2014 Oregon Book Award winners announced

It isn't every day I get to say that someone I know and whom I've interviewed on the blog has won a major literary prize, but today is such a day!

Last night the Oregon Book Award winners were announced, and I'm pleased as punch that Jay Ponteri took the prize for creative nonfiction for his memoir, Wedlocked. Congratulations, Jay! A victory for truth-tellers everywhere!

Click here to visit the Literary Arts website and find out who the other winners are this year.

And in case you missed it last year, you can still read my two-part interview with Jay Ponteri, in which he talks about his vision for the book, his writing process and the monetary side of getting published: Interview with author Jay Ponteri Part I & Part II

Interview with author Jay Ponteri (Part II)

Last Friday I posted Part I of my interview with the fabulous Jay Ponteri, author of Wedlocked, a memoir published earlier this year by Hawthorne Books, and a creative writing faculty member at Marylhurst University. Part I was about Jay's writing and writing process. Today I'm happy to bring you the final segment, in which he talks about publishing with Hawthorne Books and gives new and aspiring authors a bit of advice.

How did you find your publisher?  
I know what presses publish what because I'm an avid reader and bibliophile. On any given day, If you go to the Blue Room at Powell's, you might find me. I was there one hour ago. This is a costly hobby, but it pays off when you need to consider what distinguishes one press from another. I think I sent this book to like six or seven serious small presses of unconventional nonfiction---Hawthorne being one of them---small presses that take chances on young writers without an agent / representation.

Interview with author Jay Ponteri (Part I)

I met Jay Ponteri in 2009, shortly after I began working at Marylhurst University, where he's Associate Faculty in the English department. For a while we both had offices on the same hall, and I knew him as the slightly distracted, somewhat-rumpled creative writing instructor who brought his adorable son to work with him on occasion. Although I never had the chance to work with him directly or to take a class from him, I was aware of the work he was doing - most notably, running show:tell, an AMAZING summer writing camp for teens - and had heard of him as a wonderful teacher.

When I heard a little over a year ago that Jay had written a book about the failings of the traditional model of monogamous relationship, my ears perked up. I'd been interested in and thinking about alternative models of relationship for five or six years at that point; I had no idea that was something Jay was interested in, too, and I was dying to hear what he had to say.

Book recommendation, ROW80 check-in

Before I do anything else, I want to recommend the book Wedlocked by Jay Ponteri. In a nutshell, it's a memoir about a man who suffers from depression and feels a lack of connection both with himself and with his wife and ends up having emotional affairs with other women.  I finished reading it this week. It's incredibly sad, but also incredibly interesting and, in a way, hopeful. It offers a model for being truly honest with ourselves and others...which perhaps is a bit ironic, since the narrator admits to lying so much to himself and to his wife.

I will admit that I probably wouldn't even know about this book were it not for the fact that I used to work with Jay. Regardless, I maintain that it's an incredibly worthwhile read, especially for those who wish to write honestly and openly about their experiences as human beings, especially those experiences with which our culture is intensely uncomfortable to the point of deafening silence.

What I'm saying is that this book has inspired me to write creative non-fiction again and to be honest with myself and others about my feelings and experiences. There is no greater gift.

Okay. Now here's my progress on my ROW80 goals this week: