Reading Portland the City in Prose

Reading Portland is a literary exploration of the city's past and present. In over eighty selections, Portland is revealed through histories, memoirs, autobiographies, short stories, novels, and news reports. This single volume gives voice to women and men; the colonizers and the colonized; white, Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and Indian storytellers; and lower, middle, and upper classes.

In his introduction, John Trombold considers the history of writing about a place that has nourished a provocative and errant literary tradition for over 150 years. In the preface, Peter Donahue considers the influence of region--particularly Portland's urbanity and its hybrid population--on literature.

Included here are the voices of Carl Abbott, Kathryn Hall Bogle, Beverly Cleary, Robin Cody, Lawson Fusao Inada, Rudyard Kipling, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joaquin Miller, Sandy Polishuk, Gary Snyder, Kim Stafford, Elizabeth Woody, and many more.

John Trombold teaches at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. Peter Donahue teaches at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama and is the author of many short stories and books, including the novel Madison House. Together, they edited Reading Seattle: The City in Prose.

Reading Portland is a literary exploration of the city's past and present. In almost over eighty selections, Portland is revealed through histories, memoirs, autobiographies, short stories, novels, and news reports. This single volume gives voice to women and men; the colonizers and the colonized; white, Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and Indian storytellers; and lower, middle, and upper classes. Authors Included: Carl Abbott Kathryn Hall Bogle Kevin Canty Beverly Cleary Robin Cody Ed Edmo Stewart Holbrook Lawson Fusao Inada Rudyard Kipling Elnor Langer Jewel Lansing Ursula K. Le Guin Joaquin Miller Richard Neuberger David Oates Sandy Polishuk Harvey W. Scott Gary Snyder Kim Stafford Charles Erskine Scott Wood Elizabeth Woody and many more John Trombold's Introduction addresses Portland's contradictory nature as a providential city on a hill; a cultivated Victorian rose garden; a center for libertarian freedom, gambling, and prostitution; and a place for utopian aspiration. In the Preface, Peter Donahue considers the importance of region - particularly Portland's urbanity and its hybrid population - on literature.

Ranging from stories told long before Euroamericans arrived in the Pacific Northwest to those published in the twenty-first century, Reading Portland is a literary exploration of the city's past and present. In almost one hundred selections, Portland is revealed through histories, memoirs, autobiographies, short stories, novels, and news reports. Authors include Harvey Scott , Abigail Duniway, Stewart Holbrook, Beverly Cleary, Ursula LeGuin, Elizabeth Woody, and many more.

John Trombold is an independent scholar who has taught at several regional institutions, and is now teaching at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. He is co-editor of Reading Seattle: The City in Prose.Peter Donahue teaches at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama and is the author of many short stories and books, including Madison House. He is the co-editor of Reading Seattle: The City in Prose.