Hawthorne Books

03/18/2019

Why a former hate group member started to think differently - CNN Video

"Empathy + Humility = Humanity" Hawthorne's Frank Meeink (Autobiography of A Recovering Skinhead with Jody M. Roy Ph.D) on CNN yesterday. "The practicing of true humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking about yourself less." Why a former hate group member started to think differently https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/03/16/frank-meeink-former-hate-group-member-new-zealand-sot-ndwknd-sot-vpx.cnn …

Former hate group member Frank Meeink reveals what made him start to think differently, as he reflects on the New Zealand shooting.

12/05/2018

Best of 2018: Non-Fiction Books

Hawthorne Books is proud to announce Natalie Singer's California Calling: A Self-Interrogation is included in Entropy's Best Nonfiction of 2018.

Featuring Porochista Khakpour, Morgan Jerkins, Nicole Chung, Alexander Chee, Kiese Laymon, Mary-Kim Arnold, Brian Evenson, Kazim Ali, Viet Nguyen, Johannes Göransson, and more.

Best of 2018: Non-Fiction Books was last modified: December 5th, 2018 by

12/03/2018

CALIFORNIA CALLING: A SELF-INTERROGATION by Natalie Singer

CONGRATULATIONS Natalie Singer, chosen to be one of 35 Over 35 for her book California Calling: A Self-Interrogation! https://35over35.com/2018/12/03/california-calling-a-self-interrogation-by-natalie-singer/

California Calling is a lyrical self-interrogation of obsession, emigration, and identity. Natalie Singer’s story opens in a courtroom on a witness stand, where she’s forced to testify in a family …

09/19/2018

Wonderful dinner with my favorite Liz Crain and Media Surf, our Co-Publishers of True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People, along with Freedom University students and some of the people who run Tokyo's largest Farmers Market. Big thank you to Teruo Kurosaki and Akihiro Matsui for including me in this fabulous group!

09/06/2018

Kristen Stewart promises her directorial debut will be 'unabashedly' open

Dreaming of seeing Lidia Yuknavitch's The Chronology of Water on the big screen...

“There’s nothing dirty about it, but I’m definitely going to be vulgar, and I’m definitely going to be completely unabashedly open about the fact that we’re entirely sexual beings,” the 28-year-old explained, emphasising how excited she is by the bisexual storyline. “Ambiguity is my favourite thing ever. In terms of sexuality? For sure. And also in making films, if you perfectly answer every question, you don’t allow for people to have their own experience and really indulge a thought.”
The Chronology of Water examines the effects of extreme grief on a young woman’s developing sexuality, and has developed a cult following since it was published in 2011.

http://www.hollywood.com/general/kristen-stewart-promises-her-directorial-debut-will-be-unabashedly-open-60731730/

Kristen Stewart promises to be “unabashedly open” with her feature directorial debut. The actress, best known for playing Bella Swan in the

08/27/2018

Emboldened to Ask: A Conversation with Natalie Singer

And, to compliment Marissa Korbel's essay, "The Thread," here is an interview she did with Natalie Singer for The Rumpus.
It was the cover that first piqued my interest in Natalie Singer’s debut memoir, California Calling: A Self-Interrogation. The wide, bright, concentric, circles in rainbow colors, the sans serif typography, and the subtitle promising “a self-interrogation.” But the first line hooked me, and I found myself tucking the book into my purse each morning before leaving for my commute, and carrying it to my bedside each night. I finished the book full of questions of my own, not the least of which was, How did she do that? https://therumpus.net/2018/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-natalie-singer/

Natalie Singer discusses her debut memoir, CALIFORNIA CALLING.

08/27/2018

The Thread: Near Miss

Good morning, Marissa Korbel's essay in The Rumpus about missing girls, victims, witnesses, and how this relates to Natalie Singer's California Calling: A Self-Interrogation really spoke to me. Sometimes it's hard to separate an overactive imagination with the dangers that do exist. https://therumpus.net/2018/08/the-thread-near-miss/

I’ve seen them in the post office, or stapled to utility poles, fluttering in the evening breeze.

08/16/2018

A WAY HOME by Scott F. Parker , Alex Hirsch | Kirkus Reviews

Our copyeditor, Scott Parker, has a book of essays about Oregon out and it's a damn good read. (He is the author of Running After Prefontaine.) Please take a look. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-f-parker/a-way-home/

A series of essays explores Oregon, the author's home state.

07/12/2018

“There’s A Release That Can Happen In Water Where You Don’t Have To Be Scared Of Rage, Or Grief, Or Pain”

THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER by Lidia Yuknavitch now in the UK with Canongate. She swims and talks with Alexandra Heminsley here: https://www.the-pool.com/health/breathing-space/2018/28/Alexandra-Heminsley-and-Lidia-Yuknavitch-on-swimming

Lidia Yuknavitch speaks to fellow swimmer Alexandra Heminsley about growing up in swimming pools, the impact of swimming on grief, and her memoir, The Chronology of Water

07/10/2018

What to Read When You Want to Reclaim Your Time

Do you need to reclaim your time and are wondering what to read? The Rumpus is here to help you out. WHAT TO READ WHEN YOU WANT TO RECLAIM YOUR TIME includes Lidia Yuknavitch's The Chronology of Water. http://therumpus.net/2018/07/what-to-read-when-you-want-to-reclaim-your-time/ …

07/10/2018

Good morning, for your listening pleasure we give you Poe Ballantine interviewed by Ken Jones for Between the Covers on KBOO. https://kboo.fm/media/66307-whirlaway-poe-ballantine

06/28/2018

Episode 529 — Poe Ballantine | OTHERPPL WITH BRAD LISTI

Good morning, Dear Facebookers, how about a double shot to go with your coffee? We offer the illustrious Brad Lisit with the irreverent ever talented Poe Ballantine.

Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. All episodes—hundreds of them—are available for free. Listen via iTunes, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, or right here on the web. Better yet: download the Otherppl with Brad Listi app. Available for...

06/15/2018

Two nights in a row of incredible Portland book events -- the Ursula K. Le Guin Literary Arts tribute Wed. and last night we got to celebrate Hawthorne author extraordinaire Poe Ballantine and his newest novel at ! And stay up waaaay past our bedtimes celebrating. Thank you so much to everyone who came out and celebrated with Hawthorne. Tonight Poe (and his wife Christina and son Tom) is at Elliott Bay Book Company.

06/13/2018

The Long Odds of Poe Ballantine’s Whirlaway Pay Off

If this sounds like your kind of novel, please join me with Poe Ballantine at Powell's Books, 7:30PM, tomorrow.
"But the heart of Whirlaway is in the friendship between Eddie and Shelly, both damaged and jittery in their own ways. It’s an emotional snare you never see coming: Ballantine’s writing seems to at first echo the immutably (and sometimes noxiously) masculine writers of the 20th century like Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, Tom Robbins, and particularly Charles Bukowski (who’s mentioned by name, a phantom flitting throughout the book’s Southern California backdrop). But the writing is so good, so fluid and funny, that its madcap bombast has already won you over before the emotional beats kick in. The unpredictability of Ballantine’s wonderfully precise descriptions—he’s particularly adroit at pinpointing smells—makes reading just a few quick chapters feel like observing the world afresh. Whirlaway could’ve coasted on its hilarity alone, but following Eddie as he regains his footing in the real world gives the reader a new lease on life, too. The long odds of Ballantine’s unorthodox tale pay off." Ned Lannamann, Portland Mercury https://www.portlandmercury.com/books/2018/06/13/20547484/the-long-odds-of-poe-ballantines-whirlaway-pay-off

A weird, wonderful yarn about horse races, record collectors, and telepathic dogs.

06/12/2018

06/12/2018

Watch out Portland, Poe Ballantine is in the house! This Thursday, 7:30 pm, he will be at Powell's Books downtown, please stop by and say hello.

06/06/2018

5 summer beach read books (and one surprise!)

Are you looking for a beach read? Well, the Orange County Register suggests Natalie Singer's memoir, California Calling. https://www.ocregister.com/2018/06/04/5-summer-beach-read-books-and-one-surprise/

Some book recommendations you won’t want to miss.

