Wordstock Festival 2012

AmeriCymru seeks to promote all things Welsh in the USA. In particular it exists to promote Anglo-Welsh writing or Welsh writing in English. This year we will be featuring author Peter Griffiths and artist Jen Delyth at our stall. Please drop by and say hi :)

The author of Love Is Not Constantly Wondering if You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life self-published a book. Things were nice and quiet for awhile but then for some reason Slate.com wrote a review and for a week the author had the best selling title at Powell’s, which was a big honor and also very weird. Anonymous definitely doesn’t consider themself to be a real author, the kind that sits next to a fireplace drinking bourbon, pounding away on an ancient typewriter while wearing a fancy hat, or who goes to poetry readings, or who has an opinion of Proust. Anonymous created the zine…

THEESatisfaction are Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White. Stas was born and raised in Tacoma, Cat in Seattle and Hawaii. The pair live/laugh/love/dance and create in Seattle, WA. They write, produce and perform their own material, funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics with the warmth and depth of Black Jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke equal parts Elaine Brown, Ursula Rucker and Q-Tip. They met by what was clearly cosmic happenstance at the University of Washington and haven’t stopped the flow since.

-http://www.theesatisfaction.com/

Alex Adams was born in New Zealand, raised in Greece and Australia, and currently lives with her family in Oregon, which is a whole lot like New Zealand minus those freaky-looking wetas. Her debut novel, White Horse, is available now.

Originally hailing from Anacortes, WA, Anne Adams has been a mainstay of Portland music since 2003, playing under the monikers Per Se and Grey Anne, and collaborating in electronica duo Sweater. 

Dean Adams roamed the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea for 35 years before settling down to write a memoir of his first fishing season, Four Thousand Hooks, to be released October 1, 2012 by University of Washington Press. A Seattle native, Dean started his commercial fishing career at the age of 15 in 1972. In the 1990’s he returned to the University of Washington and completed BS and MS degrees in fisheries science. Dean lives with his family in Seattle, WA and Kerikeri, NZ.

Kurt Andersen is author of the critically acclaimed novels True Believers; Heyday, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2008 Langum Prize for the year’s best historical fiction; and national bestseller Turn of the Century. He is also host and co-creator of the Peabody Award-winning public radio program Studio 360, and contributes regularly to Vanity Fair, Time, New York and the New York Times. In addition, he has written for film, TV and the stage; served as a columnist for The New Yorker and editor-in-chief of New York Magazine; and cofounded Spy magazine.

Joelle Anthony’s debut young adult novel, Restoring Harmony, was published in the spring of 2010 and her latest release, The Right & the Real, is available now. Portlanders may recognize Joelle from her days performing in Tony ’n Tina’s Wedding, where she played several roles including Marina Galino and the drunk nun. Joelle is a writer and sometimes-actress who currently lives on a tiny island in British Columbia with her musician husband and two cats. As for the future, their only plan is to avoid real jobs, write and play guitar in front of the woodstove, and live happily ever after.

Kristy Athens’ nonfiction and short fiction have been published in a number of magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. She is the author of Get Your Pitchfork On!: The Real Dirt on Country Living.

David Axelrod’s collection of poems What Next, Old Knife? was published earlier this year. His next book Folly will appear in 2013. Additionally, he has previously published a collection of nonfiction, Troubled Intimacies. His poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Florida Review, Hotel Amerika, Narrative, New Letters, River Styx and Tampa Review, among others. Along with his wife, Jodi Varon, he is the co-founding editor of Basalt: a Journal of Fine and Literary Arts, and the new Eastern Oregon University Low Residency MFA program, which will begin enrolli…

Beth Baker has lived in Denali National Park, the West Bank, Chicago, and Montana, among other places. She mostly writes about home. Beth has a master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and lives in Missoula, MT. Her essay, Migrations, appears in the anthology A Natural History of Now: Reports from the Edge of Nature.

