(Book Cover Image | Courtesy of Ellen Santasiero)

PLACED: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon, Vol. 1, edited by Bend writers Ellen Santasiero and Irene Cooper, is a composition of entries based on experiences and phenomena unique to our pocket of the planet, from Warm Springs to Fort Rock to Burns and everywhere in-between. The collection includes 37 contributors writing their personal perspective and experience of the high desert. Started before the onset of the pandemic of COVID-19, nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations and the social and political upheaval of 2020, and completed just prior to the presidential election, Placed is a snapshot of our before, and a series of lenses by which to view our forthcoming.

PLACED: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon, Vol. 1 is independently published and available at regional outlets and bookstores, as well as at Amazon Marketplace in both print and digital formats.

About the Editors

The only thing Ellen Santasiero likes better than making essays, memoirs, collages, plays, fictions and safe spaces for learning is making them with others. Her work has appeared in The Stay Project, The Sun and High Desert Journal, among others, and is forthcoming in 7×7. She teaches literature and writing at OSU-Cascades.  ellensantasiero.com

Irene Cooper writes poems, reviews, essays and fiction. She works and teaches in community in Central Oregon, and co-edits The Stay Project. Committal, a speculative spy-fy novel about family, was published in 2020. Her debut full-length book of poetry, spare change, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in March 2021. Learn more at irenecooperwrites.com. 

centraloregonencyclopedia@gmail.com