This year was fruitful in the world of Oregon literature, providing readers, writers, and bibliophiles with plenty of events, book releases, workshops, award ceremonies, and festivals and proving, yet again, that the Pacific Northwest is an incredibly vibrant literary ecosystem. With events and news spanning the state from Eastern Oregon to the Coast, Oregonians have demonstrated they intend to remain loyal to the art of reading and literature throughout 2024 and well into the new year.

Earlier this month, Literary Arts, one of Portland’s largest literary nonprofit hubs for 40 years, made a historic move into new headquarters in Southeast Portland. The organization drew a crowd of hundreds as it celebrated its newest chapter in its new home: the Strowbridge Building, now The Susan Hammer Center. Oregon ArtsWatch’s Brian Libby toured the space with Literary Arts Executive Director Andrew Proctor earlier this fall, noting its “historic details and textures, including its exposed brick walls, some showing faded but still-legible ghost signs for previous occupants”. During the headquarters opening, Proctor thanked staff, volunteers, patrons, and the late Susan Hammer, whose $3 million bequest made it possible for Literary Arts to purchase the 120-year-old building at 716 S.E. Grand Ave. 

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The literary world was saddened to lose two influential writers this year, Tom Spanbauer and Harold Johnson. Spanbauer, a novelist, teacher, and founder of the Dangerous Writing workshop, passed away at the age of 78. He was known as the author of five books, including The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon, and writing about race, sexual identity, and making a family of choice. He won the 1992 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for best fiction, a 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Gay General Fiction for I Loved You More, and the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award from Literary Arts. He is survived by his life partner of 22 years, Michael Sage Ricci; his sister, Barbara Hart; his brother, Clyde Hall; and several nieces and nephews.

Portland poet, author, and teacher Harold Johnson has died at the age of 91. His death on Nov. 27 was confirmed by his wife of more than 50 years, painter and artist-professor Anne Griffin Johnson. Johnson taught English and visual arts in high schools and colleges around Oregon, and his work has been published in journals and anthologies, including New Poets of the American West.

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Oregon saw a plethora of book festivals this year, starting with the Raymond Carver Writing Festival in May, featuring readings by regional writers and a keynote address by Kim Stafford, 10th Oregon poet laureate. The Bigfoot Poetry Festival also returned to downtown Portland in June with open mics, readings, and slam poetry, while Karl Marlantes was the keynote speaker during October’s Astoria Creative Writing Festival. In November, Literary Arts’ Portland Book Festival celebrated its 10th year at the Portland Park Blocks with events from more than 50 authors and presenters.

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The 37th annual Oregon Book Awards took place at Portland Center Stage in April, with winners including Patrick deWitt’s The Librarianist for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, Daniela Naomi Molnar’s CHORUS for the Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry, Kerilynn Wilson’s The Faint of Heart for the Award for Graphic Literature, Josephine Woolington’s Where We Call Home: Lands, Seas, and Skies of the Pacific Northwest for the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction, Erica Berry’s Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear for the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction, Waka T. Brown’s The Very Unfortunate Wish of Melony Yoshimura for the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult & Middle Grade Literature, and Nore Ericson’s Too Early for the Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children’s Literature.

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Ellen Waterston, Bend poet, author, and founder of the Writing Ranch and the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, was highly awarded in 2024. She received the Literary Arts of Oregon’s Stewart H. Holbrook Award and Soapstone Bread and Roses Award in addition to the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award earlier in the year before being named 11th Oregon Poet Laureate in August.

“Ellen Waterston stands out for her commitment to community engagement, her focus on bringing different ways of living and different parts of the state together, and her notable ability to describe the moments, places, and people that make Oregon, Oregon,” Governor Tina Kotek said of the decision in a press release.

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In April this year, ArtsWatch contributor Amanda Waldroupe attended the Oregon Library Association’s annual conference in Salem. There, two graduate students from Seattle’s University of Washington presented research on the language surrounding the attempt to ban or restrict access to books in public libraries, and how it is more violent and aggressive than a decade ago. While book banning feels like it should be a thing of the past, 2024 has shown that more states are increasingly attempting to ban books in varying genres — Florida leading the way with hundreds of books banned or banned pending investigation, including well-known titles such as A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell and Freedom Writers, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and many others.

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In positive public access news, 2024 also saw the major remodel of the Multnomah County library downtown, with 19 more locations slated to be upgraded during the next few years. The Multnomah County Central Library received a $15 million upgrade and expansion featuring books and reading materials on new low-slung shelves in addition to “lush chairs, curving couches, bar-height tables, and phone-charging stations spread over a floor equipped with 100 new electrical outlets.” The remodeled and expanded Midland library also reopened with a new entrance and covered porch.

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The year also marked many book publications by Oregon writers, including books from Yamhill authors Joe Wilkins, Bethany Lee, Nicholas D. Kristof, Hannah Grace Spenner; Virginia’s Apple by Portland author Judith Barrington; The Tiger of Lents by Mark Pomeroy; The Horse by Portland author Willy Vlautin; and the poetry collection As the Sky Begins to Change from ninth Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford. They participated in readings and author conversations throughout the year at venues such as Annie Bloom’s Books, Powell’s City of Books, Broadway Books, and other local favorites.

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2024 was also alive with author interviews as I got to speak with Richard W. Etulain about his newest work, Illuminative Moments in Pacific Northwest Prose, in March; Kim Stafford in June; Joe Wilkins ahead of the Portland Book Festival in November; and educator and essayist William Deresiewicz for a forthcoming interview story. I was pleased to read Barrington’s Virginia’s Apple, Stafford’s As the Sky Begins to Change, and 2024 Oregon Book Award winner Daniela Molnar‘s CHORUS, in addition to other books by various Oregon authors.

I also found myself turning to more general personal favorites, including Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, Mark Arax’s The Dreamt Land, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Susan Sontag, and a compilation of short stories from Ernest Hemingway, with a revisit to (Reed College-adjacent) Jack Kerouac to round out the year.

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