Wallowa Lake is the setting for a “literary event committed to forging ties between writing and real life” in the American West. Read more
As a program officer for Meyer Memorial Trust, I try to learn as much as I can from the applicants and their communities so I can accurately represent their requests to the Trustees. In many ways, that's the best part of the job: learning so much from people throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington about issues affecting their communities. It's like being an investigative reporter, but the ultimate goal is not just an objective story; it's helping organizations have the greatest impact on their communities with use of Meyer funds.
Balance
The sound of my teenage sons coming in late at night safe and sound.
Yes, you can come in, really.
Great fiction doesn’t really have traditional heroes. It has anti-heroes or flawed heroes, like real people. My favorite books don’t really have heroes: Sometimes a Great Notion, Beloved, Native Son, 100 Years of Solitude, anything by Faulkner, Edith Wharton….I remember great books more than heroes.
Antsy—I am still on crutches from foot surgery.
Seek balance with humor.
I could certainly pick any number of deserving nonprofits, but what I think would be really interesting would be to walk around Portland and hand it out in $50 increments to people who look like they could use it, no questions asked, no judgments, just hand it out. Kind of an odd response from a program officer, I guess.
Jackson Browne or Aretha Franklin, but my living room is pretty small for Aretha….
To write the next great American novel, but don’t tell anyone.
