If you loved “Big Little Lies” and “Little Fires Everywhere,” “Girls With Bright Futures” should be next on your list. Writing duo Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman will discuss their debut novel “Girls With Bright Futures” during Northwest Passages on Thursday.
No-Li Brewhouse owner John Bryant discussed the brewery’s recent accomplishments and upcoming goals with Don Chareunsy, The Spokesman-Review's features editor, in a virtual gathering of the Northwest Passages Book Club on Tuesday evening. Spokane was recently named one of the top 50 cities for beer drinkers in the country.
Beer has proven to be a welcome libation during the pandemic, and through the first half of 2020, beer sales in the U.S. increased about 16% compared to the same period in 2019, according to SmartAsset. However, some cities are better than others when it comes to availability, prices and variety of beer.
The result of more than 20 years of research, biologist Sarah Elmeligi’s “What Bears Teach Us” explores the complex behavioral patterns of bears and examines the dynamics of bear-human interactions from the “ursine” perspective. Elmeligi will discuss the special wisdom of bears and the value of incorporating the human dimension.
Cannabis culture wasn’t part of Heather Cabot’s world, and any thoughts she may have had about weed were stoner stereotypes that don’t quite fit in our current environment at all.
Novelist Jess Walter’s latest book was driven, in part, by the “horror of the inequality in income and wealth in America,” both now and when the story is set, he told the Northwest Passages Book Club Monday.
When Maya Zeller was beginning her graduate work as a poetry student in Eastern Washington University’s MFA program in 2005, she attended a student reading where she saw Jess Walter in the crowd.
It’s a turbulent time, driven by a stark, ridged divide in wealth. Peaceful protests erupt in the street, disrupted by violent agitators and police brutality. Women struggle to be treated as equals. Those who feel oppressed by the selfishness of injustice want social change now.
Local and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Jess Walter had always dreamt of becoming a novelist, but journalism came to him first. He couldn’t have asked for a better detour, he said. “It was a great thing for me, to find that sense of curiosity and the deadline chops you get as a writer,” Walter said.
Writing novels is a lonely occupation. But Spokane, which lives up to its reputation as a literary hotbed, boasts a number of talented novelists. Some of the wordsmiths, such as Jess Walter and Chris Crutcher, are close friends. The latter, whose novels include "Loser's Bracket" and "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes," is a vocal fan of Walter.
For Jess Walter, his native Spokane inspired his latest novel, "The Cold Millions." New York, Hollywood and Italy were the scenes of some of Walter's prior novels, but the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 2005 for "Citizen Vince" taps into his hometown for "The Cold Millions." The novel commences in 1909 in Peace Valley Park.
Who says you can't stay home? It's a modification of the Bon Jovi hit, but the bottom line is that Jess Walter has enjoyed a great deal of success as a writer without leaving his hometown of Spokane. Here's a few fun facts about the East Valley High School alumnus.
Candidates for the state's Number 2 executive position agreed Washington needs to reform its tax system, do more to combat racism and hold large companies like Boeing accountable for the breaks they get during a debate Monday night.
For author and journalist Anne Helen Petersen, writing was not a career she consciously pursued from childhood, but it nonetheless came to her. Petersen will discuss her book, “Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation,” in a virtual gathering of the Northwest Passages Book Club at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • With Pac-12 schools opening football practice this weekend, it’s only a matter of time before your Saturdays will be filled with hoping USC will lose. Or something of that ilk. But before then, we still have a few weekends to fill. Starting today. What should we watch?
In honor of the Spokane Symphony’s 75th anniversary, author and journalist Jim Kershner and Spokane Symphony principal trumpet Larry Jess discussed Kershner’s book “The Sound of Spokane: A History of the Spokane Symphony” with arts reporter Stephanie Hammett in a virtual gathering of the Northwest Passages Book Club, Wednesday.
