About Northwest Voices

Northwest Voices is a collaboration between the Longview Public Library and Lower Columbia College. The Library welcomes this opportunity to bring community and writers together. Come listen, join in the dialog, and celebrate the voices of our region and our community.

Libraries and writers are natural community partners. Both seek to reach out to readers, to stimulate thinking, to engage people in the pursuit of ideas--the writer as creator and the library as enabler.

Funding comes from the Longview Public Library and the Longview Library Foundation, the Lower Columbia College Foundation, the Friends of the Longview Library, and the Associated Students of Lower Columbia College. All events are free and open to the public.

Coming Events

Floyd Skloot: Poet, essayist, novelist, and memoirist
Monday, January 25, 2010

Floyd Skloot is the author of 15 books, among them The Evening Light, Approximately Paradise, The End of Dreams, and his newest, The Snow's Music. He has won numerous awards, including The PEN USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction; the Independent Publishers Book Award in Creative Nonfiction; two Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Awards in poetry; Oregon Book Awards in both Creative Nonfiction and Poetry; and three Pushcart Prizes. Learn more about Floyd Skloot.

Workshop: Form and Freedom in the Writing of Poetry
The class will consider a number of poems in a wide-ranging discussion of formal choice available to a poet, from the use of traditional structures such as sonnets or pantoums to free verse and various options.
Time: 3 - 4:30 pm, Admissions Center (ADC) Room, Lower Columbia College
Reading & Open Mike: 6:30 pm, Longview Public Library

Past Events

Nena Baker
October 20, 2009
Author of The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being. (Author's website)

Nena Baker graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 1981 and made her career as a reporter and an editor for a number of magazines and newspapers before turning to books. "These days, I live in Portland with my partner, two dogs, and three cats. I've reluctantly agreed to quit bringing home stray pets. So I write, practice yoga, and work part-time as a licensed private investigator."

May's Vote
May 4, 2009

"Give women the vote!" Go back 100 years to spend an evening with two Washington State Suffragettes--prim and proper Emma Smith Devoe (portrayed by Barbara Callander) and outrageous and flamboyant May Arkwright Hutton (portrayed by Toni Douglass)--as they work together towards a common goal, that of getting women of Washington State the right to vote.

Barbara Callander and Toni Douglass each bring over 25 years of professional acting experience to their performances. Ms. Douglass, a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, has performed in theatres throughout the western United States. She is also an established director, playwright, and teacher.

A graduate of Oberlin College, Ms. Callander has appeared with theatres nationwide, and has also worked extensively as an arts administrator. Together, Barbara Callander and Toni Douglass have been touring original plays about women's history for over a decade.

Molly Gloss
March 9, 2009

Molly Gloss was this year's Cowlitz Reads author, part of an annual celebration of literacy in Cowlitz County.

The prize-winning author, Molly Gloss, is a fourth-generation Oregonian who lives in Portland. The Hearts of Horses, her fourth novel, is the moving tale of a young woman breaking horses for several ranchers in northeastern Oregon in the winter of 1917. The book addresses themes of war, alcoholism, illness and death, commitment to the land, and a sometimes lonely, often harsh way of life. It is a story not soon forgotten.

The Cowlitz Reads project is supported by a grant from the Washington State Library with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.