By JEFF SPRY Cascade AE Ever consider tossing it all away to join the circus? Imaginative Portland author Molly Johnson knows just how you feel. Her darkly comic adventure book, Spartacus and the Circus of Shadows was published by Portland’s Raintown Press in October and contains references to many Oregon landmarks, including a passage set right in Sisters itself. It’s been receiving decent reviews by independent reviews, authors and bloggers and Johnson is proud of getting it on paper and seeing it born into the world. “It’s really amazing to see it in its physical form, and something you never expect to see happen,” she said from her home in Portland. “This is kinda like I’ve sent my child off to pre-school. I can’t write in it any more--I can only Facebook and Tweet about how it’s doing. Well, and promote it in schools and bookstores.”Writing sports articles for her hometown Nugget newspaper in Sisters over ten years ago, Johnson never would have guessed her future path as a budding children’s novelist. Johnson graduated from Sisters High School in 2000 and continued developing her craft as a wordsmith in witty restaurant, movie and art gallery reviews for Linfield College in McMinnville.
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The Nature of Words announces the call for entries to the seventh annual Rising Star Creative Writing Competition for emerging writers. Entries for the 2012 competition are due by March 10, 2012 in three genres—fiction, literary nonfiction and poetry—and in three age categories: 15-18, 19-25 and 25+. The competition is open to writers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. All entries must be submitted to The Nature of Words website. No submissions will be accepted through mail or email.The Nature of Words Rising Star Creative Writing Competition is sponsored by the University of Oregon.Winners and honorable mentions of the competition are recognized in an awards ceremony at The Nature of Words literary festival, scheduled for November 7-11, 2012. Winners receive a trophy, a $50 cash prize, inclusion of their winning entry in The Nature of Words’ annual anthology of student writing, and a scholarship to a workshop in their winning genre during The Nature of Words festival. Honorable mentions also see their work included in the anthology and are recognized at the awards ceremony. Judges for the 2012 competition will be announced in January.Info:
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or 541-647-2233. www.thenatureofwords.org.
 Author Barbara Knight is due to release her seventh book this December, The Day the Indians Came, in the children’s series, The Adventures of Penny The Mustang Pony. The series of books was written for children 6-10 and for adults and teachers reading to younger children. When creating The Adventures of Penny, Knight wanted the books to have a good moral message and be something children would really enjoy reading.“Children of today need more reality,” states Knight. “Each of Penny’s adventures has a lesson that children can relate to within their own lives.”
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Deschutes Public Library received a $3,000 grant from the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to host Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War, a five-part reading and discussion series. The library is one of 65 public libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series which will encourage participants to consider the legacy of the Civil War and emancipation. The series kicks off in January and concludes in March. “The Civil War takes us back to a time in American history when civility ruptured and the nation split in two,” said Jim Leach, chairman of NEH. “The sesquicentennial of the Civil War and emancipation is an occasion for America to reflect together about the causes and ramifications of our greatest internal conflict, and a most appropriate way for ‘us the living’ to renew the American spirit in these still-troubled times.”
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by ANITA LANNING for Cascade AECentral Oregon Writers Guild’s 2011 Annual Literary Harvest took place in October at the Comfort Suites Inn in Redmond. In keeping with its mission to support and encourage Central Oregon writers of all genres, each year the Guild sponsors a writing contest, open to local authors in a variety of genres. The winning entries are published in the Guild’s Literary Harvest Chapbook.This year’s Literary Harvest Contest attracted nearly 30 entries, and the winners were selected by a panel of three judges: Award-winning novelist Paty Jager of Redmond; author/editor Jami Carpenter of Bend and Tina Davis of Bend, owner of Camalli Books.
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