Gibson & Healy

DOBBY GIBSON and STEVE HEALY

Two award-winning Minnesota poets on tour.

Dobby Gibson's poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, Fence, Iowa Review, New England Review, and Conduit, among other publications. He is the author of Polar, published by Alice James Books in 2005, which won the 2004 Beatrice Hawley Award. He is the recipient of a poetry fellowship from the McKnight Foundation. He has also won an Associated Writing Programs Intro Journals Award, and his creative writing has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio's weekly arts broadcast, Word of Mouth. He lives in Minneapolis on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

Steve Healey is the author of the poetry collection, Earthling, published by Coffee House Press in 2004. Earthling, examines the pitfall, pratfalls and particular beauty of being an Earthling, that is, human in a culture of alienation and contradiction. It both celebrates and critiques our brave new hypermodern world. Healey teaches writing to prisoners in several Minnesota Correctional Facilities and is Associate Editor of Conduit Magazine. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including American Poetry Review, Fence, jubilat, Open City, and Verse. Born in Washington, D.C., he now lives in Minneapolis, also on the west bank of the Mississippi River.


http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/polar.html
http://www.coffeehousepress.com/earthling.asp


photo of Dobby Gibson by George Byron Griffiths
photo of Steve Healey by Mark Wojahn

John Amen

John Amen's debut poetry collection, Christening the Dancer, was released by Uccelli Press in 2003 and nominated for various awards, including the Kate Tufts Award, the Lenore Marshall Award, and the Brockman-Campbell Prize. His second collection, More of Me Disappears, was released in September 2005 by Cross-Cultural Communications. His poetry and fiction have been published in numerous magazines and journals, and he was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His first solo recording, All I'll Never Need, was released by Cool Midget Records in 2005. His second CD, Ridiculous Empire, was released in Spring 2007.

Amen was featured in the 2007 Poet’s Market. He is also an artist, working primarily with acrylics on canvas. Amen travels widely giving readings, doing musical performances, and conducting workshops. He founded and continues to edit the award-winning literary bimonthly, The Pedestal Magazine.

To learn morea bout John, visit his website at www.johnamen.com

Lucius Shepard

Lucius Shepard was born in August of 1947 in Lynchburg, Virginia, and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida. He escaped home at the age of fifteen and began a lifetime of wandering. His first adventure was to Ireland aboard a freighter followed by several years in Europe, North Africa, and Asia, working in a cigarette factory in Germany, in the black market of a Cairo bazaar, as a night club bouncer in Spain, and in numerous other countries at numerous other occupations. On returning to the United States, Shepard entered the University of North Carolina. He dropped out several times and traveled to Spain, Southeast Asia (at a time when tourism there was generally discouraged), and South and Central America. He says he ended his academic career as a tenth-semester sophomore with a heightened political sensibility, a fairly extensive knowledge of Latin American culture and some pleasant memories.

Lucius says that while on the road to California, his car broke down in Detroit so he joined a band there and passed the better part of the 1970s playing rock and roll in the Midwest. Then (I know I'm making this seem simpler than it was), in 1980 Lucius attended the Clarion Writers' Workshop at Michigan State University and began his writing career. He sold his first story, "Black Coral," in 1981 to New Dimensions.

So far Lucius has written eighteen novels (I may have missed some here or there), seven short story collections, and one non-fiction book,"Sports and Music." In the past year alone, he has published A Handbook of American Prayer, Liar's House, Viator, Trujillo, Two Trains Running, Colonel Rutherford's Colt, Floater, and Louisiana Breakdown. Some of those books are available for at the back table courtesy of Black Swan Bookstore.

Lucius received the John W. Campbell Best New Author award in 1985, the Nebula Best Novella, World Fantasy Best Collection, and Hugo Best Novella awards. His fiction, journalism and commentary appear frequently in Playboy, Spin, Omni, Asimov's Fantasy and Science Fiction, and online.

Far from being a writer of mere genre-based, escapist adventure, Lucius uses the fantastic in his stories to ramp up cultural perspectives and psychological relationships.

Lucius lives in Vancouver, WA. His website is: www.lucius-shepard.com .

Please welcome.... Lucius Shepard!

Dick Bakken

Dick Bakken began performing his poetry without a manuscript in 1972 and within a year was collaborating with dancers at innovative performance and spoken word poetry events. From 1975 to 1980 he crisscrossed the country giving readings and performances until, during a tour of the Southwest, he settled in Bisbee, Arizona where he still lives. Dick Bakken was the director of Heart of Carlos Spoken Arts, Jump the Border! and the Bisbee Poetry Festival. He was also poetry editor at The Bisbee News.

