Synopses & Reviews
This creative blend of short stories, vignettes, poems and visual art highlight the people, places and lifestyles of Portland. Students, community members, acclaimed writers, and poets worked together to create an anthology that gives anyone the taste of Portland. It invites anyone from traveler to a permanent resident to open its pages and discover something new about the people, places, and cultures of Portland, Oregon. So decide for yourself, read
Where the Roses Smell the Best, and take an adventure that doesn't require you to leave your home.
This literary companion suits not only travelers looking for a good read while they're in Portland, but also the average Portlandian who just wants to learn something new about their hometown. Where the Roses Smell the Best is the anthology that will keep you coming back for more about Portland.
Review
"Magic happens when fresh imaginations tackle a publishing project that challenges their understanding of where they live. And big magic follows when they create a literary collage of Portland's many voices — diverse in so many ways, unified in so many others. Where the Roses Smell the Best is an educational milestone and a tantalizing treat: mind candy to be enjoyed by those who know our home place and those who soon will." Dennis Stovall, Oregon author, publisher, and educator
Review
"Where the Roses Smell the Best playfully celebrates what makes Portland special and is a fun read for newcomers and natives alike. As mayor I delighted that all the proceeds from this book will support the Writing and Publishing Center at Roosevelt High School. By involving students at all phases of publishing they acquire valuable career-related skills and help other students graduate with strong writing skills. This school-community enterprise represents the kind of social innovation that makes Portland strong." Charlie Hales, Mayor, City of Portland
Review
"A crowd becomes a village when individual voices can be heard by many, honored one by one. A pile of testimonials becomes a book when each of these voices finds its place in a thoughtful sequence. The voices in this book witness for what Portland is about — the nature of our destiny to be a village not a mob, to be a community of devotion, to be loyal to our future old and young, native and just-arrived, a lucky mix of backgrounds and beliefs all bound in this book in your hands. Open it, open us, and open our chance together."
Kim Stafford, author of The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft