Some memories hold firm even as the context that once cradled them fades away. They rise on occasion, like a high definition video, and the viewer wonders about all she has forgotten. When I attended the 47^th Annual Local Author Exhibit, hosted by the San Diego Public Library, the following memory surfaced.

It is 1988 and I am riding the escalator in Seattle’s downtown public library, which seems most cosmopolitan to this young woman who once found Eugene large in comparison to the places she had been. I am wearing pumps, hose, and a dress that looks like a business suit. It is a dress code I am expecting to adopt once I land my first professional job. As the steps of the escalator move toward the third floor, my nervousness peaks. I am about to face an interview that will eventually pave my way into Seattle.

I spent over twenty years working in four public libraries in four different cities before moving on to higher education. So maybe the old downtown library in San Diego, slated to be abandoned now that a new building is being prepared for its grand opening this summer, brought on the nostalgia. It is certainly reminiscent of the Seattle library I once knew before it was leveled so a spiffier building could rise in its place. Or maybe I’ve just lived through another high definition video, one that will eventually begin to play on demand. That day I rode the escalator felt like a new beginning—and so did this one.

To be sure, my former colleagues in Seattle would have envied such a program, which was hosted for more than 400 writers who live and write in the greater San Diego area. Our books were placed on display on the main floor and will remain so throughout the month of February. Yes, we were treated to music, hor dourves, as well as a good inspirational speech by Judy Reeves, founder of San Diego Writer’s Ink, “the city’s premier writing center which anchors the literary community in the city and is a proud neighbor of the New Central Library.” Best of all, to me anyway, we were able to share the festivities with the library workers who organized the event on our behalf. 

Kudos to the San Diego Public Library!

If you ever spend time on the Oregon Coast, you can find copies of my book at Toad Hall on 237 W 3rd Street in Yachats. Phone: 541-547-4044.

Titan Salvage, the ship salvaging company founded by David Parrot, removed the stern of the New Carrisa during the summer of 2008. Their efforts are highlighted in the last part of “The Ballad of the New Carissa.”

Sadly, Mr. Parrot is no longer living, but his company continues to eliminate wrecked ships. They are currently in the process of trying to get rid of the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that sank off the coast of Italy. To see the Titan team in action, watch this 60 Minutes segment, Costa Concordia: Salvaging a Shipwreck, with Lesley Stahl.

According to Lynn Neary, self-publishing is becoming less stigmatized. Check out her story, Self-Publishing: No Longer Just A Vanity Project.

The New Carissa freighter ran aground near Coos Bay, Ore., during a storm in 1999, creating a mishap of epic proportions that took years to clean up. This event is the inspiration for Kari Wergeland’s long ballad and title of her second book of poems, The Ballad of the New Carissa and Other Poems.

The book, available in paperback, can be purchased via Amazon.com and other online vendors, as well as Baker & Taylor and Ingram.

This is a collection of fearless poems celebrating the Oregon Coast in all of its magnificence. Wergeland is at home writing in both free verse and traditional poetic forms, as the book shows. Coastal scenes and the balance of inner landscapes and a marine exterior turn up in surprising ways—the pulse of the weather, shifting sands, and creatures in the sea and on the shore. Humans flirting with dangerous tides do not escape her scrutiny. The long titular ballad of Part 4 takes a narrative approach in re-telling the many overlapping stories of coastal life with a grounded, decaying freighter in their midst. In this volume, Wergeland offers up a rich panoramic segment of America’s Pacific edge.

Just as spring brings with it possibility and a fresh start, Kari Wergeland’s book Voice Break, available in a paperback edition ($9.99), delivers a poetic story of promise and wholeness.

Following the advice of a Lane Community College music instructor, Wergeland began taking voice lessons with a respected teacher at the age of 24. After roughly two years of study, with dubious results, she decided to stop singing. She began working as a librarian and eventually turned to writing newspaper articles, fiction, and poetry. Twenty years later, and on something of a whim, Wergeland enrolled in a workshop called The Natural Singer, with vocal coach Claude Stein. Inspired to resume voice lessons (through the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District), it wasn’t long before she discovered her singing had changed. Voice Break is a long poem of possibility that tells the story of the author’s voice.