prose and poetry authorship. Signed copies of her books will be available as well.

June 21 debuts PRO-TIPS with a discussion of the classic local novel, “The Lighthouse Ghost of Yaquina Bay.” Topics include writing from a historical source and using the specifics of place.

July 19’s discussion covers “A Handbook for Love,” a coherent series of literary/philosophical essays outlining a plan for finding and living a happy and productive life in troubled times.

August 16 focuses on the innovative novel “Shakespeare’s Pipe,” which incorporates fantasy with fact and is grounded in literary wisdom offered by the famous Bard of Avon.

September 20 brings us to poetry. Dr. Mason will illustrate writing in poetic forms as a way to heal oneself in times of life crisis, including grief and aging. She will demonstrate the joys and comforts of differing forms as in her “Lost and Found.”

October 18 continues with poetry, finding inspiration in the works of the classic T’ang Dynasty poets. She explains how, as in her “Poems Along the Way,” one might reinterpret a standard from a modern viewpoint while maintaining the artistic integrity of the original.

November 22 expands the series with a discussion of research and scholarship as a foundation for explanatory writing as Dr. Mason reveals the long and fruitful process of her scholarly classic “Shakespeare’s Money Talks,” internationally praised as a breakthrough in scholarship and interpretation.

December 20 explores the art of editing an anthology, illustrating this through the recent volumes “The Grace of Oregon Rain” and “Just Imagine: Oregon Horizons.”

January 17, 2026, caps the series with a look at memorializing a life story through various forms of documentation, focusing on “J. Carl Ellston of Exeter, Missouri.”

All talks take place at Café’ Chill, 540 NE Commercial St, Waldport, OR, at 2 p.m., (541) 819-5041 or 541-563-6263, where wonderful potations and plates are on the menu. See

Alexandra Mason is author, book writer, of literary books, including a novel "The Lighthouse Ghost of Yaquina Bay" and book titles "Econolingua," et al.

11/05/2025

Turnstone Books of Oregon, LLC, announces release of Newport City
Councilwoman and visual artist Cynthia Jacobi’s new volume of poems, “I Know
About These Things.”
The meaning of our lives may occur to us through memory, sensory snapshots of
significant moments: a mattress upended by the curb, hair lost through
chemotherapy caught in a brush, the light fragrance of lavender powder on a
handkerchief. In “I Know About These Things” Jacobi chronicles scenes from her
own life, from childhood to an imagined old age, in subtle and moving poems that
capture these memorial moments. Every woman will recognize many of these
episodes—a girl becoming a woman, the onset of passionate love, disruptive and
disrupted relationships, failings of the body’s health, loss of loved ones, profound
observations about the nature of things through connections discovered in
gardening, art and writing, and received cultural “wisdom” now re-examined. As
award winning poet Penelope Scambly Schott has said, “When Cynthia Jacobi
claims ‘I Know about These Things,’ I believe her.”

The poet will have a conversation about her book, including readings of various
poems, with editor Sandra Mason at Café’ Chill, 540 NE Commercial St.,
Waldport, phone (541) 819-5041 on Saturday, May 17, at 2 p.m.
Books will be available for purchase (cash only), and an Open Mic will follow.

23/04/2025

While we’re still basking in the joyful success of “The Grace of Oregon Rain,” Shakespeare’s birthday seems the right time to begin to gather poems by Oregon authors for a new anthology, “Just Imagine: Oregon Horizons” (Turnstone Books of Oregon, LLC).

Our state landscape is gloriously diverse, and who we are as Oregonians who “landed here” grounded in a long-vision, of the vast Pacific, of the Eden at the end of the Oregon Trail, of volcanic peaks, of high desert open spaces, of rollicking streams and misty waterfalls. How does this landscape shape us? What visions do you have of our geography and its significance to our past, present, future? How do we live with such horizons?

How do our horizons call to us, speak to us, as “land of the golden west” and “land of the setting sun”? How do they help us make meaning?

Poems in all forms are welcome, but no longer than two facing pages in a 7 x 10 volume (about 72 lines), unless knock-your-socks-off-spectacular. We could decide that together. The volume is open to original illustrations that can be effectively reproduced in black and white. These should be more than 300 dpi.

I am also soliciting submissions for an appropriate cover design.

Please submit up to 3 poems and 2 illustrations in an email attachment to [email protected], subject line HORIZONS. At this same time, go ahead and include a short biographical statement for the back pages of the volume.

Let’s make a deadline of June 18, 2025, my birthday (easy to remember), and we can aim for a fall publication and some public readings, which are the best part.

Feel free to distribute this call to other poets.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again,

Alexandra (Sandy) Mason

06/04/2025

Turnstone Books is thrilled to announce release of prize-winning poet Cynthia Jacobi's new volume, "I Know About These Things." About this work, Penelope Scambly Schott says "I believe her," high praise indeed. Please congratulate Cynthia when you see her--and buy the book! Write a review! You'll enjoy her mastery of form.

The meaning of our lives may occur to us through memory, sensory snapshots of significant moments: a mattress upended by the curb, hair lost through chemotherapy caught in a brush, the light fragrance of lavender powder on a handkerchief. In “I Know These Things” award-winning poet Cynthia Jacob...