July 19, 2009 in Features

Lamon’s second collection of poetry hits local bookstores

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Laurie Lamon, a Whitworth University English professor and one of the region’s most accomplished poets, has just published her second poetry collection, “Without Wings,” (CavanKerry Press, $16).

Donald Hall, the U.S. poet laureate, calls her “an exquisite writer of lyrics … a great poet of inwardness.” Peter Davison, the late poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly, once said that Lamon makes “music” that persuades both the mind and the senses.

She won the 2007 Witter Bynner Fellowship Award from the Library of Congress.

The new collection features 12 poems in Lamon’s “Pain” cycle, dealing with history, religion, loss and survival. You can find “Without Wings” at local bookstores, including the Whitworth bookstore.

‘Paranoia: A Cat’s Tale’

Spokane nurse, children’s entertainer and author Jane Nord has recently released a beautifully illustrated children’s book titled “Paranoia: A Cat’s Tale” (Tate Publishing, $10.99).

It’s about a cat abandoned by the side of the road and rescued by a kindly woman called Gram. She names the little cat Paranoia because it likes to hide in the bathroom.

Nord said it’s dedicated to the “children and small animals of the earth that can’t speak for themselves.”

The book has already won a Mom’s Choice Award. It’s available at area bookstores and online.

Spokane Novelists Group

If you’re an aspiring novelist, you might want to check out the Spokane Novelists Group, a support-critique group open to all.

Participants should bring five to 10 pages to read aloud and six to eight copies to pass around to others.

The next session: Saturday, noon, Spokane County Library, Argonne Branch, 4322 N. Argonne Road. Call Steve Hughes at (509) 590-7316 for more information.

‘Creaky Knees Guide’

Seabury Blair Jr., who has been called “the Willie Nelson of the outdoors set,” will read from his new hiking guide, “The Creaky Knees Guide: The 100 Best Easy Hikes” (Sasquatch Books, $16.95) at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave., on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

It lists relatively easy hikes (and some not-so-easy ones) all over Washington, including 11 in the Spokane area.

Blair was the outdoors columnist for the Bremerton Sun for years and has written a number of hiking guidebooks.

Big Auntie’s week

The last week of July is shaping up to be the biggest of the summer for Auntie’s readings.

Here’s what’s coming up:

• Rick Bass, July 27, 7:30 p.m. – The acclaimed Montana author will read from his new book, “The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana,” a chronicle of life at his cabin on Montana’s Yaak River.

• J.A. Jance, July 29, 7:30 p.m. – The best-selling mystery author will read from her new book, “Fire and Ice,” in which her characters J.P. Beaumont and Joanna Brady join forces.

• Jim Lynch, July 30, 7:30 p.m. – The former Spokane writer (now living in Olympia) reads from his excellent and critically well-received new novel, “Border Songs,” about an eccentric Border Patrol officer from Blaine, Wash.

All readings are free.

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