Second Sunday is a monthly celebration of poetry and prose. Each month, a regional
writer is chosen to read a selection from their work. An open mic follows the guest
reader, where poets both novice and published are invited to share their work.
Events
Second Sunday: Know Local Authors
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM
Celebrate local authors at the Downtown Bend Public Libraries on July 8, 2012 at
2:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
“We believe that giving local authors an opportunity to shine is important,” said
Chantal Strobel, Community Relations Coordinator for Deschutes Public Library. “Last
year we had over 20 local authors read at our first Know Local Authors event.” Each
participating author will have an opportunity to read and to sell their books. This
year, the Local Authors event is part of the Second Sunday series, the monthly celebration
of prose and poetry followed where writers and poets of all levels share their work
in a friendly and encouraging atmosphere. Interested authors should submit an application
that is available
online.
“Last year, we had poets, mystery writers, memoirists, and fiction authors participate
last year,” said Strobel. “We’re happy to support our local authors and offer this
event a second time.”
Second Sunday
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM
A monthly celebration of prose and poetry followed by an open mic where writers
and poets of all levels share their work in a friendly and encouraging atmosphere.
Free and open to the public.
Second Sunday: Chris Anderson and Cecelia Hagen
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM
The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday present Chris Anderson, author of
“The Next Thing Always Belongs” and Cecelia Hagen, author of “Entering”, who will
both read a selection from their work on Sunday, May 13th, 2:00 p.m. at the Downtown
Bend Public Library in the Brooks Room. An open mic will follow the reading. This
program is free and open to the public.

Cecelia Hagen is the author of
Entering (Airlie Press, 2011) and of two chapbooks,
Fringe Living (26 Books Press) and
Among Others (Traprock Books). Her poetry, reviews,
and nonfiction have been published by
Rolling Stone, Prairie Schooner, Poet & Critic,
Northwest Review, Caffeine Destiny, Blood Orange Review, Cream City Review, and
many other publications. Her work was recently selected to be included in a public art project at the new Kaiser Medical Center in Hillsboro, Oregon. She was the fiction editor for Northwest Review for a number of years and co-founded a writers-in-the-schools program in Lane County.

Chris Anderson is a professor of English at OSU and the author of a number of books.
Brian Doyle, author of
Mink River, says of his book
The Next Thing Always Belongs,
“Odd, thoughtful, darting, swirling, funny, poignant, startling—this is the most
unusual book of poemstories and singingdreams you will ever read, period. Wrestlers
and ukuleles, angels and spiders, the precision of rain, Mister Rogers and Abe Lincoln
in heaven together . . . I mean, wow, and whoa, and for heaven’s sake shell out
the fifteen bucks and go sit in the sun and read this straight through, marveling.
You’ll smile and pray. Trust me.”
Second Sunday: Visions of Home
Sunday,
March 11, 2012
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM

The Deschutes
Public Library and Second Sunday will host “Visions of Home”, a thematic reading
and discussion by poets George Estreich, Charles Goodrich, and Marjorie Sandor,
on the meaning of home and living in Oregon. This presentation will take place on
Sunday, March 11th at the Downtown Public Library, at 2:00 p.m. An open mic will
follow the reading, which is free and open to the public.
Each poet has written a book that meditates extensive on the meanings of “home”
here in Oregon: Charles, in “The Practice of Home”, his account of family, gardening
and building a house; Marjorie, in her book of essays, “The Night Gardener: A Search
for Home”, and more recently in “The Late Interiors: A Life Under Construction”,
both of which link the hands-on practice of gardening with larger questions of family,
loss, and change; and George, in “The Shape of the Eye: Down Syndrome, Family, and
the Stories We Inherit”, an at-home dad’s memoir of raising a daughter with Down
Syndrome, set against a backdrop of home renovation. All three writers, in very
different ways, have set the literal, hands-on, messy aspects of home (gardening,
renovation, daily tasks) against the larger questions implicit in living and making
a family in specific ways.
Second Sunday: Rick Steber
Sunday,
February 12, 2012
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM
The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday are pleased by present an afternoon
with local western writer Rick Steber on Sunday, February 12th at 2:00 p.m. in the
Brooks Room of the Downtown Bend Public Library. An open mic will follow the reading
and this event is free and open to the public.
Rick Steber has gained a well-deserved national reputation and is best known for
writing honest stories about the strong people and the open landscapes of the Old
West. His gift to all of us is saving the stories of people that otherwise would
be lost and forgotten.
Second Sunday: “Let’s Talk About It – Making Sense of the Civil War” Kick Off
Sunday,
January 8, 2012
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM
One hundred and fifty years later, and we are still talking about the Civil War.
How does the legacy of the Civil War and emancipation affect our lives today? We
kick off “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War”, a new reading
and discussion series at Deschutes Public Library with period music, a preview of
the series, and a presentation by COCC professor Jacob Agatucci on the life and
poetry of Walt Whitman. Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil
War is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library
Association. Books and program materials available for series participants. Sign
up for series
online
or call 541/312-1032.
Second Sunday: Kim Cooper Findling
Sunday,
December 11, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM

The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday are pleased to announce a reading
by Bend writer Kim Cooper Findling. An open mic will follow the reading. This presentation
is free and open to the public.
Kim Cooper Findling is the author of
Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir. In her debut as an author, Findling’s
memoir unfolds the story of an Oregon girl coming of age in the 1970s and 80s, navigating
her way through pick-up trucks, dive bars, higher education and backwoods trails
before finding a place she belongs.
In 23 essays set over 20 years, Findling traces her own coming-of-age story against
the beauty and complexity of the Oregon landscape. “In so many ways my story is
every small-town kid’s story, especially those who grew up in Oregon in the 70s
and 80s. Our beautiful rural towns were a weird combination of innocent and harsh,
and almost all of us spent our youth waiting to get out. Yet we were totally unprepared
for the racous, fast-paced city. For me, all that action was completely irresistible,
and ultimately destructive,” says Findling. “It was so much fun to write about Oregon’s
dichotomies—lovely innocence and a wild darkside. I realized they are my own.”
Kim Cooper Findling grew up on the Oregon Coast, spent several years in the Willamette
Valley and has lived in Central Oregon for sixteen years. Her work has appeared
in many publications over the last decade, including
Travel Oregon, Horizon Air,
Oregon Quarterly, Hip Mama, Sky West, The Best Places to Kiss NW and High Desert
Journal. She is the author of Day Trips From Portland: Getaway Ideas for the Local
Traveler, published by Globe Pequot Press, May 2011.
Second (First) Sunday: Keith Scribner
Sunday,
November 6, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
11:00 AM

Second Sunday and the Nature of Words literary festival present a reading by Keith
Scribner, whose third novel
The Oregon Experiment,, was released in June 2011. This event will
take place on
Sunday, November 6th at 11:00 am in the Brooks Room of the Downtown
Bend Public Library. This event is free and open to the public, and an open
mic will follow the reading.
Scribner’s two previous novels, published by Riverhead Books, are
The GoodLife
and
Miracle Girl.
The
GoodLife was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers
series, and was a New York Times Notable book of the year.
His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in
TriQuarterly, American Short Fiction,
Quarterly West, The North Atlantic Review, the San Jose Mercury News, the Baltimore
Sun, and the anthologies
Flash Fiction Forward (W.W. Norton) and
Sudden Stories: The MAMMOTH Book of Miniscule Fiction. He received both Pushcart
and O’Henry Prize Honorable Mentions for his short story, “Paradise in a Cup” (TriQuarterly,
#121).
Scribner received his BA from Vassar College and MFA 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 currently lives in Oregon with his wife, the poet Jennifer Richter,
and their children. He teaches in Oregon State University’s MFA program and is a
fellow at OSU’s Center for the Humanities.
Second Sunday: The High Desert Poetry Cell
Sunday,
October 9, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM

Join the local authors of The High Desert Poetry Cell as they read from their work
at the monthly Second Sunday program in the Brooks Room at the Bend Public Library.
For the past five years, local poets John Martin, Don Kunz, John Kvapil, Peter Lovering
and Larry Jacobs have met monthly to discuss and critique each other’s poetry. In
2009, billing themselves as the High Desert Poetry cell, they decided to put their
work together into one volume and self-published a collection titled
The Guys’ Big
Book of Poetry. They now have a second volume called
The Guys’ Home Relationship
Maintenance & Improvement Poetry Manual, published by Two Ravens Publications.
Proceeds from the sale of their second volume are being donated to Saving Grace
of Central Oregon, a non-profit organization which provides services to the victims
of domestic violence.
Second Sunday: Freddy Vilches
Sunday,
September 11, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM

The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday are pleased to announce a presentation
called “Know South America: The Intersection of Literature and Music in South American
Culture” by Lewis and Clark Assistant Professor Freddy Vilches. In addition to his
Second Sunday appearance on Sunday, September 11th at 2:00 pm at the Downtown Bend
Public Library, he will also be giving his presentation on Saturday, September 10
at the Redmond Public Library at 3:00 pm. An open mic will follow the Second Sunday
reading.
Second Sunday: Know Local Authors!
Sunday,
August 14, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
12:30 PM
Over the course of two days, 19
local authors
take center stage at Deschutes Public Library. Writers, both experienced and new,
will share and sell their work on both days. The participating writers work in genres
ranging from historical fiction to how to books and everything in between.
On
Saturday,
August 13, 2011, the readings begin at 12:00 pm at the East Bend Public
Library and on
Sunday, August 14, readings begin at 12:30 pm at the Downtown Bend Public
Library. The participating writers applied to be a part of the reading which is
scheduled to be an annual event at the library each August. The readings are free
and open to the public.
Second Sunday: Maxine Scates
Sunday,
July 10, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 PM
The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday are pleased to present a reading
by Eugene poet Maxine Scates. An open mic will follow the reading.
Maxine Scates was born and raised in Los Angeles, she received a B.A. in English
from CSU Northridge, where she studied with the poet Ann Stanford, whose selected
poems she later c0-edited with another former student of Stanford’s, the poet David
Trinidad.
She is the author of three books of poetry, “Undone” (New Issues 2011) “Toluca Street”
and “Black Loam”..Her poems have been widely published in such journals as AGNI,
The American Poetry Review, Ironwood, The Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares and
The Virginia Quarterly Review. Her work has received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry
Prize, The Oregon Book Award for Poetry, the Lyre Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. She
has taught at Lane Community College, Lewis and Clark College and most recently
Reed College. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.
Second Sunday: Telling It Slant - A Poetry Writing Workshop with Judith Montgomery
Sunday,
June 12, 2011
Deschutes Public Library Administration Building
11:00 a.m.

The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday are offering a free poetry writing
workshop with local writer Judith Montgomery.
Workshop participants will set the stage for writing by exploring “phantom narrator”
poems by Cornelius Eady and contemporary twists on fairytales to open possibilities
for alternative narrators—real or imagined bystanders, animals, inanimate objects,
and other non-traditional storytellers—to see how differently events may be understood,
undercut, and illuminated. Participants will write, at least twice, in response
to photographs, paintings, and other artifacts to explore both the apparent and
the many hidden stories. Participants are encouraged to bring such artifacts to
share.
Judith Montgomery is the author of “
Passion”
(Oregon Book Award for Poetry 2000), “
Red
Jess” (2006), and “Pulse and Constellation” (2007). Her
poems appear in such journals as Ars Medica, The Bellingham Review, Dogwood, and
Northwest Review. She lives and writes in Bend, where she is working on two new
manuscripts with the aid of fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission and Literary
Arts.
Second Sunday: Matt Love
Sunday,
May 8, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 p.m.

The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday have partnered to bring Newport writer
Matt Love to Bend. He will be reading a selection from his work on Sunday, May 8,
2011 in the Brooks Room of the Downtown Bend Library at 2:00 p.m. An open mic will
follow. This event is free and open to the public.
Frustrated with life, teaching, and the inability to become a writer, Matt Love
escaped Portland in 1997 at 33 years of age and moved to the Oregon Coast. A year
later he became caretaker of the 600-acre Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
During his decade as caretaker, he helped restore the grounds to fuller ecology,
discovered a love for teaching, and reinvented himself as a writer and historian
who established Nestucca Spit Press. “
Gimme
Refuge: The Education of a Caretaker” is his passionate 777-page account
of his teaching career and his experience as a caretaker. “Becoming the caretaker
of the refuge was the biggest break of my life”, said Love. “I sincerely doubt I
would have found my voice as a writer or developed my unique love for Oregon without
this incredible opportunity. It also helped me return to teaching and to embrace
and love that profession”.
Second Sunday: Jawad Khan
Sunday,
April 10, 2011
Downtown Bend Public Library
2:00 p.m.

Jawad Khan, of the Muslim Education Trust of Portland, discusses the poetic nature
of the Quran and its influence on both eastern and western literature. Open mic
follows.
Jawad Khan is a member of the Muslim Education Trust’s Board of Directors as well
as the MET’s Outreach Committee. He teaches language arts and social studies classes
at the Oregon Islamic Academy High School and takes an active role in counseling
and advising OIA students in preparation for college.
Second Sunday: Sarahlee Lawrence
Saturday,
March 12th, 2011
Redmond Public Library
2:00 p.m.
Second
Sunday: Sunday, March 13th, 2011
Downtown Bend Library, Brooks Room
2:00 p.m.