06/04/2018

Oh, how we wish I were in La Jolla today for so many reasons, but mostly to see Poe Ballantine at Warick's tonight.

On Monday, June 4th at 7:30pm Warwick's will host Poe Ballantine to discuss and sign his new book Whirlaway. Poe Ballantine currently lives in Chadron, Nebraska. The documentary of the same title as Ballantine's memoir, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, won the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival Hot Doc Award as well as the Big Sky award, given to the film that captures the spirit of the American West. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Sun, Kenyon Review, and The Coal City Review. In addition to garnering numerous Pushcart and O. Henry nominations, Mr. Ballantine's work has been included in the anthologies The Best American Short Stories 1998 and The Best American Essays 2006. Reserved Seating is available when the book is pre-ordered from Warwick's for the event. Only books purchased from Warwick's will be signed. Please call the Warwick's Book Dept. (858) 454-0347 for details.

06/03/2018

Poe Ballantine - "Whirlaway" | Warwick's

La Jolla and San Diego, Poe Ballantine will be at Warwick's tomorrow night, June 4th 7:30. I can't be there, but you can. Please go and treat yourself to a piece of Whirlaway.

On Monday, June 4th at 7:30pm Warwick's will host Poe Ballantine to discuss and sign his new book Whirlaway. Poe Ballantine currently lives in Chadron, Nebraska. The documentary of the same title as Ballantine's memoir, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, won the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival Hot Doc Award as well as the Big Sky award, given to the film that captures the spirit of the American West. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Sun, Kenyon Review, and The Coal City Review. In addition to garnering numerous Pushcart and O. Henry nominations, Mr. Ballantine's work has been included in the anthologies The Best American Short Stories 1998 and The Best American Essays 2006. Reserved Seating is available when the book is pre-ordered from Warwick's for the event. Only books purchased from Warwick's will be signed. Please call the Warwick's Book Dept. (858) 454-0347 for details. https://www.warwicks.com/event/poe-ballantine-2018

05/30/2018

Mud, Formula and Effervescence: 10 Rules for Good Writing

Mud, Formula and Effervescence: 10 Rules for Good Writing from Poe Ballantine.

Rule No. 5: Bubble Up Your Narrative with Effervescent Ingredients.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again, so what? What, however, if the girl is epileptic and a hell of an oboe player, and the boy has a provocative and possibly sylvan relationship with a harbor seal? Formula is inevitable, but now your reader is intrigued and you’ve got a little bit of room to run before they get married in the end. My novel Whirlaway is a rapid maze with counterpoint, hairpin turns, violated birthday cakes, wild mice, and the dead who will not stay so. Flashbacks, fantasies and dreams all make for good anchors and slabs. Can you shuffle two disparate ideas together and deal tarot at the poker game? If a story is a bottle of Dad’s Root Beer, it should be fizzy.

http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/improve-my-writing/10-rules-for-good-writing-poe-ballantine

Art will never be a science, and of the many stateable rules about good writing, not all will apply to every writer. Here, author Poe Ballantine offers the 10 rules of good writing that have worked for him.

05/29/2018

Hello San Diego! Poe Ballantine will be at Book Catapult tonight, 7PM. 3010-B Juniper Street, San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 795-3780
[email protected]
Owner, Seth Marko wrote:
**Note from Seth: I am a HUGE Poe Ballantine fan. This wayward son of San Diego living in Nebraska has written an absolutely hysterical, biting novel about America’s Finest City that I just loved every single word of. Record-collecting, Del Mar Racetrack betting, La Jolla cliff diving, & Tijuana prostituting all swirl around an unreliable, escaped mental patient of a narrator & his telepathic dog. So incredibly ridiculous & hilarious, I implore you, fellow San Diegans, embrace Poe back into the thin literary folds of his hometown. We should be proud that he sprang from our irrigated soil and jealous of Chadron, Nebraska for drawing him in to its high plains orbit. He is an astoundingly talented writer – one of America’s most underappreciated, to be sure – and should be a favorite literary son of our fair city.
Also, I feel I have to offer this shameless plug (again): a quote of mine pulled from an old Book Catapult blog post about Poe's last book made it onto the back cover of Whirlaway.
Down past Cheryl Strayed and the others.
At the bottom.
Nice, right?

05/27/2018

Poe Ballantine kicked off his Whirlaway West Coast Book Tour in Los Angeles at Skylight with the amazing talent Mimi Pond. So sorry I couldn't be there, but Matt Dwyer was and he sent me this picture. Here we go!

05/24/2018

Staff Picks, Staff Favorites and Reviews - Powell's Books

We love Powell's Books, Inc.! So happy that Poe Ballantine's new novel is a current staff pick. "Whirlaway by Poe Ballantine is awesome! Eddie Plum, locked up in a psychiatric hospital for 14 years, escapes! What happened to his madhouse lover, Sophia? How did he meet Sweets, a telepathic dog? What's up with his old buddy Shelly? Drinking, women, horseraces, and vintage record hunting all entwine in this jam-packed novel! Gorgeous prose throughout."
Recommended by Adrienne C. http://www.powells.com/staff-picks

Powell's Books staff favorites and reviews. We're an eclectic team of readers with broad interests and strong feelings about the books on our shelves.

05/24/2018

Poe Ballantine's West Coast book tour for his novel kicks off this Saturday at 5pm at Skylight Books in LA! Poe will be reading from Whirlaway, along with Mimi Pond who will be reading from her new book. After Skylight, Poe will be visiting and reading at all sorts of other wonderful indie bookstores up and down the coast.

He'll be in San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle with stops along the way at The Book Catapult, Warwick's, Green Apple Books on the Park, Powell's City of Books, Elliott Bay Book Company and The Hollywood Theatre. We hope that you can make it to one of these events and thank you in advance for helping to spread the word! http://hawthornebooks.com/catalogue/whirlaway

05/16/2018

Kristen Stewart Sets Up 'The Chronology Of Water' As Her Directorial Debut

“'The Chronology of Water' is the story of a lifelong swimmer-turned-artist, and explores the issues of sexuality, grief, and addiction. If that doesn’t sound like a perfect fit for , then we don’t know what is." The Playlist Lidia Yuknavitch https://theplaylist.net/kristen-stewart-chronology-water-20180516/

Kristen Stewart if offering up details for her directorial debut "The Chronology of Water," which is based on the Lidia Yuknavitch memoir.

05/15/2018

Close-up with Kristen Stewart, Feature Films Jury member

Kristen Stewart's first feature film is Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir, The Chronology of Water. "I'm making the movie this summer...I’m going to write the best fu***ng female role." https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/actualites/articles/close-up-with-kristen-stewart-feature-films-jury-member

There's something simultaneously light and dark about Kristen Stewart. The elusive actor rose to worldwide fame in the Twilight saga before emerging as a rebellious silver-screen icon with an impressive filmography under her belt. Adored by the public, lauded by the industry, Kristen Stewart made an...

05/14/2018

Natalie Singer

Writers, what are the ideal conditions for your creativity? Natalie Singer answers this question in her interview with Habit & Space.

Habit & Space: What are the ideal conditions for your creativity?

Natalie Singer: Not being asked to watch presentations on the güiña cat.

https://www.habitandspace.com/blog/2018/5/11/natalie-singer

What is your most recent writing project, or what is a piece you’ve had published recently?   My first book, California Calling: A Self-Interrogation , (Hawthorne Books) released on March 1, 2018. What’s your favorite thing someone else has said about your writing? Everything abo

05/07/2018

Bend Magazine shows Poe Ballantine love for Whirlaway.