Dick Bakken's poetry has been published in over 200 periodicals and anthologies, eight books, on two audio cassettes, and two video cassettes. He has won numerous awards and grants, and continues to tour, working with musicians, mimes, painters, sculptors, photographers, and filmmakers.

Dick Bakken is one of the few poets in America whose reputation, a substantial one, rests almost solely on his public readings which are lyrical, dramatic, liturgical and celebratory all at once.

-- wrote Christopher Howell, owner of Lynx House Press.

Dick is on a two-month tour of the Pacific Northwest. His stop in Newport is his only appearance on Oregon's coast

Leonard Cirino

Leonard Cirino is a prolific, opinionated, outspoken poet and essayist with twenty-four poetry books and chapbooks produced by a dozen publishers since 1987. He has devoted over three decades of his life to reading, writing, editing and publishing poetry. His book, The Terrible Wilderness of Self, published by Cedar Hill Publications, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1998. He was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize in 2003.

He is the past editor of Pygmy Forest Press and Semi-Dwarf Review. His poems and essays about literature are widely published on Internet sites and in literary journals and anthologies.

His two most recent books are Poems of the Royal Concubine Li Xi, which won Lummox of the Year Award in 2002, and Everything Is Small From a Distance, published by Pygmy Forest Press in 2004. His books, chapbooks and broadsides are available for sale at the back table.

My poems are the way I express myself spiritually, I go deep into the dark side and the unconscious. I believe in the power of rituals, chanting, contemplation and prayer. I consider myself a mystical anarchist.

-- Leonard Cirino

Please welcome to Newport, Leonard Cirino

Barbara Coombs Lee

Barbara Coombs Lee is the President of Compassion in Dying Federation and was one of the three Chief Petitioners for Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. Compassion in Dying is a nonprofit that provides legal activism, public education, and client services to expand and protect the rights of the terminally ill. For over ten years, Compassion in Dying Federation has been advocating for more humane and caring options for dying individuals.

Barbara is also the editor of the book Compassion in Dying: Stories of Dignity and Choice. The book is a compilation of the stories told by people in the process of dying, by their family members, friends and by spiritual leaders who respect and support choices of dying individuals. The stories are about people who chose to use Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act to control how they died.

Oregon's law has been in place since 1994 and during that time Oregon citizens have used the law sparingly. The many safeguards and guidelines established by the state have allowed its implementation without complications. As a result, and primarily under the leadership of Barbara Coombs Lee, Oregon has become a national model for end-of-life care.

Barbara received her undergraduate and nursing educations at Vassar College and Cornell University. She obtained training in medicine at the University of Washington and a law degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College. She is a member of the Oregon State Bar.

She has appeared on NBC News, CNN Crossfire, 60 Minutes, McNeil Lehrer News Hour, NPR Morning Edition, The Today Show, has testified before Congress on end-of-life issues, and was interviewed by Bill Moyers for his four-part television documentary ''Our Own Terms,'' which looked at death and dying in America. She has personally battled US Attorney General John Ashcroft regarding his vendetta against Oregon’s law, and won. No easy task. She continually presents programs on end-of-life choices throughout the US and abroad. And has won too many awards to mention.

Please welcome the amazing Barbara Coombs Lee.

Barbara Roberts

by Carla Perry, founder/director Writers On The Edge.

I met Barbara Roberts two years ago when she was a featured author of the Nye Beach Writers' Series in July 2002. I was amazed at her frankness, her compassion and the urgency of her message about coping with the death of love ones and the necessity of allowing for individual responses to grief.

I knew she was a brave woman because I lived in Oregon during her reign as Governor. I have always been impressed with her courage to stand up and demand constitutional rights for the handicapped, seniors, children who are victims of abuse and neglect, and low-income families.

Barbara Roberts is a fourth-generation Oregonian; a descendant of Oregon Trail pioneers raised to believe that girls could do anything. She began her public service as a volunteer advocate for handicapped children. From 1981 to 1984 she served as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives and was elected Oregon's first woman House majority leader during her second term. In 1984, she was elected Oregon's Secretary of State, and reelected in 1988. In 1991, she was elected Oregon's first (and only) female Governor. During her four-year term, Oregon was recognized by Financial World Magazine as the seventh best-managed state in the nation. Her administration was known for its strong gay rights advocacy and its appointment of women and minorities to positions in state government.

