Staff Pick
Matt Love epitomizes the Oregon writer. After 10 years of serving as the caretaker of the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge (near Pacific City), Love returned to teaching and has since been publishing with fervor.
Super Sunday in Newport: Notes from My First Year in Town recounts Love's first year in the coastal Oregon town (and home of the world's finest brewery: Rogue Ales!). Comprised of brief essays that were originally read at a weekly open mic,
Super Sunday in Newport touches upon a number of themes as diverse as environmental conservation, politics, dogs, beaches, teaching, writing, mischief, music, fishing, and all things Beaver State. Love is quite the gifted writer, and his work is, at turns, touching, poignant, hilarious, insightful, spirited, playful, contrarian, and unabashed. The two qualities that shine brightest in his writing are his candor and commitment (seemingly to whatever he turns his attention to). This is, indeed, a love letter to Newport and our state at large, but more than that it is an enchanting work that would appeal to anyone who realizes that the brilliance of a particular place resides in the small details often overlooked, in the people that infuse a place with its character, in the stories that shape its history, and in the landscape that shapes everything around it.
From
Super Sunday in Newport:
What a glorious sight to behold! All those wet suits, forty-ouncers, families, boogie boarders, senior citizens, and transgenders, all doing their respective things on the sand, right out in the open without fences, cabanas, hotdog stands, espresso carts, and fat security guards wearing headsets telling anyone how much time they had left before they had to pay for extra time. This is Oregon! We demand the right to enjoy our publicly-owned ocean beaches like Texans demand the right to inflict capital punishment!
Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.comSynopses & Reviews
After ten years serving as caretaker of the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Tillamook County, Love moved to Newport and began a new chapter in his life. "When I left the refuge I wasn't sure I would continue to write with the same intensity. But I adapted quickly to my new home and found the area rich with stories. Very rich."
"Most of what is written about Newport is strictly for tourists. I like to think that no one has observed Newport quite like I have and that the book offers fresh insights into one of the greatest towns in Oregon. It's a personal story too, about some of the wonderful, excruciating and fantastic things that happened to me in that first year," said Love.
Whether it was encountering a mysterious coyote on the beach, documenting tavern life, browsing thrift stores, teaching high school English, commenting on Oregon and national politics or coping with a freak tragedy that befell one of his dogs, Love observes the people and places of Newport with passion, insight, humor and an informed view of history.
Synopsis
Super Sunday in Newport features 46 pieces originally written for the weekly open mic sessions at Cafe Mundo in Nye Beach. It mixes memoir, polemic, vignette, essay and photographs to create a unique personal portrait of Newport and unconventional narrative of Love's transitional year.
About the Author
Super Sunday in Newport represents the follow up to Love’s critically acclaimed and bestselling Citadel of the Spirit: Oregon's Sesquicentennial Anthology. He's also the the author/editor of the Beaver State Trilogy, an investigation of Oregon in the 1960s and 1970s. Love lives in South Beach at the Oregon Coast and is the founder and publisher of Nestucca Spit Press. He teaches English and journalism at Newport High School and serves as Director of Writers on the Edge, a Newport based literary arts organization. He also contributes columns to the Oregonian and Oregon Coast Today and writes the "On Oregon" blog for Powells.com.