Author's Table
There's nothing like a good book.
Oregon Authors Return to State Fair
By William L. Sullivan (For info contact: Bill Sullivan, sullivan@efn.org, 541-335-9433)
After a two-year pandemic pause, booksignings are returning to the State Fair, with 49 Oregon authors scheduled to discuss and autograph their works from August 26 to September 5. This year the fair in Salem has made an effort to attract a variety of popular authors, many of them debuting new books.
The Oregon Authors Table will once again be in Columbia Hall, between the fair’s quilts and cakes. Unlike those exhibits, however, the authors will now take turns, with no more than a dozen on hand at a time.
Some authors will attend the fair every day, but each day a different author will be featured as the headliner. Enjoy learning more about each days' headliners and their books below left, and see the complete schedule of author appearances below right!
Friday, August 26: Joe R. Blakely
Best known for his Oregon history books about come-from-behind sports teams, this 82-year-old Eugene author has turned his attention to the pioneer photographer who saved Oregon’s wildlife refuges. The resulting biography, “William Lovell Finley”, is an illustrated account of the man who lugged a giant box camera with glass negatives to treetops, swamps, and ocean islands in the early 1900s in order to document the plight of Oregon’s birds.
Saturday, August 27: Kurt Cyrus
Featured by the New York Times, Kurt Cyrus of McMinnville has illustrated two dozen popular children’s picture books. His current bestseller is “Be A Good Dragon”, but “Fix That Clock” won the Oregon Spirit Award, and his counting books are library legends. The latest is “Trillions of Trees”, preceded by “Billions of Bricks” and the classic, “20 Big Trucks in the Middle of the Street.”
Sunday, August 28: Mark Fearing
This Portland author claims that he might have been raised by geese or gophers. More likely, he grew up in Minnesota and helped to animate TV shows in LA before coming to Oregon to write and illustrate children’s books. In his latest, “Castle Gesundheit,” the Baron Von Sneeze's sniffling is keeping the village of Handkerchief awake, perhaps because of his many cats?
Monday, August 29: Melanie Campbell
After earning a degree from the University of Oregon while she was struggling as a single mother, Campbell learned enough about life to write women’s fiction with inspiring themes. Her debut novel, “One Woman Falling”, won the 2020 Oregon Christian Writer’s Cascade Award. In “One Way Home”, a recovering alcoholic battles to escape her family’s past.
Tuesday, August 30: David Espinoza
Uplifting sports stories are the subjects of this Salem author’s books. His memoir, “Half Blind with Full Vision”, describes his own effort to overcome childhood trauma to succeed using sports as counseling. His new book, “Oregon Latino Basketball Tournament” recounts how a Woodburn event wound up uniting the Latino community with pride.
Wednesday, August 31: Elizabeth Rusch
This Portland author/editor has written dozens of children’s books about everything from volcanoes to pianos. “A Day With No Crayons” won the Oregon Book Award. In her newest, “Zee Grows a Tree”, a girl is born on the same day that a Douglas fir seedling sprouts on her parents’ Christmas tree farm. As the two grow up together, readers learn a lot about trees and little girls.
Thursday, September 1: Stephen Holgate
The spy novels of this Portland author ring true because he really did serve with the State Department in Morocco and Sri Lanka. His latest book, “To Live and Die in the Floating World”, is a thriller with another setting he knows, having once worked on the canal boats of Burgundy, France. Gifted with a craggy face and oratorical baritone, Holgate sometimes serves as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator.
Friday, September 2: William Burt
An Aurora, Oregon teacher of American Sign Language for the deaf, Burt has become a State Fair favorite for his “King of the Trees” fantasy books. The seven-part young adult series, set in a happy place somewhere between “The Hobbit” and “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”, opens when Rolin son of Gannon shimmies down an unusual tree to a land of grumpy griffins, evil sorcerers, dangerous batwolves, and prophecy.
Saturday, September 3: Jennifer Chambers
Host of the Hodgepodge podcast, this Lane County author’s first book was about surviving traumatic brain injury from a high school car crash. Since then she’s written biographies of other courageous Oregon women, including her latest, “Abigail Scott Duniway and Susan B. Anthony in Oregon: Hesitate No Longer".
Sunday, September 4: Jason Kilgore
A scientist at a Eugene biotech company, Kilgore has written scifi, poetry, and fantasy novels. In his new book, “Dragons of the Federation”, an Iron Dragon joins with a young female mage to stop an elvish conspiracy that might end the world’s magic.
Monday, September 5: Marina Richie
Kingfishers are those plucky top-knotted birds that dive into Oregon rivers to spear fish. Did you know they nest underground? In her nature book, “Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher”, Bend author Richie tracks this unusual bird clan from Montana to three continents and back.
Click on each day to see the
full list of that day's Authors!
