In an era when the word “recovery” is on the minds of many people, the word manifests itself in myriad ways.
For 11 writers selected to read during the Cannon Beach Library’s Writers Read Celebration, “recovery” ranges from life after Covid to tending to an ailing bird. Recovery also means a light-splashed winter day, finding the path after being lost on a trail, discovering an old swimming hole or relearning to garden as a cyborg.
The Celebration begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 5 on Facebook Live. Viewers don’t have to be Facebook members. To access the program, go to the library’s website at
www.cannonbeachlibrary.org and click on the banner at the top of the page. The event can also be reached by going to the library’s Facebook page.
Last year, the Writers Read Celebration reached more than 1,300 viewers.
This is the fourth year the Cannon Beach Library has hosted the Writers Read Celebration. Sixteen pieces to be read include poems, essays, a rap and a “shuffle” poem, where individual lines are written and shuffled to create different poems.
From November through January, the Cannon Beach Library’s NW Authors Series Committee asked writers to submit entries on the theme, “Recovery?” to be read at the Writers Read Celebration. The pieces were to be no longer than 600 words.
A five-member panel selected 16 pieces from 45 entries without knowing who wrote them. The writers range from Camas, Washington to Wheeler, Oregon and include several from Clatsop and Tillamook counties. The writers who will read their works are:
• Scott T. Starbuck, Battle Ground, Washington: poem, “Slim’s Tree”
• Bill Grafius, Gearhart: poems, “The Cyborg Gardener,” “Deciding Factor”
• Steven Mayer, Cannon Beach: essay, “On Recovery”
• Phyllis Mannan, Manzanita: story, “Holes” and poem, “Poem with a Line from Lao Tzu”
• John Ciminello, Naselle, Washington: poems, “The Douser,” “Back to the Beginning”
• Karen Keltz, Tillamook: poems, “Another Kind of Resilience,” “Realm of Possibility”
• Emily Ransdell, Camas, Washington: poems, “Consider the Blackberry,” “Our Pandemic Year”
• Jennifer Nightingale, Astoria: poem, “Everything Changed”
• Kristen Nekovar, Astoria: rap poem, “Pill Bug”
• L Swartz, Wheeler: shuffle poem, “Hunger, edges, falling”
• Adria Bagadnani, Manzanita: poem, “Bird”