Keith Baker is a native Eastern Oregonian and a former elementary school teacher. He now lives in Seattle, WA where he has been writing and illustrating picture books for the last 26 years. 1-2-3 Peas is his newest book.

Kim Baker will neither confirm nor deny membership in any secret societies. Moving around a lot as a kid taught her two things: silliness is a great way to make pals, and goofy people make the best friends. Kim lives in Seattle with her family and still goofs off…a lot. Pickle is her first book.

Kim Barnes’ first memoir, In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country, received a PEN/Jerard Fund Award, a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, as well as the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. Her second memoir, Hungry for the World, was a Borders Books New Voices Selection. She is the author of three novels: Finding Caruso; A Country Called Home, winner of the 2009 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Fiction, a Book-of-the-Month-Club Main Selection, and named a Best Book of 2008 by The Washington Post, Kansas City Star, and The Oregonian (Northwest); an…

Mac Barnett is the author of several picture books, including Chloe and the Lion, illustrated by Adam Rex, and Extra Yarn, illustrated by Jon Klassen. He also writes the Brixton Brothers series of mysteries.

Samiya Bashir’s second book of poems, Gospel, was a finalist for both the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and along with her first collection, Where the Apple Falls, the Lambda Literary Award. Her poetry most recently appeared in Poet Lore, Michigan Quarterly Review, Crab Orchard Review, Cura, The Rumpus, and Encyclopedia Vol. 2 F-K, and has been honored of late by two Hopwood Awards from the University of Michigan and the Aquarius Press Legacy Award. An Ann Arbor, MI, native and recent NEA Writer-in-Residence at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Samiya teaches creative writing at Reed Colleg…

Det. Christopher Baughman, debut author, moved to Las Vegas at age nine and during the next 10 years experienced life in the rougher sections of town. Never jaded, he followed his instincts for justice and his father’s encouragement and joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department at age 24. While many refused to go back, Baughman has spent most of his 11 years as a cop working the neighborhoods of his youth, in the patrol officer setting for four years, as an investigator with the Gangs Unit, as a Vice Detective, and now as a member of the Pandering Investigation Team (PIT). In 2009, t…

Mark Baumgarten grew up in the small cow-town of Tomah, WI before moving to Minneapolis to pursue his writing career. He eventually settled in the Pacific Northwest where he enjoys the mild winters, the music and the mountains. Throughout the last decade he has served as music editor of Willamette Week and executive editor of Sound, Twin Cities Metropolitan and Lost Cause magazines. His words have also appeared in Spin, The Village Voice, Seattle Weekly and a few other now-deceased publications. He is the author of Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music. He currently…

Bruce Beasley is a professor of English at Western Washington University in Bellingham and the author of seven collections of poems, including, most recently, Theophobia just out from BOA Editions in October 2012; The Corpse Flower: New and Selected Poetry, from University of Washington Press, 2007; and Lord Brain, winner of the 2005 University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series Award. He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Artist Trust, and three Pushcart prizes in poetry. His work appears in The Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from the First …

Sean Beaudoin is the author of Going Nowhere Faster, You Killed Wesley Payne, and The Infects, a YA zombie opus shambling toward you as you read this.

Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune are The Beer Chicks, and they are at the center of the booming craft beer revolution! Their first book, The Naked Pint, has schooled craft beer neophytes and beer lovers alike. Their second book, The Naked Brewer, offers seasonal home brewing recipes and rule-breaking brewing tips! Frequently interviewed by hosts of food and style shows nationwide, Christina and Hallie are widely regarded as the top female beer specialists in the country. The Chicks recently appeared in their own special on The Cooking Channel, Eat This, Drink That, sharing their passion for…

Joe Bianco has written eight books. The most recent, The Story Never Ends, is a memoir of a newspaper reporter.  In his career, Bianco has earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination, a Peabody Award, and a honorary Doctorate of Letters.