The Long Play

PODCAST: Five Local Writers on Place, Poetry, and Old Portland

Fiction writers Margaret Malone and David Shafer are joined by poets Samiya Bashir, Anis Mojgani, and Elyse Fenton to read their work and talk about Portland as inspiration.

By Fiona McCann September 1, 2016

This summer, we gave three of Portland’s top writers—Margaret Malone, PEN/Hemingway finalist for her short story collection People Like You; David Shafer, author of 2014’s techno-thriller Whiskey Tango Foxtrot; and Diana Abu-Jaber, author most recently of the memoir Life Without a Recipe—a challenge: write a short story set in the Pacific Northwest, to the prompt “That summer..." 

Here, Malone and Shafer read the stories that resulted—“The Buried Forest” and “Night Air,” respectively—and talk about place as inspiration, writing from the opposite gender, and ’90s-era Portland. Then, we hear from poets Samiya Bashir, Anis Mojgani, and Elyse Fenton, who drew inspiration from all over, from the Vaux's swifts at Chapman Elementary School to a bear in a tree in Northeast Portland. 

Download the Long Play on iTunes.

Audio production by Samala Coffey

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