“Where can we see them now? That simple dancing of well-covered matrons… remembering but not affecting youth, not jealous but proud of the young maidens by their side ….” George Eliot, Adam Bede, 1859 I let my stomach out, on the beach in Taormina, in a victory of acceptance over self-loathing that I hoped would [...]

For many of us, the name Mary Jo Buttafuoco brings on a swirl of uncertain memories, a tangle of tabloid headlines from the 1990s and a jumble of questions we’d half-forgotten. This summer that swirl can cease with her book Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned and What Millions [...]

Moving its translucent mass through the watery shadows of the dock and then, past the dock (some- thing so real which now is not), the jellyfish swam in its slow float while we (I and my daughter, then just three) ran back and forth predicting that limp pink gleam and each embodiment it would seem. [...]

Women’s Equality Day, August 26, is a holiday first proposed by Rep. Bella Abzug, to honor the anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which women finally gained our hard-earned right to vote. At WVFC, we take the struggle for that day seriously; see Patricia Allen Yarberry’s valentine to those Iron-Jawed Angels (published about [...]

Lydia Chaverin McKenzie and her husband Patrick, on their 50’ sailboat, Tenacious, are sailing north along the Inside Passage in British Columbia. As we sail north along the east coast of Vancouver Island, we planned to visit the U’mista Cultural Center, a First Nation museum with the mission to ensure the survival of all aspects [...]

In Nora Ephron’s film Julie and Julia, there are many treats for the senses: the beautifully presented meals, the baguettes and cheeses, the sights of Paris, the glimpses of the New York City skyline, lovely music, and the overarching presence of butter. This is not a review (because that can be summed up in two [...]

This has been a summer of constant work. No other distractions or crises— just work, seven days a week. Long days, often beginning at seven and then phone calls, emails and chart reviews until 8 p.m. The weekends have been filled with chart reviews that I have done periodically but have now chosen to do [...]

Poet and memoirist Judith Barrington has lived in Portland, Oregon ever since 1976, when she moved from her native England. She has published three collections of poetry, a prize-winning memoir, Lifesaving, and a text on writing literary memoir which is used all across the United States and in Australia and Europe. Her most recent poetry [...]

Henry’s extraordinary musical gift is filling the house again. It keeps stopping me in my tracks. His fingers move so easily — from the achingly beautiful deep sobbing of his cello composer to our ebony baby grand where he pounds the ivories with the bright indie rock sounds of Coldplay. Back and forth, cello to [...]

Another shop in my Portland, Oregon neighborhood is closing. It’s the second in a month! Signs of the times all over my city include sad notices: “Going Out of Business,” “For Lease” and “Tenant Relocating.” That’s why I love the idea of The 3/50 Project — a program designed to support local economies and independently owned [...]