After leaving public office, she had a five-year association with the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and taught at Portland University as an Associate Director of Leadership Development. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Oregon Hospice Association and the Human Rights Campaign. She is a member of the Advisory Councils for Compassion in Dying in Oregon and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. She is involved in the new Relief Nursery in Portland, serving small children who are victims of abuse and neglect.

Her book, Death Without Denial, Grief Without Apology, first published in 2002 is already in its fourth printing and is available for sale and autographing today.

Barbara Roberts is a brave, clear-spoken woman of indefatigable energy. She is the least pretentious governor Oregon has ever had. It is an honor to host her in Newport.

Please welcome Barbara Roberts.

Marilyn Johnston

Wars don't end when the shooting stops. Poet Marilyn Johnston's husband Carroll served as a soldier in Vietnam and like many of the men and women who lived to return to their families, he brought the war home with him. Carroll's memories so intensely permeated their lives that Marilyn finally suggested that their entire family travel to Carroll's old war zone in Southeast Asia. Their journey in March 2002 provided relief and the poems that resulted helped them heal from the trauma of the barbarism Carroll witnessed and participated in. They heard stories of how Vietnamese families coped with death and destruction year upon year in a cruel succession of wars and of the unexpected kindnesses of strangers who were once mortal enemies. Marilyn's poems are collected in the award-winning book, Red Dust Rising published this year by The Habit of Rainy Nights Press of Portland, Oregon.

Marilyn Johnston has received national and regional awards for writing, including the Donna J. Stone Literary Award for Poetry, a Robert Penn Warren Award from the New England Writers, several first place prizes in the Oregon State Poetry Association competitions, and a Fellowship for Writers from Oregon Literary Arts. Her poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals and six anthologies. She is Human Rights and Relations Specialist for the city of Salem and formerly Director of the Oregon Governor's School.

Red Dust Rising, which the Salem Statesman Journal included in its list of the Best Oregon Books for 2003, is hand-sown on natural and handmade papers. The book received an award from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women, and the poems in this collection have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Proceeds from the sale of the book are used to encourage writing projects for veterans and their families.

Please welcome Marilyn Johnston.

Robyn Hercey

The Lonesomes are a trio made up of songwriter, guitarist and lead singer PHIL FAVORITE , bassist MARK ZEHR , and drummer ROBYN HERCEY on backing vocals. For this special Newport performance, the trio will be joined by ADAM ELLIOTT of Smidgen on lead guitar.

The Lonesomes are three Illinois transplants, all graduates of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Phil Favorite works as a newspaper editor and designer for special sections at The Oregonian, and is editor of New Home Monthly. He lives in Portland with his wife Anne and their two young boys Bobby and Dylan.

Mark Zehr is a stay-at-home dad who lives in Forest Grove with his wife Laura and son River.

Robyn Hercey is a senior systems engineer with Corillian Corporation who lives in Portland with is wife Keri and daughter Amalia.

Most, if not all, these children are here tonight.

In 2002 THE LONESOMES released their promo/demo "Summer Friend," a five-song collection that runs that gamut from sunny pop to twangy country to heavy rumble rock. In 2003, The Lonesomes began work with producer Brian Berg on "Circling The Sun," a thirteen-song CD due to be released in two weeks.

The Lonesomes have a website where you can find more info: www.thelonesomes.us.

please welcome.... THE LONESOMES.

Marisa Anderson

(featured with The Dolly Ranchers on April 20, 2002 and solo on June 26, 2004)

MARISA ANDERSON plays an intricate flatpick guitar, mandolin and banjo and writes the lyrics to most of songs performed by The Dolly Ranchers, an alt-country, all-girl band based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Inspired by the oral traditions of travelers, tramps, and hobos, Anderson's lyrics create a raw, dynamic and gritty old-time country sound with edgy, original tunes about train hopping, hitchhiking, the travels and travails of whisky singin' women. She cites being influenced by such disparate sources as Tom Waits, the Velvet Underground, Lucinda Williams, Patti Smith, Freakwater, Utah Phillips, and Loretta Lynn.

As part of The Dolly Ranchers, Anderson has shared the stage with such notables as Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jenny Bird, Junior Brown, Odetta, Otis Taylor Band, Queen Ida and her Zydeco Band, Spider John Koerner, U. Utah Phillips, and the Yonder Mountain String Band.

She is also a circus performer with the One Railroad Circus of New Mexico.

Anderson, with The Dolly Ranchers, has produced two outstanding CDs: Ten O'Clock Bird and Escape Artist . She has also contributed to the soundtrack for the upcoming documentary "For The Love of Dolly," about fans of Dolly Parton. Anderson is at work on her first solo record.


http://www.thedollyranchers.com