The Deschutes Public Library is proud to present two readings by Sarahlee Lawrence,
local author of the memoir,
River House.
An exquisite blend of memoir and nature writing,
River House is a young woman’s
story about returning home. Sarahlee Lawrence grew up in remote Central Oregon and
spent her days dreaming about leaving her small town for adventure. As a young woman,
she set out on a worldly white water rafting trek, but ironically, following her
passion along the most coveted arteries of the world led her right back to the least
expected place—to her dusty beginnings and her family’s ranch—to her River House.
Second Sunday: Ellen Waterston
Sunday,
February 13th
The Bend Public Library, Brooks Room
2:00 p.m.

Come celebrate
the release of Ellen Waterston’s new collection of essays,
Where the Crooked River Rises, A High Desert Home, at February’s
Second Sunday.
Where the Crooked River Rises was released in October 2010 by Oregon State
University Press. Each of the essays takes its inspiration from an aspect of
the high desert of Central Oregon, where Waterston lived and ranched for two decades. Since
it’s release,
Where the Crooked River Rises has received accolades
from a number of Northwest writers.
Ellen Waterston was recently rewarded the 2011/2012 Ann Werner writer-in-residence
by Fishtrap in Enterprise, Oregon. Her essays and poems have appeared in numerous
publications, including
Best Essays Northwest, High Desert Journal, Oregon Quarterly,
Ronde Dance and
New Poets of the American West. Her memoir,
Then There Was No Mountain, was rated one of the top ten books by the Oregonian
in 2003. She lives in Bend, OR where she is the executive director and founder
of The Nature of Words and president of the Writing Ranch.
Second Sunday: Suzanne Burns and Quinton Hallett
Sunday,
January 9th, 2011
The Bend Public Library, Brooks Room
2:00 p.m.

For January’s Second Sunday, Suzanne Burns will
take the stage and read a selection of her work. The reading will take place on
Sunday, January 9th, at 2:00 p.m. in the Brooks Room of the Bend Public Library.
This reading is free and open to the public, and an open mic will follow.
Local favorite Suzanne Burns is the author of
Misfits and Other Heroes, and the newly released chapbook
The Widow.
Burns’ first poetry collection
Blight, debuted from Archer Books in 2001,
and she has followed up with several since that time. Her poetry collection,
The
Flesh Collection, was released in 2005 and was a Foreword Magazine Book
of the Year Finalist in the poetry category. Other work includes
The Dream Tree,
and
Double Header, plus her most recent poetry chapbook
The Widow.
She has performed her work at Wordstock in Portland. She lives and writes in Bend,
Oregon, and is currently working on a novel.
Second Sunday: Alan Contreras
Sunday,
December 12th, 2010
The Bend Public Library, Brooks Room
2:00 p.m.

The Deschutes Public Library and Second Sunday are pleased
to present a reading by nature writer and poet Alan Contrares on Sunday, December
12th, 2010 in the Brooks Room of the Bend Public Library at 2:00 p.m. An open mic
will follow the reading, and this event is free and open to the public.
Alan Contreras is a fourth-generation Oregonian and has been birding and writing
about birds since he was 11 years old. His main publications are
Birds of Oregon (2003),
Handbook of Oregon Birds, (2000),
Afield: Forty Years of Birding the American West (1997), all
from Oregon State University Press, and the poetry collection
Night Crossing from
Cranedance. He lives in Eugene and works for the Oregon State Assistance
Commission.
Second (First) Sunday in Collaboration with Nature of Words: Paulann Peterson
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Bend Public Library, Brooks Room
11:00 a.m.

Paulann
Petersen is Oregon’s newly appointed Poet Laureate. The author of four chapbooks
and four full-length collections, she is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
A fifth collection,
The Voluptuary, will be released in November 2010 by
Lost Horse Press. Petersen was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award for
A Bride of Narrow Escape. She is the force behind the annual series
of William Stafford birthday Readings held in January throughout Oregon. Peterson
has taught poetry workshops for colleges, libraries, and writers’ conferences, including
Fishtrap, Oregon Writers’ Workshop, Oregon State Poetry Association, and The Northwest
Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College. An open mic for Nature of Words writing
workshop participants will follow the reading.
Second Sunday: Denise Fainberg
Sunday,
October 10, 2010
Bend Public Library, Brooks Room
2:00 p.m.

Denise
Fainberg has lived in the Northwest since 1988. A freelance, writer, her work has
appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Spiritual Life, and other publications.
When she’s not traveling, she teaches foreign languages at Central Oregon Community
College. She lives in Bend and is the author of
Oregon: An Explorer’s Guide, and most recently,
Washington: An Explorer’s Guide.
Happy 6th Birthday Second Sunday!
Sunday,
September 12, 2010
Bend Public Library, Brooks Room
2:00 p.m.
To celebrate six years of outstanding live prose and poetry, local poets and writers
will read a selection of past guest readers. An open mic will follow and cake and
refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public.