Win McCormack

McCormack was an honors graduate of Harvard College and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon. He was editor of the New Oregon Publishers books Profiles of Oregon, Great Moments in Oregon History, and The Rajneesh Files.

Win McCormack is a major publisher in Oregon and the president of McCormack Communications. His latest publishing endeavor was a 1999 foray into creative writing when he launched Tin House Press and produced the first issue of Tin House literary journal, a serial named for the tin-covered Victorian home in Portland that acts as the journal’s West Coast headquarters. Tin House is a very upscale, intelligent, bi-coastal, book-size publication with offices in Manhattan and Northeast Portland. It publishes–as stated on the cover–Fiction, Poetry, Pilgrimages, Profiles, Lost Books, Food and other Obsessions. McCormack serves as the publication's editor-in-chief and publisher.

"This was a dream I had for many years, but it always seemed too impractical an undertaking," McCormack said. "I was sort of getting into my 50s and realized if I was going to do it, I should do it now." The idea of the upscale, well-designed quarterly, was to pay its writers well, present funky features, and not be too trendy.

McCormack’s own writings go back to his arrival in Portland from New York City when he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon. He is also an honors graduate of Harvard College.

He has been investing in magazines since the 1960s when he helped create Mother Jones. He has been treasurer of Oregon Business Magazine since 1984, and is president of two publishing companies: New Oregon Publishers, and McCormack Communications. He is an official of the Democratic Party of Oregon, and has taught creative writing at the University of Oregon and the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.

McCormack's feature article, "Deconstructing the Election," appeared in the March 26, 2001 issue of The Nation.

www.tinhouse.com

Karen Karbo

Portland writer Karen Karbo’s new book Generation Ex: Tales From the Second Wives Club, is a wildly funny, at times painfully accurate portrayal of an underreported social trend: the "ex-relationship." Many people, including Karbo, have married, divorced and remarried and find themselves in a tangle of relationships that require diplomacy, delicate negotiations and tact. Generation Ex, Karbo's fourth book, tells the stories of women who have survived dating, marriage and divorce and now find themselves in the middle of messy situations.

Karbo's three previous books have all been named New York Times Notable books of the Year. Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me is a novel of babies and friendship, mothers and fathers, and the havoc of procreation. Trespassers Welcome Here, Karbo's first novel, was published in 1989 and deals with Soviet émigrés in Los Angeles. Her other books include Big Girl in the Middle and The Diamond Lane.

Karbo is a contributing editor at Conde Nast Women's Sports and Fitness, a correspondent for Outside magazine, and writes for Vogue, Elle, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company, and The New Republic. Her current specialty is the professional guinea pig story, where she puts herself through terrifying and humiliating experiences for the enjoyment of smarter people everywhere. Past guinea pig exploits include diving the World War II shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon in Micronesia, surf camp, flying trapeze school, and shark handling in the Bahamas.

Karbo is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and a past winner of a General Electric Younger Writer Award. She grew up in Whittier, California and graduated from USC film school.

www.karenkarbo.com

June & Joren Rushing

JUNE RUSHINGcomes from a large family of performers–including both parents, grandparent, aunts, uncles and cousins. Her roots are in Country Western and Germanic folk, with special training in jazz and classical.

Her husband, JOREN RUSHING, played his first live concert in July 1966 and has played most Friday and Saturday nights for the past twenty-six years. He has opened for Commander Cody, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Kingfish, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Robert Hunter, Merle Haggard, Ferlin Husky, Earl Thomas Connely and more. Both June and Joren have played with several bands, the most recent were Lonesome Ghosts and Three Bricks Shy. Their new CD features the title track "Walker After Midnight," a song with lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by Joren Rushing



June Rushing performing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" with the June Rushing Band
at Cafe Mundo, Newport, Oregon, April 24, 2009.
Video Copyright Carla Perry

David Gans

with THE JUNE RUSHING BAND & ROBIN REMAILY

David Gans is a songwriter, producer/host of the nationally syndicated GRATEFUL DEAD HOUR, and co-producer of the Dead boxed set So Many Roads (1965-1995). He spent twenty-five years gigging around Northern California while earning his living as a journalist and radio producer. He has strong ties to the Grateful Dead, and has recently co-written two new songs with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, "Like a Dog," and "Shut Up and Listen," but he says it would be unwise to infer too much from the Dead connection.

"I was a musician and songwriter before I ever heard of the Grateful Dead. I was a songwriter before I ever picked up an electric guitar and before I ever knew what improvisation was all about. No matter how good you are at jamming, it eventually comes down to the song."

David recently co-produced Might as Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead, a critically-acclaimed collection of Dead songs by the legendary a capella band. He is on a three-month tour promoting his new CD Solo Acoustic. The tour takes him through California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia. He is playing at the Newport Performing Arts Center through arrangements with Joren Rushing.

He is also the author of Playing in the Band, an oral and visual portrait of the Grateful Dead, and Conversations with the Dead. He is the editor of Not Fade Away: The Online World Remembers Jerry Garcia.

www.trufun.com/gigs.html

www.musicbox-online.com/gans.html