As the result of a year-long rebranding process, SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) has changed its name to SMART Reading and unveiled a new mission, vision, logo and more. The rebrand comes just in time for the kickoff of the 2019-2020 school year. “We launched this project out of a desire to have our…
(Image | Courtesy of Deschutes Public Library) Starting August 1, Deschutes Public Library customers will have 34 additional hours each month during which time they can access library buildings and services. The increased hours — which include earlier opening and/or later closing times at various libraries in the district — will allow customers of all…
(Image | Courtesy of Deschutes River Conservancy) The Deschutes River Conservancy is hosting an event at Dudley’s Bookshop Café at Downtown Bend’s First Friday Art Walk on August 2 to launch the beginning of a book project they are calling, Homewaters. The limited-edition coffee-style book will celebrate the Deschutes Basin through photography, poetry, fiction and…
(The Last Jews in Berlin Just Released as an Audiobook) If you haven’t yet read my father Leonard Gross’s riveting The Last Jews in Berlin, you can now listen to the just-published audio version. This critically acclaimed account of twelve Jews who went underground in Nazi Berlin—and survived—became a New York Times bestseller when it was first published and was called “consummately suspenseful”…
Paulina Springs Books announced the inaugural Sisters Festival of Books (SFoB). Featuring local, regional and national authors and occurring across multiple venues, SFoB is a three day celebration of the literary culture of Central Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. SFoB will take place from Friday, October 18 to Sunday, October 20 in Sisters. Friday evening,…
Have you reserved for the Waterston Desert Writing Prize free workshops and award event on June 26? Now is the time to ensure you have a spot in one of the three creative writing workshops and the evening award festivities. If fiction is your game, sign up for critically-acclaimed novelist James Anderson’s workshop, in which…
For anyone who enjoys mysteries and the Pacific Northwest, this is a great story—four murders, none by a serial killer but all linked to a beautiful pond in the heart of Bend, and to Sarah Chatham, a successful Portland attorney who thought she was coming to Bend to retire. Are the killers long gone or…
(Guadalupe McCall | Photo courtesy of COCC) Award-winning young adult author and poet Guadalupe McCall, known for her coming-of-age tales that blend fantasy and history, will discuss her work at Central Oregon Community College (COCC) from 5:30-7pm on Thursday, May 30, at the Bend campus’s Children’s Literature & Equity Resource Center in the Barber Library….
(Christopher Boucher, T. Geronimo Johnson and Emily Carr | Photos courtesy of OSU-Cascades) Oregon State University – Cascades will host Rendezvous with Risk: A Literary Festival featuring nationally-recognized storytellers and Oregon-based artists. The festival will include readings, writing workshops, book signings, and interactive art installations that explore contemporary writing and the intersections of art-making and…
(Robert Putnam) When Robert Putnam, Harvard professor and New York Times best-selling author, set out to study and chronicle the opportunity gap that exists for today’s American youth, he uncovered some compelling case studies across the nation — including one in Bend. Putnam will be speaking about the resulting work, Our Kids: The American Dream…
