Hoffman Center Blog

Please join us at the Hoffman Center from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, January 28 for refreshments, a reading and book talk.

Local author Judith Allen will introduce her recently published novel Looking Through Water.

In Looking Through Water, Allen juxtaposes the metaphysical and the mundane in an exploration of human failings and superhuman gifts on the northern Oregon coast in the Forties.

The question of how healing happens has been a fire in the bones for author Judith Allen since her early years growing up on the northern Oregon coast. In fifteen years as Director of the Reed Miracles Center and The Healing Place (an Attitudinal Healing Center) in Portland, Oregon, she has met and sponsored many healers, and learned a great deal about the nature and practice of healing.

Her 30-year career in educational research, writing, speaking and teaching includes a PhD in Psychology of Instruction, publication in many academic journals and magazines, a number of textbooks, and a non-fiction account of her own recovery in the 1980’s from metastasized cancer, The Five Stages of Death and Dying Getting Well. This is her first novel.

She lives in Manzanita with her husband, Jack, and continues to explore the dynamics of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.

Brian Doyle will read from his latest book and first novel Mink River at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, January 15, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Mink River is set on the Oregon coast, specifically the fictional village of Neawanaka, bringing a town to life through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people.
 
The fantastical blends with the natural in this tapestry of small town life that profits from the oral traditions of the town’s population of Native Americans and Irish immigrants.
 
Here’s how one fellow Northwest author describes the book.
“If my high-hearted friend Brian Doyle is trying to avoid the nickname ‘Paddy,’ his wondrous Oregon Coast novel is the wrong feckin’ way to go about it. … I’ve read no Northwest novel remotely like it and enjoyed few novels more. Of an Irishman’s Oregon I am nothing but glad to have wandered, Mink River sings and sings.” –David James Duncan, author of The Brothers K and The River Why.
 
Those who heard Doyle read from his book The Grail at the Manzanita Writers’ Series in 2009 know that we are all in for an entertaining evening.
 
Doyle is also author of Wet Engine and five collections of essays.  His work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, American Scholar, Orion and in the Best American Essays anthologies of 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2005.  He is editor of Portland magazine, the publication of the University of Portland, in Oregon.
January also kicks off a new element of the Open Mic section of these monthly events. For those who are interested, we are adding a suggested theme each month as a possible writing prompt to inspire new work. This month’s theme is “Life in a Small Town.” Local writers are of course welcome to bring whatever 5-minute original piece they would like to share. Nine writers can sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.
 
Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.
 
The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5. (Further information and the 2011 schedule are available here, or contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net).

Terry Brooks will read from his latest book Bearers of the Black Staff at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, October 16, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.
 
Bearers of the Black Staff, released August 24, 2010, quickly reached #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Bearers of the Black Staff is the first of two in a new set subtitled Legends of Shannara. 
 
Brooks has written 25 New York Times bestselling novels in the past 30 years. His groundbreaking The Sword of Shannara became a runaway best-seller in 1977. It was the first fantasy novel to be listed on The New York Times trade paperback bestseller list, where it remained for over five months.
 
Brooks received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, where he majored in English Literature, and went on to earn his graduate degree from the School of Law at Washington & Lee University.
 
The Sword of Shannara took him seven years to finish as he wrote it in time squeezed out of his law practice. After publishing his first three Shannara novels, even though he was hesitant, Terry quit his practice of law to pursue a full-time writing career.
 
Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.
Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines at hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org> and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.
 
The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5.

Stephanie Kallos will read from her book Sing Them Home at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, September 18th, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

 Before coming out of the closet as a writer, Kallos had a varied work history which included many years as a musician and a long career in the theatre as an actress and teacher of voice, speech, and dialects. Her short fiction has received a Raymond Carver Award and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her first novel, Broken for You, was published in 2004; it was chosen by Sue Monk Kidd as a “Today Show” book club selection, and received the Washington State and PNBA Book Awards. Her second novel, Sing Them Home, was published in 2009. A Pacific NW Independent Booksellers bestseller, it was selected as a January ’09 IndieNext title.

 As Nancy Pearl, Seattle head librarian, author of Booklust, and NPR Book reviewer says: “Sing Them Home is simply wonderful. It’s a welcome tonic to those of us who look back with great longing to Anne Tyler’s early novels. . . . that is, those of us hungry for books with quirky, flawed, yet realistic and beloved characters who leap off the page into our arms and refuse to leave. I didn’t want Sing Them Home ever to end.”

Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.

Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

 The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5

John Kroger will read from his book Convictions at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, August 21, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Convictions, subtitled A Prosecutor’s Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves, is a professional and personal memoir that won the Oregon Book Award for creative nonfiction in 2009. The book chronicles Kroger’s decade long career as an assistant U.S. prosecutor working out of lower Manhattan, where he tackled organized crime’s biggest names and lowest operatives.

Kroger is the Attorney General of Oregon. His background includes service with the U.S. Marine Corps Force Recon, a degree in philosophy from Yale University, a law degree from Harvard University, and time as a senior adviser to presidential hopeful Bill Clinton. He has worked as a federal prosecutor, and law professor.

After years of taking down mobsters he needed a break and went on a solo bike ride across the country, attending to his own spiritual needs with as much energy as he fought for the public well-being. It’s this theme that resonates throughout: maintaining his personal convictions while convicting as many criminals as possible. In the end, he lasted longer as a prosecutor than most but eventually burned out and headed west. Still, after only a year of teaching at Lewis & Clark College, he was pulled back into the Enron investigations, and then found himself in the race for state attorney general. After only one year in office he has already fulfilled a campaign promise to establish an environmental crimes task force.

Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.
Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

The reading will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5. (Check out the 2010 schedule or contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net).

Cathy Lamb will read from her latest novel Henry’s Sisters at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, July 17, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

 Henry’s Sisters is a story of strength and reconciliation and change, with a Columbia River Gorge backdrop.

 A Publisher’s Weeklyreview says “Lamb delivers grace, humor and forgiveness…positively irresistible.”

 The Three Tomatoes Book Club blog declares: “If you loved Terms of Endearment, the Ya Ya Sisterhood, and Steel Magnolias, you will love Henry’s Sisters. Cathy Lamb just keeps getting better and better.”

 Previous books include Julia’s Chocolates and The Last Time I Was Me. Her next book, Such A Pretty Face, is due out at the end of July, and Holiday Magic, an anthology with Fern Michaels, comes out in November, 2010.

 Lamb has a B.A. in Elementary Education and a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction, both from the University of Oregon. She was a fourth grade teacher for Beaverton Schools for more than seven years. In addition to writing seven books, she has written about 200 articles as a freelance writer for The Oregonian. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and three children.

 Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.

Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines at hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org> > and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

 The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5. Further information contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net.

The Hoffman Center will host seven Summer Art Camps for kids during the week of Aug. 2-6. All sessions will be held at the Center building at 594 Laneda Ave. in Manzanita. The classes will cost $65 per student, with a separate lab fee added on.

“It’s All in the B-A-G,” a class for kids 5-10, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon each day and be led by Lynn Thomas. Students will perform simple tunes on recorders and boomwhacker, learning the difference between rhythm and pitch, and experiment with a variety of sounds while playing traditional folk songs. Lab fee $10.

“Clay PlayShop,” for ages 7-10, will be held 10 a.m. to noon each day and be led by Glenna Gray. Students will learn coil, ball and slab building techniques and explore surface decoration possibilities, and finally glaze and fire their own pieces. Lab fee $15.

“Dreams and Themes,” led by Mia Steury, will run from 10 a.m. to noon each day. Students, ages 5-10, will explore the secret world of dreams on canvas and create paintings inspired by the vibrant works of Mark Chagall. Lab fee $10.

“In Your Own Words,” for ages 5-10, will be led by local poet Travis Champ from 10 a.m. to noon each day. Students will learn to write their own stories, legends or adventures, and end up making a book to fill with their own words. Lab fee $5.

“Make Your Own Puppets,” will be led by Janet Maher from 10 a.m. to noon. She will teach kids ages 8-12 how to sculpt the head for their own puppet with clay and paper-mâché, paint and decorate a face, add hair, feathers or sequins, then design and attach a cloth body. Lab fee $8.

“Multimedia Extravaganza” will be held 1 – 3 p.m. each day. Leader Nichole Poole will help students experiment with a variety of artistic media. “Come fearlessly and ready for fun,” says Nichole. “There are no rules in this class!” Lab fee $8.