05/03/2018

What to Do When You're a Memoirist and Memory Fails | WritersDigest.com

Thank you Writer's Digest for publishing this excellent essay by Natalie Singer titled What to do When You're a Memoirist and Memory Fails. From the inspiring essay: "The memories that glimmer strongest in my mind, that pop up repeatedly as though they have an agency of their own, act like cosmic bulges―moments that wink like the star-studded center of a spiral galaxy, like Roland Barthes’s photographic punctum. These bulges frustrate me as a clumsy human with a hard-to-control yo-yo brain but seduce me as a writer. I want to capture them because I know they’re where the stories are."
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/memoir/what-to-do-when-youre-a-memoirist-and-memory-fails

For writers—particularly those who write memoirs—memory can be the medium and ultimately also the message when a story, event or feeling emerges from the darkness into the light of conscious knowing. But what happens when a memoirist can't remember?

04/12/2018

Poe Ballantine's West Coast book tour for his novel is a little more than a month away and we're getting very excited for him to set sail and visit all sorts of wonderful indie bookstores up and down the coast. Poe's tour dates include LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle with stops along the way at Skylight Books, The Book Catapult, Warwick's, Green Apple Books on the Park, Powell's City of Books, Elliott Bay Book Company and The Hollywood Theatre. Tour starts May 26! The book is available in fine bookstores now. http://hawthornebooks.com/catalogue/whirlaway

04/12/2018

Poe Ballantine: The TNB Self-Interview |

What's better than a self-interview? Only the best questions get answered. Here is Poe Ballantine for The Nervous Breakdown.

"The last time we talked we learned you were born in a log cabin and the illegitimate son of the Queen of England, what good that did anyone is hard to say, but I see you have another book coming out. Quite the coincidence."

"I’ll say, and thanks for asking. Yes, it’s a horseracing, record collecting, and insane asylum novel called Whirlaway. It’s also about psychic evanescence, which is existing and not existing at the same time. It’s a funny book, I’ll add, but what else would you expect from the illegitimate son of an English Queen?"

http://thenervousbreakdown.com/tnbfiction/2018/04/poe-ballantine-the-tnb-self-interview-2/

The last time we talked we learned you were born in a log cabin and the illegitimate son of the Queen of England, what good that did anyone is hard to say, but I see you have another book coming out. Quite the coincidence.

04/09/2018

KBOO

We are really looking forward to today's KBOO Community Radio Between the Covers interview conducted by Ken Jones with Natalie Singer all about . If you are in the Portland area tune into KBOO 90.7FM from 11:30am-noon today. You can also live stream it on kboo.fm and the link to the audio will be archived on Kboo.fm.

Unless otherwise specified, all KBOO content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attr-NonCom 4.0 International License.Community guidelines for posting on the KBOO website.Copyright infringement/DMCA | CPB/FCC Information | Public File

04/05/2018

After 20 Years of Rambling I Broke Down and Wrote a Novel

Thank you so much Literary Hub for this Poe Ballantine love!

I set out on the road at the age of 18, a hitchhiking trip from the suburbs of my hometown of San Diego that turned into a freight-hopping trip that left me homeless and broke on the streets of New…

04/04/2018

Largehearted Boy: Poe Ballantine's Playlist for His Novel "Whirlaway"

Anyone remember My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small? Listen to Poe Ballantine's playlist for Whirlaway. Eddie Plum's telepathic companion in Whirlaway, the big butterscotch mutt he calls Sweets, loves to howl along with made-up camp songs. http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2018/04/poe_ballantines.html

04/03/2018

A Review of Natalie Singer’s California Calling | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction

We really love this Brevity Magazine review of Natalie Singer's California Calling: A Self Interrogation. Thank you, Brevity! "California Calling is the longing to belong. It’s the struggle to feel real in a place famous for its fictions. It’s the sting of otherness. Jewishness. Loneliness. How to make people feel welcome. Or not...The book is packed with delicious language, and I lost count of how many times I read simply to savor a sentence’s flavorful landscape...I rarely read books twice. There are just too many books on earth and I’m a slow reader. With California Calling, I want to do the thing my daughter does with television shows she loves. She binge-watches every season and the moment she comes to the end, she starts from the beginning again."

When I volunteered to write a review of Natalie Singer’s debut book, California Calling: A Self-Interrogation, I had one fear. What if I feel like the sad local girl California dumped in favor of this smarter, prettier, Canadian import? I wanted to be bigger than this. Sure, I did, but I still mar...