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Anglesey wins title of happiest place in Wales Property website Rightmove quizzed almost 20,000 people across the UK for its 2025 survey.

It’s called the Wet Coast for a reason

Thousands ready to evacuate as flooding hits Pacific Northwest An atmospheric river has caused torrential rain and flooding in parts of Canada and the United States.

Any excuse to go to pier 39

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This Thursday 10/10 from 2-6pm is our last market of the summer season at the ball field on Leif Erikson Drive and 35th Street. Join us as we return INSIDE for the winter! is graciously hosting our market EVERY OTHER Thursday from 2-6pm starting 10/24. ♥️ We’re re-grouping a couple weeks to ensure we aren’t landing on Halloween and Thanksgiving, and the vendors are excited for this first ever opportunity to continue year-round. Did we mention INSIDE??!! Yes, INSIDE!!!

Steve Prefontaine - A Pacific NW Running Legend!

"Never Stop Pre: The Enduring Inspiration of America's Greatest Sports Legend"

By Matt Love

“Pre was more than a name—it was a condition.” Ken Kesey

On May 31, 1975, Coos Bay, Oregon native Steve Prefontaine died in an automobile accident. At the time of his death, he held 14 American records in distance running.

Pre was 24 years old and already a legend in Oregon and the world of track of field.

A half century after his tragic end, his remarkable story continues to inspire others on a near mythological level to compete in a multitude of ways, from Phil Knight to a country singer to an Iraqi War vet to an impoverished high school runner to a man battling addictions to an obsessed sculptor to a writer and teacher on the brink of su***de and so many more.

In Never Stop Pre: The Enduring Inspiration of America's Greatest Sports Legend, Matt Love, prolific an award winning chronicler of modern Oregon history, races the reader through a decathlon of literary genres to investigate the ongoing phenomenon and spectacular influence of Steve Prefontaine.

“There has never been a cultural sensation quite like Steve Prefontaine, said Love. “Over the course of many decades, I kept running into people who were inspired by Pre to change their lives for the better. Pre has a way of doing that like no American athlete before or since. Never stop Pre. When he's no longer relevant in Oregon, Oregon is dead.”

Never Stop Pre is a lively 125-page book that breaks new documentary ground on Pre's remarkable story and introduces the reader to more than a dozen fascinating personal narratives that recount Pre's magic upon people's lives. It's a book about a unique sports legend whose short, meteoric life transcended awesome sporting accomplishments.

Available as a print or e-book on Amazon or Nestuccaspitpress.com and sold in select retail outlets around the Pacific Northwest.

https://www.nestuccaspitpress.com/ #:~:text=Nestucca%20Spit%20Press%20is%20proud%20to

We are hosting a midsummer writing work shop in July 2024! It's been a long time. We hope to see you there.

Over the years, Holt and I and our canine companions have hosted at least 30 writing workshops in our little home overlooking Young's Bay. Most of the workshops were taught by Matt Love. He now mostly resides in Portland and has a myriad of other responsibilities so he is not able to do many workshops here in Astoria.

Matt has been writing and publishing a series of pieces through Substack called the New American Diaspora. Most of the focus is on homeless folks in Portland but also those that are out on our Coast. If you have attended any of these workshops - you know you will see things from a whole new angle and may even find a new note to add to your voice as a writer.

Thanks to our friend and long-time workshop participant, Nancy Ferber, Matt is going to teach a Writing Workshop based on one of his latest pieces from the New American Diaspora - right here in our home in Astoria Oregon!

From Matt Love:

I have a novel idea for a writing workshop and I hope you can join me in Astoria on Saturday July 20th from 10-12:30. I'm calling the workshop “Responding to a Message of Heartbreak”.: Here is its unusual origin:

In March I saw something lying on the ground near a dumpster of a convenience store as I walked through the parking lot of the assisted living center where my dad is a resident.

I approached the curiosity and discovered a piece of cardboard roughly 18” by 18” with handwriting all over it in red and black ink. The size of the text varied.

I read the message. The writing was not in paragraph form. There was nothing linear about its appearance. It was more of a mishmash of riffs, declarations, confessions, digressions, screeds, lamentations, perhaps a kind of written jazz or tormented anti-valentine.

Some of the lines were:

If I die today, would anyone even notice? I doubt it. The devil will love me better.

I want to disappear and maybe they will miss me then...

Men are what's wrong with this world. “God” fu**ed up.

I thought I had my dream guy...instead he became my nightmare.

Guess I'm meant to die alone. Why am I so easy to forget. So easy to throw away?

3-08-24 / 2:04 am

Wouldn't you know it? I'm here alone again. Freezing cold.

Is love really the answer? I know it's the problem.

I took the message home and began writing up my thoughts about it immediately. I knew I wanted to teach a writing workshop with this cardboard message of heartbreak as the subject.

In the workshop, I will run participants through a series of writing and conversation prompts related to the message. We'll share some of our responses and conclude by writing a short piece inspired by the anonymous writer's words of anguish.

I hope you can join me and explore this message. It's always so wonderful to bring a group of writers together in Astoria who support one another. It's a unique community that provides immeasurable literary and psychic benefits.

The workshop will run from 10-12:30 and cost $50. Payment will be made at the workshop or in advance through PayPal. It will be held in a private home. Weather permitting, the workshop will be held outdoors on a lawn. In the case of inclement weather, the class will be moved indoors. The class is limited to 12 participants.

Matt

***************​​*****

To register send an email to me: [email protected] and I will forward to Matt.

I can tell you that every workshop that we have ever hosted has been a joy and a privilege. It's inspired several books and encouraged a lot of good writing! I hope you can make it.

I'm looking forward to it!

Jennifer, Holt & Mickey

Jennifer Nightingale
Astoria Oregon 97103
USA

Leaning

The no
Mickey line

I like be the icicle light

Get writing!

We want to hear from you! Writers Read Celebration is open to all writers of all ages.