“Hot Off the Press,” for ages 12 and up will also be held 1 – 3 p.m. daily. Sarah Skye Archer will lead students as they write journals and learn to print their own works on the Center’s printing press. Lab fee $5.

A limited number of scholarships will be available, thanks to the support of local businesses and art lovers. Parents interested should ask when registering.

To register download the Kids Camp Registration Form , phone 503-368-3846 or e-mail hoffmancenter@nehalemtel.net. Space is still available, so register now.

The “En Plein Air” workshop at the Alder Creek Farm Conservation Site led by award-winning author Robert Michael Pyle still has room.  Sign up this week and take the opportunity to study with a master, to spend a day that will combine lecture with observation, writing and “workshopping” your words.

Click here http://hoffmanblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/en-plein-air-registration.pdf to print off and complete your registration form and order your lunch. 

 “Imagination and the interior life are all very fine,” says Pyle, “but we should not neglect the fact that we live in a sensual and sensory wonderland whose close observation can only enrich every story, poem or essay.”

Pyle has published hundreds of essays, stories and poems along with fourteen books, including Wintergreen, Where Bigfoot Walks, Walking the High Ridge, and Sky Time in Gray’s River. His latest book, Mariposa Road, is due out later this year. Pyle has his Ph.D. in conservation biology from Yale. He’s won numerous awards to include the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harry B. Nehls Award in Nature Writing, and the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature.

 Alder Creek Farm is a 52-acre conservation site preserved as open space by the Lower Nehalem Community Trust. You’ll have a chance to wander the property for your observations, with views of the bay, an estuary, permaculture gardens, lots of wildlife, and often a herd of elk.

 The workshop will run from 9am to 3pm. The fee is $95, $85 for LNCT members, and includes a box lunch. There is space for 20 participants.  For additional information, or to give us a ‘heads up’ that you’ll be coming, email vwildauer@gmail.com.

 This workshop is a collaboration between the Hoffman Center’s Manzanita Writers’ Series and the Lower Nehalem Community Trust.  To become a member of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust, go to www.nehalemtrust.org.

Jim Lynch will read from his latest novel Border Songs at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, June 19, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Border Songs was picked as one of six finalists for American Booksellers Award for best fiction of 2009. It was also picked as among the Best Books of 2009 by The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, and The Oregonian.

One of his many glowing reviews reads:

“Although I think Border Songs is in a class by itself, I’d also like to offer just a couple of comparisons that give the feel of what a great read this really is. It’s The Big Chill of life on the border, and a cross between The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and T. C. Boyle’s Budding Prospects. Finding a novel that is at once pure fun but literary, and humorous with outstanding character development, can be hard to come by. But Jim Lynch has wrapped it up tightly in this incredible story of life in a border town near British Columbia. All in all, a wonderland of growers, dealers, smokers, and birders! Fantastic!” —Linda Grana, Lafayette Books, Lafayette, California

His first novel, The Highest Tide, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, appeared on several best-seller lists, was adapted for the stage and has been published in eleven foreign markets.

Jim Lynch lives with his wife and their daughter in Olympia, Washington. As a journalist, he has received the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, among other national honors.

Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.

Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines at hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org> > and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5. For further contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net).

Playwright Bryan Harnetiaux will read from a number of his plays at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7pm on Saturday, May 15, 2010, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.
 
He will also conduct a playwriting workshop during the day Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Hoffman Center. Harnetiaux’s play Vesta will be performed at the Hoffman Center on Friday, May 14, at 7:30 pm as a staged reading with local resident and national actor Liz Cole directing and acting in the title role.
 
Harnetiaux, playwright-in-residence at Spokane Civic Theatre, has written over 30 plays, 13 of which have been published, including commissioned adaptations for Dramatic Publishing Company of the stories of Ernest Hemingway (The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Killers) and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Long Walk to Forever). 
 
Harnetiaux’s most recent published play, National Pastime (Playscripts, Inc., NYC) has received professional productions on the West and East coasts.  His cycle of plays on end-of-life (Vesta, Dusk and Holding On ~ Letting Go) are now specially licensed for productions in clinical settings by Duke University’s Institute on Care at the End-of-Life and have been performed throughout the country; these plays have also enjoyed mainstream theater productions. Harnetiaux is an associate member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
 
Following Harnetiaux’s reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.
Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines at hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org> > and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.