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)
10am-8pm, Kurt Cyrus (children’s books)
10am-8pm, Craig Comer (fantasy)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, Lisa Lowell (fantasy)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-2pm, Tania Wall (Christian)
10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (history, novels)
2pm-4pm, Marilyn Milne (Tillamook history)
2pm-6pm, Micah Thorp (fiction)
4pm-8pm, Jennifer Rich (contemplation)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, Kurt Cyrus (children’s books)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, Lisa Lowell (fantasy)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)
10am-2pm, Bob Crites (memoir)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-4pm, Dan Armstrong (novels)
10am-4pm, Lynn Ash (adventure memoirs)
2pm-4pm, Angus Curran (mystery)
2pm-8pm, Craig Comer (fantasy)
2pm-8pm, Mark Fearing (children’s books)
4pm-6pm, Curt Angeledes (photography)
4pm-8pm, Beauford Averette (sci-fi)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, Kurt Cyrus (children’s books)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Mark Fearing (children’s books)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, David Hascall (historical fiction)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-2pm, Tania Wall (Christian)
10am-4pm, Dan Armstrong (novels)
10am-4pm, LeeAnn Kriegh (nature)
2pm-6pm, Dan Liberthson (historical thriller)
2pm-8pm, Craig Comer (fantasy)
4pm-6pm, Paul Fattig (memoir)
4pm-8pm, Beauford Averette (sci-fi)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, Melanie Campbell (novels)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-2pm, Deborah Handman (novel)
10am-2pm, Tania Wall (Christian)
10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (history, novels)
2pm-8pm, Patsy Brookshire (fiction)
4pm-6pm, Angus Curran (mystery)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-2pm, Lona Feldman (children’s book)
10am-2pm, Tania Wall (Christian)
10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (history, novels)
10am-4pm, Bob Crites (memoir)
12noon-4pm, Donna McFarland (children’s)
2pm-8pm, Patsy Brookshire (fiction)
4pm-6pm, Angus Curran (mystery)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Kayla Hansen (fantasy)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-2pm, Kay Runyan (memoir)
10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (history, novels)
12noon-4pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)
2pm-6pm, Elizabeth Rusch (children’s books)
2pm-6pm, Addie Boswell (children’s books)
2pm-8pm, Patsy Brookshire (fiction)
4pm-8pm, Lisa Lowell (fantasy)
4pm-8pm, E.H. Watts (Biblical science)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Kayla Hansen (fantasy)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-6pm, Sharleen Nelson (fiction)
10am-2pm, Catherine McGuire (fiction)
10am-2pm, Stephen Holgate (spy novels)
10am-2pm, Stephanie Shaw (children’s books)
10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (history, novels)
10am-4pm, Bob Crites (memoir)
2pm-4pm, Angus Curran (mystery)
2pm-8pm, Patsy Brookshire (fiction)
4pm-8pm, E.H. Watts (Biblical science)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)
10am-8pm, Craig Comer (fantasy)
10am-8pm, Kurt Cyrus (children’s books)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Kayla Hansen (fantasy)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (history, novels)
10am-4pm, Bob Crites (memoir)
2pm-8pm, Patsy Brookshire (fiction)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, Kurt Cyrus (children’s books)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-4pm, Dan Armstrong (novels)
10am-4pm, Lynn Ash (adventure memoirs)
10am-4pm, Jennifer Chambers (Oregon history)
10am-4pm, Pat Edwards (Oregon history)
2pm-6pm, Debra W. Alexander (novels)
2pm-8pm, Craig Comer (fantasy)
4pm-6pm, Curt Angeledes (photography)
4pm-8pm, Beauford Averette (sci-fi)
4pm-8pm, Mark Fearing (children’s books)
4pm-8pm, J.R. LaMar (children’s books)
4pm-8pm, Rosemary Lombard (poetry)
10am-8pm, Beauford Averette (sci-fi)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, Kurt Cyrus (children’s books)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (fantasy)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, J.R. LaMar (children’s books)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-12noon, Laura LeHew (poetry)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-2pm, Catherine McGuire (fiction)
10am-6pm, Evelyn Hess (memoirs, nature)
12noon-4pm, Eli Boschetto (hiking)
2pm-6pm, Laura LeHew (poetry)
2pm-8pm, Craig Comer (fantasy)
4pm-8pm, Beauford Averette (sci-fi)
6pm-8pm, Angus Curran (mystery)
10am-8pm, Joe Brown (fantasy mystery)
10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports)
10am-8pm, Kayla Hansen (fantasy)
10am-8pm, Gary Hartman (woodworking)
10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (fantasy)
10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)
10am-8pm, J.R. LaMar (children’s books)
10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)
10am-2pm, Carol Dare (historical novels)
10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (history, novels)
Headliner: 12noon-4pm, Marina Richie (birding memoir)
4pm-8pm, Beauford Averette (sci-fi)
