Around town
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Harold Balazs, written by Harold Balazs and friends, has an accompanying exhibition at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane.
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Award winner
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This Is What They Say, by Francois Mandeville andtranslated by Ron Scollon, has been awarded an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
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New books in September
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| Great new Northwest titles, on the horizon!
Spirits of Our Whaling Ancestors, by Charlotte Cote
Broken Ground, by John Keeble. Don't forget Yellowfish, a great complement to this classic Northwest novel!
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September events
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More chances to see Frances McCue, author of The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs! Join Frances on September 19 at The Rose Theater in Port Townsend, on September 26 at Eagle Harbor Books on Bainbridge Island, and on September 29 at Horizon House with Elliott Bay Books.
Join Aldona Jonaitis, author of The Totem Pole, on September 3 at Hearthside Books in Juneau.
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Join our list
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Greetings!
Summer is officially here!  And, I bet you're ready for relaxing, lemonade, beach days, summer reads. Well, we have the books covered! This month's upcoming events include some of our classics from the past few seasons -- Lynda Mapes, Joann Byrd, Aldona Jonaitis -- but we're also offering a great new Northwest art book, Harold Balazs.Those who know Spokane's Rotary Riverfront Fountain are already familiar with Balazs's work. In addition to the book, Harold Balazs, we're also excited to offer a limited edition of the book which features a signed copy of the book with two signed
prints in a specially crafted box with a copper enamel plate. This is only available from the Press. If you're interested, please let me know and I can give you more details. We have only a few of these left so act fast! All the best, Rachael remann@u.washington.edu  |
Lynda Mapes
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|  Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village
In 2003 a backhoe operator hired by the state of Washington to work on
the Port Angeles waterfront discovered what a larger world would soon
learn. The place chosen to dig a massive dry dock was atop one of the
largest and oldest Indian village sites ever found in the region. Yet
the state continued its project, disturbing hundreds of burials and
unearthing more than 10,000 artifacts at Tse-whit-zen village, the heart
of the long-buried homeland of the Klallam people.
In
search of the story behind the story, Seattle Times reporter Lynda V.
Mapes spent more than a year interviewing tribal members,
archaeologists, historians, city and state officials, and local
residents and business leaders. Her account begins with the history of
Tse-whit-zen village, and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century impacts
of contact, forced assimilation, and industrialization. She then engages
all the voices involved in the dry dock controversy to explore how the
site was chosen, and how the decisions were made first to proceed and
then to abandon the project, as well as the aftermath and implications
of those controversial choices.
This beautifully crafted and compassionate account, illustrated with nearly 100 photographs,
illuminates the collective amnesia that led to the choice of the Port
Angeles construction site.
Lynda
V. Mapes is an award-winning journalist with a twenty-year career in
newspaper reporting, much of it with the Seattle Times. She is the
author of Washington: The Spirit of the Land.
Join Lynda on
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Joann Green Byrd
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| Calamity: The Heppner Flood of 1903
June 14, 1903, was a typical, hot Sunday in Heppner, a small farm town
in northeastern Oregon. People went to church, ate dinner, and relaxed
with family and friends. But late that afternoon, calamity struck when a
violent thunderstorm brought heavy rain and hail to the mountains and
bare hills south of town. When the fierce downpour reached Heppner,
people gathered their children and hurried inside. Most everyone closed
their doors and windows against the racket.
The thunder and
pounding hail masked the sound of something they likely could not have
imagined: a roaring, two-story wall of water raging toward town. Within
an hour, one of every five people in the prosperous town of 1,300 would
lose their lives as the floodwaters pulled apart and carried away nearly
everything in their path. The center of town was devastated. Enormous
drifts of debris, tangled around bodies, snaked down the valley. The
telegraph was down, the railroads were out, and the mayor was in
Portland.
In Calamity, Joann Green Byrd, a native of
eastern Oregon, carefully documents this poignant story, illustrating
that even the smallest acts have consequences - good or bad. She draws
on a wealth of primary sources, including a moving collection of
photographs, to paint a rare picture of how a small town in the West
coped with disaster at the turn of the twentieth century.
Joann
Green Byrd is a retired journalist who has worked for a number of
newspapers, including the East Oregonian in Pendleton, Oregon, and the
Washington Post.
Join Joann on
Thursday, August 12, at 6 p.m. at Orca Books, Olympia
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Aldona Jonaitis
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| The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History
The Northwest Coast totem pole captivates the imagination. From the
first descriptions of these tall carved monuments, totem poles have
become central icons of the Northwest Coast region and symbols of its
Native inhabitants. Although many of those who gaze at these carvings
assume that they are ancient artifacts, the so-called totem pole is a
relatively recent artistic development, one that has become immensely
important to Northwest Coast people and has simultaneously gained a
common place in popular culture, from fashion to the funny pages.
The Totem Pole reconstructs the intercultural history of the art form in
its myriad manifestations from the eighteenth century to the present.
Aldona Jonaitis and Aaron Glass analyze the totem pole's continual
transformation since Europeans first arrived on the scene, investigate
its various functions in different contexts, and address the significant
influence of colonialism on the proliferation and distribution of
carved poles. The authors also describe their theories on the
development of the art form: its spread from the Northwest Coast to
world's fairs and global theme parks; its integration with the history
of tourism and its transformation into a signifier of place; the role of
governments, museums, and anthropologists in collecting and restoring
poles; and the part that these carvings have continuously played in
Native struggles for control of their cultures and their lands.
Aldona Jonaitis is director emerita of the University of
Alaska Museum of the North and professor at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks. An art historian who has published widely on Native American
art, she is the author of Art of the Northwest Coast and Looking North:
Art from the University of Alaska Museum, among other titles.
Join Aldona on
Tuesday, August 24, at 7 p.m. at Elliott Bay Books
Friday, September 3, from 4:30-7 p.m. at Hearthside Books, Juneau, AK
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Harold Balazs
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| Harold Balazs
Defining the art of Harold Balazs isn't easy. Encompassing prints,
sculpture, architecture, jewelry, and installations, his work crosses
boundaries and changes shape with a force that has arrested viewers
since the 1950s. His art is a full-blown manifestation of his vision in
diverse media and scale. Balazs summed up his art and his approach best
when he said, "I make stuff because it's easier than not making stuff."
No
other Northwest artist has cut quite as wide a swath through the
regional culture over the past fifty years as Balazs, who has been
called the people's artist of the Northwest. His free spirit, boundless
energy, and meticulous eye for detail have shaped the region's art.
Balazs's work can be found in public and private collections from
Spokane to Seattle, and Balazs has been called the most important liturgical
artist in the nation. His fine skills as a teacher can be seen in the
work of many of his students, now artists and architects themselves. The
voices of a dozen of these former students as well as admirers and
friends are found in this book, the first publication to honor Balazs's
extraordinary gifts. His career is captured here in remarkable candor
that speaks to the artist's humanity, humor, and love of life.
Join Harold on
Wednesday, August 25, at 7 p.m. at Auntie's Books, Spokane
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