‘Dissent’ offers writings of notable critics
There’s a lot of talk being thrown about these days equating dissent with treason. Much of it, of course, is put out by talking-head commentators who have something to sell – a book, or a radio or television program.
Opposing that point of view is a book that just crossed my desk. “Dissent in America: The Voices That Shaped a Nation” (Pearson Longman, 788 pages, $35), by Ralph F. Young, a senior lecturer in Temple University’s department of history, includes writings from some of the most distinguished names in American history.
A short list includes Roger Williams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Susan B. Anthony, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Anne Hutchinson, Frederick Douglass, William Jennings Bryan, John Muir, H.L. Mencken and Martin Luther King Jr.
As the book jacket says, “American dissenters have achieved different levels of success, inviting various kinds of trouble, from angry debates, to arrest, to beating and even death as a result of their views. Despite those threats, they hammered away at the powers-that-be until those powers began to listen. Public opinion was swayed. Laws were made. Slavery was abolished. Unions were organized. Women got the vote. The Jim Crow laws were invalidated. And today, many of those who were demonized in their time have now been consecrated by history.”
Adams, for one, certainly spoke treason. But he challenged the status quo in the interests of American liberty, which makes him pretty much a patriot in anyone’s eyes.
All of the dissenters whose words are included in this book railed against one kind of oppression of another, and they all deserve mention.
Write On!
Sandpoint-based Lost Horse Press is accepting registrations for Write On! A Creative Writing Mini-Conference, which is scheduled for Sept. 15 to 17 in Sandpoint.
The conference, which will be held both at the press (105 Lost Horse Lane) and Oden Hall (143 Sunnyside Road), will include poetry and fiction writing workshops, a panel discussion, readings and book signings by the conference instructors: Marvin Bell (author of 17 books of poetry, including “Rampant”), Claire Davis (author of the novels “Winter Range” and “Skin of the Snake”) and Matt Yurdana (author of the poetry collection “Public Gestures”).
Bell’s workshop is titled “Reinventing Free Verse,” Davis’ is “Gravity: Just Another Word for Narrative Tension,” and Yurdana’s is “Considering Line and Stanza Breaks.” All three will participate in the panel discussion, which is titled “How and Why: The Conference Writers Talk About How They Write and Why They Bother.”
Fees are $200. Workshops are limited to 12 each.
To register or find further information, call (208) 255-4410 or go online to www.losthorsepress.org.
Money earned
Of the 52 Washington artists who earned 2006 Artist Trust GAP (Grants for Artist Projects) Awards, only one hails from Eastern Washington. Maria Cristina Rangel was given a $1,400 grant to complete a series of stories that she intends to draft into a novel.
As Rangel told Artist Trust about her work, “As a queer Chicana writer and the daughter of migrant Mexican farmworkers who settled in Washington state, I endeavor to not only produce quality literary work through my writing, but to also speak to my family’s experiences of immigration and migration, and my experience as a queer Latina femme coming of age in the agricultural fields of rural Washington state.”
Happy tales to you
Tired of downbeat literature? Here’s your chance to correct the problem and maybe win some money in the process.
The Montana Festival of the Book, which runs Sept. 28 to 30 in Missoula, is sponsoring a “Happy Tales” writing contest that asks you to “take any literary work with a sad, disturbing, or negative ending and supply a happy, affirmative, uplifting, humorous ending.”
Entries, which “must more or less parody the idiom, style, atmosphere … of the original,” will be judged on humor, insight and quality of parody. Entries must be 10 pages or less and can be submitted by post (Happy Tales, Montana Festival of the Book, Montana Center for the Book, 311 Brantly Hall, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812-7848) or by e-mail ( humanities.mt@umontana.edu).
Deadline is Sept. 1. The overall winner earns $200 and the Nahum Tate Cup. To see past winners, go to www.bookfest-mt.org/winners.htm.
Book talk
“ Gay and Lesbian Book Group (“Idaho Code,” by Joan Opyr), 7 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
The reader board
“ Julie R. Monroe (“Images of America: Latah County”), signing, 1-4 p.m. today, 327 E. Second St., Moscow, Idaho. Call (208) 882-1004.