AltWeeklies Wire
Wells Tower's 'Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned': Short Stories to Pillage Bynew

There’s a great moment in Retreat, a new short story by Wells Tower. Two brothers have been out deer hunting on a chilly island in Maine. They haven’t bagged anything, and they’re wet and cranky. But just as they’re packing up for the day, one spies an enormous moose.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
02-03-2010 |
Fiction
Ali Sethi's Debut Novel is a Hitnew
For anyone wishing to write about Pakistan, a well-developed perspective is essential. Auspiciously, the perspective in The Wish Maker is its great victory.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
06-17-2009 |
Fiction
A Portland Company Is Building a House You Can Heat with a Blow-Dryernew

Root Design Build's Shift House, a project that has the potential to change the way the Northwest (and maybe the United States) thinks about green architecture, packs a lot of innovative technology, but one thing you won't find in it is a furnace.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
06-03-2009 |
Housing & Development
Want to Sell a Book? Make a Movie.new
Oregon's own Powell's is teaching New York a new trick. It's called Out Of the Book, and it's a series of bite-sized films about ... what else? Books and the quirky people who write them.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
09-17-2008 |
Books
Lean, Mean Meat-Free Bodybuilding Machinenew

Robert Cheeke is a bodybuilder, but he has an even better reason to be proud of his massive muscles--they're made of soy. Cheeke isn't just vegan; he's preaching the good news that eating a plant-based diet doesn't mean being a noodle-armed wimp.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
07-16-2008 |
Sports
David Wroblewski Rewrites 'Hamlet' but with Puppiesnew
His debut novel, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle , tracks a young dog trainer as he tries to get up the nerve to murder his murderous uncle.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
07-09-2008 |
Fiction
Andre Dubus Ill Gets Pulpynew
Dubus III, who also wrote House of Sand and Fog, has achieved some Houdini-caliber misdirection, and his third act may bring you tumbling to the ground.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
06-25-2008 |
Fiction
Keith Gessen Tackles Familiar Turf in 'All the Sad Young Literary Men'new
Gessen's debut follows three Harvard graduates as they struggle with too much education and not enough purpose in literary Manhattan.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
05-01-2008 |
Fiction
A Gluten-free Memoir About Growing Up in Botswananew
Robyn Scott's memoir, Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, is a vegan Swiss Family Robinson, complete with its own campy theme song: a region-specific adaptation of "An English Country Garden."
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
04-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
Katie Crouch Creates a Real-Feeling Novelnew
Her debut novel, Girls in Trucks, tells the story of a dissipate former debutante, Sarah Walters, who must adjust her South Carolina dreams to the harsh realities of life in New York.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
04-09-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Rev. Michael Dowd on Evolutionnew
This reverend claims to have solved the debate between creation and evolution. Somebody give the man a fish.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
04-09-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Protecting Our Precious Bodily Fluids with Pure Hokumnew
It is very difficult to overestimate the importance of water. Russian filmmakers Anastasiya Popova and Julia Perkul have done it.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
03-19-2008 |
Reviews
Gin Phillips Needs to Figure Out What to Say With Her Very Strong Voicenew
For anyone who happens to have read Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Phillips' debut novel will seem familiar.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
02-27-2008 |
Fiction
Manil Suri Flys Under the Radarnew
Even halfway through The Age of Shiva, you'd swear that his new novel was homespun, unambitious and sentimental. But keep reading; it grows some serious teeth.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
02-20-2008 |
Fiction