Spokane-Based Publication Worth Serious Consideration

This may come as no surprise, but I’ll say it anyway: Expectations color our reactions to the arts.

Take literature. When you read a story in a national publication - The New Yorker, say, or the literary journal Zyzzyva - you’re likely to give it a fairer read than if it had been published in a regional or even city magazine.

This is a generalization, of course, but you get my point. We give serious consideration to anything we read in Houghton Mifflin’s annual Best American Short Stories collection while tending to simply dismiss something published out of a Spokane street address.

If we do, though, we’re being unfair. Especially if we’re talking about Kimera, the Spokane-based literary magazine that is published twice a year.

Especially if we’re talking about the winter 1999 issue.

For if nothing else, this issue boasts a terrific little story called “The Jetty” by University of Washington fiction-writing instructor Joel Chafetz. There are other literary nuggets through the issue, but this story is something special.

In exploring a man’s nervousness over his impending fatherhood, complicated by his own negative memories of fatherly neglect, Chafetz creates a story that probes his protagonist’s psyche. More important, he does so in a prose style that is terse, powerful and rich all at once.

Example: “The road is a ribboned slab on a humped tunnel of dirt.”

Or: “On the living room rug she unpacks the supplies she’s brought home along with Kung Pou chicken, chopsticks and the dark Trappist’s ale that once took only a glass to make my head spin and her body seem like summer warmth.”

Or: “The car dives down, then roller coasters up into the air, flying, the rear tires spinning with clouds of gray dirt. A fender grazes the scaly bark of a pine tree. The car flips, a gleam of golden hair vertical to the ground hangs in the loop-de-loop.”

Subscriptions to hard-copy issues of Kimera are $10 (mail to Kimera, 1361 N. Hollis St., Spokane, WA 99210. Or check out the online edition at www.js.spokane.wa.us/kimerav4n2.

Into the Web world

Resolved: Web publishing is the way of the future.

We could debate that proposal the rest of the day, but where would it get us? Why not just attend a workshop on the subject and get the answers for real?

The Seniors Program of the Institute for Extended Learning, in conjunction with the Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers, will hold a free Electronic Publishing Workshop from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Spokane Falls Community College Lodge, room B, 3305 W. Fort George Wright Drive.

John Moore, author of the CD-ROM-published “The Armed Robbery Training Manual,” and Scott Poole, assistant editor of Eastern Washington University Press, will teach such topics as Web publishing, costs and profits and establishing Web relationships with other writers.

Space is limited, so call as soon as possible to reserve a seat (533-3393). And remember, it’s free.

What rhymes with North Idaho?

All you North Idaho readers should circle the April 10 square on your calendars. That’s the date that the new Sandpoint Library will host a special National Library Week/National Poetry Month event at the site, 1407 Cedar St., which will hold its grand opening two days before.

The April 10 event will feature readings by four regional writers: poet and storyteller Carol Jean Rose, fiction/non-fiction writer Sandy Compton, short-story writer Karen Seashore and former Idaho writer in residence Ron McFarland. Call (208) 263-6930, ext. 204.

A piece on Piercy

Here’s more advance notice: Novelist and poet Marge Piercy (“Woman on the Edge of Time”) will speak at Eastern Washington University on April 13 (359-6335).

What’s your signing?

Ivan Allen, author of “Bad Times and Then There Was God,” will sign copies of his book beginning at 1 p.m. today at the Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague (924-0667).

Stephanie Huber, author of “Life in the Canine Lane,” will sign copies of her book beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble, located just east of the Spokane Valley Mall (922-4104).

Phyllis Heinel, contributing author to “Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul,” will sign copies of the book beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Lincoln Heights Hastings, 2805 E. 29th (535-4029).

Luella Dow, author of “Fire in Her Soul,” will sign copies of her book beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday at the North Side Hastings, 7706 N. Division (483-2154).

The reader board

Scott Savage, author of “A Plain Life: Walking My Belief,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).

Randall Beth Platt, author of “The Likes of Me,” will read from her book at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.