Waucoma Bookstore, in partnership with Oregon State University Press, is pleased to present a virtual event with Tina Ontiveros in celebration of the release of her memoir, rough house. Ontiveros will be joined in conversation by writer Keenan Norris.
rough house was selected as one of the twenty great reads for the October Indie Next List, a national booklist of top new release books recommended by independent booksellers.
A story of growing up in turmoil, rough house recounts a childhood divided between a charming, mercurial, abusive father in the forests of the Pacific Northwest and a mother struggling with small-town poverty. It is also a story of generational trauma, especially for the women — a story of violent men and societal restrictions, of children not always chosen and frequently raised alone.
While some elements of Ontiveros’s story are universal, others are indelibly grounded in the logging camps of the Pacific Northwest at the end of the twentieth century, as the lumber industry shifted and contracted. Tracing her childhood through the working-class towns and forests of Washington and Oregon, Ontiveros explores themes of love and loss, parents and children, and her own journey to a different kind of adulthood.
Poet Kim Stafford said, “In spite of her struggle, there is something so plucky and honest about this book’s narrator, you will be converted to a new view of your own troubles. You will look at your own life through the lens of this book, knowing with Ontiveros that 'certain beauties can only be seen in the complication of hardship.' This kid’s got the goods to survive, and this book’s got a big story for you.”
Ontiveros grew up in The Dalles and lives in Hood River. She teaches Writing and Literature at Columbia Gorge Community College.
Norris is the author of Brother and the Dancer and By the Lemon Tree. He teaches American Literature and Creative Writing at San Jose State University and serves as a guest editor for the Oxford African-American Studies Center.
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