Dixon’s ‘Write Choice’
How often does a high school senior writing project turn into a full-fledged book?
That’s how Julia Dixon came to publish “The Write Choice: A Novelized Guide to Careers in Writing” (Gray Dog Press, $11.95).
Dixon started this off as a Ferris High School writing project, investigating various writing careers. Then she expanded it into a book.
She looks at this subject through the eyes of two fictional college students, Ben and Hollie, as they embark on a mysterious fact-finding tour about various writing jobs: newspapers, book publishing, entertainment writing and more.
So Dixon gets extra points for creativity. She also gets extra points for having produced a book at age 19.
She’s pursuing a degree in English – of course – at Washington State University.
Hear her story on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when she does a reading at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave.
‘Big Burn’ events
New details are emerging about the 2010 Spokane Is Reading event in October, featuring “The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan.
Egan will give two free presentations on Oct. 7. The first will be at 1 p.m. at the Sons of Norway, 6710 N. Country Homes Blvd. The second will be at 7 p.m. at the Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave.
Both events are free and no registration will be required.
A local poetry prize
The Poetry Scribes of Spokane are accepting entries for their poetry contest, in conjunction with the Amy Woodward Fisher World Day of Poetry.
They’re looking for unpublished poems of 60 lines or less in two categories, rhymed or free verse. There’s a limit of two poems per category and an entry fee of $5 per person.
The winners in each category receive a $50 cash prize. Certificates will be awarded for second and third places.
Send two copies of each poem – one with name, address and phone number, and the other without identification – to Clararose Childs, 2912 W. Longfellow Ave., Spokane, WA 99205.
The deadline is Sept. 3. Prizes will be awarded Oct. 6.
For more information, call Childs at (509) 325-4393.
From the ‘Tree Top’
Washington remains the nation’s leading apple producer and Tree Top is one of its biggest and best-known companies.
To find out how both the state and the company reached those pinnacles, you might want to check out a new illustrated paperback, “Tree Top: Creating a Fruit Revolution” (WSU Press, $29.95) by David H. Stratton, a Washington State University emeritus professor of history.
This is a corporate history of the grower cooperative, with a foreword by Tom Auvil, chairman of the board of directors. So expect some lines like, “Tree Top is dedicated to maintaining its commitment to grower-members, and to providing nutritious, natural foods for families in America and worldwide” (from the back cover).
But the book also gives extensive insight into how Washington became such an apple power, and also into how an apple visionary realized, in 1944, that all of those seemingly worthless apple “culls” could be turned into something valuable.
That’s how Tree Top apple juice was born.