Oregon Authors are Thankful

Welcome to Paper Fort's Second Annual Oregon Authors Are Thankful posting. You can read last year's post here.

Here's how some Oregon authors responded this year to the question, what are you thankful for?

Alison Clement: I’m thankful for gingko trees and tomotoes and elephants and jasmine, coffee shops, Persian rugs, people I love and words and books and libraries and bookstores, and I’m glad we elected Obama, even if he isn’t perfect.

Tracy Daugherty: I'm thankful that Willa Cather discovered the deserts of the great American Southwest, and that she shook off the grand, but oh so cold, hand of Henry James, and thereby managed to add wonders to our national literature.

Miriam Gershow: Maternity leave, a chubby baby, espresso, ice cream, white cheddar popcorn, the first 26 pages of a new project, husband, family, a purring cat, a warm home, email, internet, fleece, recliner, words- mine and others', naps - mine and baby's, walkable neighborhoods and surprising days of late November sunshine.

Donna Matrazzo: My everyday give-thanks mantra: You live in a beautiful place. You have good work. You are well-loved. Count your blessings, kiddo!

Andrew Michael Roberts:
I am thankful that C.D. Wright exists,
and for Zach Schomburg of Octopus Books,
who published her new chapbook, "40 Watts."
It is a lovely thing. Get a copy, you will
thank me
.

Kevin Sampsell: I'm thankful for Portland being such a great literary utopia. I don't know of another city where the writers, publishers, bookstores, and storytellers are as celebrated and supported.I am thankful to readers and writers everywhere.
And I am thankful for words because so many forms of entertainment start with them (songs, screenplays, books, plays, etc).

Virginia Euwer Wolff: I’m thankful that we’re an alert and conscience-equipped if woefully ungainly species; that we’ve elected President Obama; and I’m thankful for family, chamber music, the cedars outside my studio window; for medical and veterinary science; for kind friends, mountains, rivers, weather, chocolate; for the possibility of optimism every new day.