Poet shares love of Oregon's outback

Bend-based author and poet Ellen Waterston will present essays from her forthcoming book, “We Could Die Doing This: Dispatches on Ageing from Oregon’s Outback,” along with poetry from her award-winning books on Thursday, November 14, at 6:30 p.m.

“Inspired by the example of the Poets Laureate who have preceded me, I am eager to share my love of poetry, place, and the power of the written word with Oregon’s diverse audiences,” said Waterston, “and to kindling creativity and community as I go.” 

As a “card-carrying member of the over-the-hill gang,” award-winning high desert author and Oregon’s 11th Poet Laureate, Ellen Waterston, engages the reader in a rollicking conversation about ageing in “We Could Die Doing This: Dispatches on Ageing from Oregon’s Outback,” her fourth nonfiction title. These lyrical short takes range from sacred to profane, sassy to compassionate, as Waterston addresses everything from green burial to sex to after seventy.

As poet and memoirist Judith Barrington says of this collection of short essays, “Most of us, whether of that ‘certain age’ or simply approaching it, need to listen to Waterston’s thoughts on the joyful possibilities of ‘the third act’; Waterston believes that ‘this phase of life is as rich, complex and dynam­ic as any before it.’”

Caryl and Jay Casbon said, “You can bank on wickedly fresh language, original perspectives, and a rich mix of politics, nature, and dangerous opinions. After reading an essay, you will think about it. You will want to read it again.”

Waterston has published four poetry and four literary nonfiction titles. She is founder of the Writing Ranch which, since 2000, has conducted workshops for established and emerging writers, and of the annual Waterston Desert Writing Prize, established in 2015 and adopted in 2019 as a program of the High Desert Museum. In 2024 she was appointed to a two-year term as the 11th Oregon Poet Laureate and awarded both the Literary Arts of Portland’s Stewart H. Holbrook and Soapstone Bread and Roses awards recognizing her work as an author and advocate for the literary arts. She serves on the guest faculty of OSU-Cascades’ MFA in Creative Writing. Ellen is completing a fifth collection of poetry.

For a profile of Waterston, see The Nugget’s fall edition of Spirit of Central Oregon magazine, at newsstands around Sisters or at http://www.issuu.com/nuggetnewspaper/docs/spirit_2024_fall.

Paulina Springs Books is located at 252 W. Hood Ave.