6 Talented Authors From The Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest has made invaluable contributions to our culture over the years, giving us everything from coffee and craft beer to cinema, TV, and environmental movements. It's also a region home to a number of significant, illustrious authors. The ones included here are among the distinguished pool of literary talent that continues to emerge from Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. This video was made with Ezvid Wikimaker.
6 Great Pacific Northwest Writers
Keith Scribner's Approach to Writing
Oregon Facts and Statistics
- Population: 3.4 million
- Median age: 36.3
- Population over 65: 12.8%
- Congressional districts: 5
- Owner-occupied housing rate: 64.3%
- Median household income: $56,119
- Poverty rate: 12.6%
- Total area: 98,381 square miles
- State animal: American beaver
- State fish: Chinook salmon
- Crater lake is the deepest lake in the United States
- Portland has more breweries (60+) than any other city in the world
- In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide
Nathan Vass on Why We Need Strangers
In Depth
The Pacific Northwest has long produced some of the most renowned writers in history. Ken Kesey, Raymond Carver, and Chuck Palahniuk are just a few of the region's acclaimed scribes. Here, in no particular order, are popular and accomplished authors who call the area home.
Starting off the list at #1 is Keith Scribner, author of The Oregon Experiment. He has also penned the novels, Miracle Girl and The GoodLife, which was selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers series. He has received both Pushcart and O'Henry Prize Honorable Mentions for his short story, Paradise in a Cup, which appeared in the literary magazine, TriQuarterly.
Scribner received his bachelor of arts from Vassar College, and master of fine arts from the University of Montana. He was awarded Wallace Stegner and John L'Heureux fellowships in fiction at Stanford University, where he went on to teach in the Creative Writing Program as a Jones Lecturer. He lives in Oregon and is married to the poet, Jennifer Richter.
He lives in Oregon and is married to the poet, Jennifer Richter.
Coming in at #2 is Andrea Dunlop, author of the novels, Losing the Light, She Regrets Nothing, We Came Here to Forget, and the novella Broken Bay. She began her career as a publicist for Doubleday, where she worked with such bestselling authors as Tina Brown, Jonathan Lethem, and Linda Fairstein.
Dunlop's books have been featured in Town & Country, Bustle, InStyle, and Us Weekly. In addition to her writing, she is an accomplished speaker and has presented at book and publishing shows nationwide, including The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Conference. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and daughter.
At #3 is Aidan Moher, the Hugo Award winning founder of the science fiction and fantasy publication, A Dribble of Ink, and Insert Cartridge, which explores gaming. His work has appeared in Kotaku, EGM, Uncanny Magazine, and The Portalist. He has also been a guest on the podcast, Cast of Wonders.
His work has appeared in Kotaku, EGM, Uncanny Magazine, and The Portalist.
Moher's first book, Tide of Shadows and Other Stories, is a collection of short works spanning interstellar science fiction, fairy tales, fantasy, and steampunk. Charlie Jane Anders of io9 named it one of the May Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Everyone Will Be Talking About. The author resides on Vancouver Island, BC with his wife and children.
In the #4 spot is Sharon H. Chang, an award winning Taiwanese American author, photographer, and activist. She has published two books, Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World, and Hapa Tales and Other Lies. Her writing has also appeared in BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, Racism Review, and Hyphen Magazine.
Chang was named 2015 Social Justice Commentator of the Year by The Seattle Globalist, and the 2016 Favorite Local API Author and Writer by International Examiner readers. Among the media coverage she has received includes, NBC News, The Source, Northwest Asian Weekly, and The Wall Street Journal.
Chang was named 2015 Social Justice Commentator of the Year by The Seattle Globalist, and the 2016 Favorite Local API Author and Writer by International Examiner readers.
Entering the list at #5 is Bryce Clayton Newell, an assistant professor of media law and policy in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. He is the co-author of Surveillance, Privacy and Public Space, which examines the role of emerging tracking technologies used by governments, corporations, and individuals.
Newell's research has been published in the North Carolina Law Review, and The New York Times Magazine is among the media outlets to cite his work. He has also appeared on NPR's All Things Considered, and written about body cameras for Slate. His documentary, The Tinaja Trail, was an official selection at the Arizona International Film Festival.
Wrapping up the list at #6 is Nathan Vass, author of The Lines That Make Us, a 2019 Washington State Book Awards finalist. His work has been showcased via such media outlets as NPR, The Seattle Times, and KING5. In addition to writing, he is an artist, photographer, and filmmaker. Among his movies are, Men I Trust and Regulate, which premiered at the Henry Art Gallery.
Among his movies are, Men I Trust and Regulate, which premiered at the Henry Art Gallery.
Vass also works as a public bus driver for King County Metro, and is the first individual operator in the organization's history to win the Washington State Department of Transportation Wall of Fame award. He shares his writing on The View From Nathan's Bus, which details his life on the road. He was named to Seattle Magazine's 2018 list of the 35 Most Influential People.
