Turnstone Books of Oregon publishes high quality literary works primarily by Oregon writers.
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“The Grace of Oregon Rain” — Oregon Coast TODAY
OREGONCOASTTODAY.COM
“The Grace of Oregon Rain” — Oregon Coast TODAY
60+ Activity Center • Newport What Oregonian hasn't grumbled about too many days of rain and then, in another season, prayed for a good, soaking downpour? In a rare gathering, 30 of Oregon's premier poets will read their poems from a stunning new collection, "The Grace of Oregon Rain"&
As Dorothy's editor and publisher, I am sad to report that Dorothy Blackcrow Mack passed away on June 15 of this year.
Dorothy taught at IIT, U. Michigan, Oglala Lakota College, and Linn-Benton CC; and at Oregon Coast CC & OSU-HMSC summer session. She was a contributing editor at Calyx, past director of Writers on the Edge, past president of Willamette Writers Coast Branch, and a long time member of Tuesday Writers. She led creative nonfiction workshops for Willamette Writers and Writers in the Schools programs. She is author of four books, shown below.
Dorothy Blackcrow Mack’s works have been published in Fiction International, Folio, Fireweed, The Literary Review, Shaman’s Drum, Side Show, Spa, Sun, ZYZZYVA, and 13 anthologies. Her poem “Wind Cave II: Time of Emergence” was nominated in 1996 for the Pushcart Prize. She is winner of 26 writing awards, a Walden Fellowship, a 2002 Oregon Literary Arts Council Grant in creative nonfiction, and 2006-09 Writer in Residence at Oregon Writers Colony in creative nonfiction and memoir. Mack won 32 writing awards, published in 20 anthologies; and wrote 35 creative nonfiction works, 9 short stories, 50 poems. and a children’s Christmas story, The Fourth Wise One: Wichoni’s Journey.
Dorothy was a prominent figure in the Oregon Coast literary scene, beloved, and sorely missed.
Here is the lead poem from her collection Anuk-Ite'.
Double-Face Woman
in memory of Ethel American Horse Blackcrow,
Lakota quillworker
They warned me not to dream of her,
Anuk-Ite' the Double-Face Woman,
filled us with terror as young girls,
but after my fifth miscarriage
I didn't care.
Let the other women bead
tiny lizards for their babies,
cut cottonwood twigs for childbirth.
I began to dream for Anuk-Ite'.
I called and called, drank dark
teas, but when she drifted in,
I did not know her
on the right side,
moist lip, bright eye,
for she would not
turn her head.
At last I dreamed fierce
her bone side, reached
right through the black eyesocket
plunged my elbow deep
to pull out all those designs
pricked in the night sky--
quilled whorls and stars--
into my mind.
My arm did not wither
because I did not touch the bone
but I had known darkness
so I was gifted to work
with quills my hand
steady not pierced
by the black barb.
Now in a house
no man may enter
we boil dyes
steaming roots
bitter berry red
wormwood black
ochre yellow
we weave black barbs
& white shafts
our lips moist
swollen
from sucking quills flat
sucking medicine
pahin woskapi
we are fierce
we are childless
men do not bother us
we are sharp
we pierce
we prick
we know the designs
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2024/jun/21/obituary-dorothy-lee-mack-1934-2024/
The shipment has arrived from the printer! So exciting! Mark your calendars and save the date.
JOIN OREGON POETS TO CELEBRATE “THE GRACE OF OREGON RAIN”
RARE OPPORTUNITY TO MEET THIRTY OF OREGON’S BEST POETS
What Oregonian hasn't grumbled about too many days of rain and then, in another season, prayed for a good, soaking downpour? In a rare gathering, thirty of Oregon's premier poets will read at Newport's 60+ Activity Center (Address: 20 SE 2nd St, Newport, OR 97365 Phone: (541) 265-9617) on Saturday, July 27, between 1 and 4 p.m. to celebrate our rain with their poems from a stunning new collection, "The Grace of Oregon Rain," edited by Alexandra
Mason. This spectacular anthology illustrates the metaphorical significance of rain in our daily lives and in Oregon’s history. The rain nourishes our poetic imagination. These poems strive, through metaphor, to clarify the human experience of life in the rain. Our feelings move beyond mere love/hate. At times we grudgingly acknowledge rain’s inconvenience and discomfort, but over all
else we glory in its power of renewal. The collection as a whole comprises a remarkable unity that testifies to the Oregon experience. Neither unremittingly cheerful nor gloomy, the poems place us in homes, on city streets, in forests, and on the coastline, acknowledging our interaction with rain in the present and in our
common imagined past. The rain is perennial; it vexes us, it sustains us, it outlasts us. These poems teach us about life in the northwest and ground us in the reality of that experience and its emotional impact. The collection is a love song to our place and its heritage. With the turning of each page, readers will proclaim a new favorite in the collection. The poems are insightful, humorous, imaginative, visual and sensory, sincere, self-aware, moving, and often profound.
In the end we are left with a sense of negotiated acceptance between ourselves and our rain. Our rain ties us to our place and inclusively forms our character, defines who we are. Please join us to meet these poets and celebrate release of this beautiful collection. Poets will be thrilled to share insights on their writing
process and autograph this volume. Other books by the poets will also be for sale (cash sales preferred). Public welcome!
The Foreword has received acclaim as well:
“What you have written about the anthology is simply stunning, worthy of many readings.” Jeanette Capella
“What a gorgeous anthology! You must be incredibly proud; it clearly represents a huge amount of hard (and heart!) work.” Jennifer Richter
“Your "Foreward" is excellent.” Henry Hughes
This stunning anthology showcases poems by pre-eminent Oregon authors illustrating the metaphorical significance of rain in our lives. Neither unremittingly cheerful nor gloomy, the collection places us in homes, on city streets, in forests, and on the coastline, acknowledging our interaction wit...
Coming soon!
Turnstone Books of Oregon is proud to announce release of a posthumous edition of Shirley A. Plummer's poems. There will be a release party and reading on Sunday, January 28, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Yachats Commons for all who'd like to honor Shirley's artistry.https://www.amazon.com/are-not-far-apart-poems/dp/1737395851/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LS5KTZRWSN3S&keywords=shirley+a.+plummer+we+are+not+so+far+apart&qid=1702407440&s=books&sprefix=shirley+a.+plummer+we+are+not+so+far+apar%2Cstripbooks%2C144&sr=1-1
Coming soon, a posthumous edition of the poems of Shirley Plummer.
I will be speaking to the McMinnville Shakespeare Club on Thursday and then reading and signing books, especially "A Handbook for Love," at the Garibaldi Museum on Saturday--reading at 10:30.
Turnstone Books announces publication of Lila Passarelli's "Dust in My Bathtub." The author chronicles the tale of a couple of city slickers who moved onto forty acres of woods in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon in the 1960s to build their homestead. The adventure serves as an experience steeped in a precise historical moment, and her candid style makes us feel as if she is speaking her story to us. Soon to be available on amazon and barnes and noble.
Proudly presenting alexandramasonbooks.com. Check it out and let me know what you think! via
Alexandra Mason is author, book writer, of literary books, including a novel "The Lighthouse Ghost of Yaquina Bay" and book titles "Econolingua," et al.
Why not tell your favorite authors how much you appreciate their work? Write a review on Amazon or Goodreads to help others get to know their writing. Let's celebrate good literature!
A Turnstone reminder: With "Shakespeare's Pipe" newly released, it's good to remember that "The Lighthouse Ghost of Yaquina Bay" is still available at these vendors: Nye Beach Book House, Sterncastle Publishing (Newport), Well-Read Books (Waldport), Bob's Beach Books (Lincoln City), Cape Foulweather Gift Shop, Burrows House Museum Gift Shop (Newport), Pacific Maritime Museum Gift Shop, Tillamook Pioneer Museum Gift Shop, Yaquina Arts Association Gift Shop (Nye Beach), Eureka Cemetery, Powell's, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Lighthouse Digest Gift Shop (Maine). So grateful for your continued support.
Lovely new review of "Shakespeare's Pipe" by Karen Keltz. Thank you!
"There should be a genre of books called “Just Plain Fun”! Alexandra Mason’s Shakespeare’s Pipe would fit into this category. Once I started reading, I just wanted to keep on reading until I was finished—but I didn’t want to finish, either, because I was having so much fun keeping up with all the twists, turns, and surprises. Shakespeare’s Pipe is part English Romance, science fiction (and modern science), philosophical musings, and mystery thriller, a mélange of delight. Beautiful, original metaphor enhances the story, such as this: “My comment landed with a thud, and silence rose around it like a cloud of displaced dust.” The writer’s style is easy to read and the characters’ voices are very much English. This novel shows how our choices have consequences and not necessarily the ones we think will happen. I loved that the characters quoted Shakespeare at every turn and that every chapter ended with an appropriate Shakespearean quotation. I enjoyed trying to determine in what play each quotation originated. However, you don’t have to be a student or teacher of Shakespeare to enjoy this book. If you like science fiction, modern science, romances, conundrums, or mystery thrillers, you will like this book. I think it is a good candidate to be made into a movie. I highly recommend it."
Copies have arrived and are appearing in bookstores!
Turnstone is proud to announce release of Alexandra Mason's new novel, "Shakespeare's Pipe," which has received high praise from critics in advance reviews: “Mason’s story offers us a plot worthy of the Bard himself—with devious wit, intrigue, and pathos. ‘Shakespeare’s Pipe’ is a page-turner, brimming with the mysteries of genetic codes and surprising plot twists. A stunning insight into the nature of identity and the connection between language and reality, between art and life.” –Ellen M. Caldwell, Professor of English https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1737395819/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3
In “Shakespeare’s Pipe,” forensic scientist Kingsley Armstrong gets the chance to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of England’s greatest bard—at least so it seems in his imagination. Workers repairing the Shakespeare Birthplace discover a smoker’s pipe hidden in the wall behind the main...
What critics say about "Shakespeare's Money Talks": “Shakespeare’s Money Talks" is the kind of reference work I longed for many years ago when I was first captivated by Shakespeare’s metaphors. More than just a fascinating glossary, this study shows why proper understanding of Renaissance art and culture requires that we follow the money: not via marketplace exchanges, but rather thought and speech that either governs or is governed by them.” Lana Cable, author of "Carnal Rhetoric"
What the critics say about "Shakespeare's Money Talks": “Students and teachers, old-fashioned explicators and new-fashioned historians—all will find here a valuable reference work . . . interesting for its own sake.” Jane Donawerth in Shakespeare Quarterly
Turnstone is very pleased to announce release of Alexandra Mason's "Shakespeare's Money Talks," now available on Amazon and by request at your favorite bookstore. In this long-awaited revised and expanded second edition of "Econolingua," now entitled "Shakespeare's Money Talks," Alexandra Mason, Ph.D., offers an easily-accessible classic reference work to all lovers of Shakespeare and his dramatic times: scholars, actors and directors, teachers and students, readers and re-readers, and aficionados of history, culture, and society. Shakespeare's world--and his characters--come to life in this study of metaphor as they self-consciously test the limits of words and their exchange function in establishing social hierarchy, social status and value. Renaissance drama is revealed as a dynamic marketplace of exchange and assessment in which characters discover and test their relational worth. Each glossed term conveniently gives the phrase of its usage in the entry, both the literal and the metaphorical for full illumination. Introductory and supplemental essays catalogue dramatic usage of econolingua (terms related to coins, money, and value) and discuss "Usury and the Right Uses of Wealth" and "Shakespeare's Economics," the impact of a changing system of social value on the structures of his plays.
The study has been compared in scope and significance to Eric Partridge's classic "Shakespeare's B***y." Critics have high praise for the continued relevance of Mason's work, which set the standard for an entire school of economic studies of Shakespeare and his times. This is a volume to be treasured, and consulted regularly. It is itself a treasury of knowledge that leads us to appreciate the dramatic artistry of Shakespeare and his contemporaries ever more profoundly.
shakespeare's money talks alexandra mason
I am saddened to report the death on August 4 around midnight of Ruth F. Harrison, one of the central Oregon coast's premier poets and an editor at Turnstone. She was 92. Ruth was mother of a full family of sons and also earned her doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of Oregon. She and her husband, Fred, taught at Portland State University until they retired and moved to Yachats, where Ruth found her heart's home. In 1990 Ruth founded the Tuesday Writers of Waldport, which was one of the longest continuously-running groups in the state. She is author of several volumes of poetry, including "Namesong," "Bone Flute," "How Singular and Fine," and "West of 101." Her poems appeared regularly in journals like "Harp Strings," "Tiger's Eye," and "The Lyric." Her books are well-worth revisiting. She inspired new writers, helped judge many contests and manuscripts over the years, and herself won several poetry awards. She was named a lifetime member of the Oregon Poetry Association for her long service to them. Our literary community will remember her for inspired, surprising poems, always with a foundation in traditional forms--which she breathed into a new life. Here are two of my favorites:
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.
AND
dark hour and light
I've not yet put my morning spirit on
nor thought in words, nor stretched a dormant leg
but one red cloud insists that it is dawn--
just one-- against a sky of robin's egg.
Under that sky, dark mountain, where the sun's
first rays will break, to cast long shadows down
enfolded slopes, and green-dark forest runs
from mountaintop to rim our sleeping town.
How can I lie abed when all I see
and know exults in its return to light?
The fresh shore spins its foam, the open sea
like a white snow believes in living bright.
And my live heart chants off its one small rhyme:
Hurry up, please-- it's time. It's time. It's time.
A great story on Turnstone author Jean Esteve. https://www.eugenescene.org/at-92-jean-esteve-finally-is-using-her-long-ago-art-degree-from-cornell-and-oh-shes-also-a-published-poet/?fbclid=IwAR3t-mCUc1HVPPxw6TXRmbNqArvlQGErXJUNSyxn3d51lL1AtmTOTaqKgAw
At 92, Jean Esteve finally is using her long-ago art degree from Cornell — and oh, she’s also a published poet Posted by Randi Bjornstad | May 2, 2021 | Art, Poetry | 0 | (Above: A Red Spoon, by Waldport, Ore., artist Jean Esteve) By Randi Bjornstad Although her college degree from Cornell Unive...
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