The Clackamas print., November 14, 2007, Page 4, Image 4

ulture
Kate Gray: instructor extraord
naire, active in the community
Art;
Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007
Descriptive
author visits
campus
, Kyle Steele
gas.
The evening started with a
little delay caused by the ever-
prevalent problem of computer
difficulties, and then English
Seattle author Matt
Instructor Trevor Dodge gave a
Briggs read from his
short introduction before Briggs
took the podium to read. ?
works at the college
Briggs has won numer­
last Wednesday
ous awards for his books of
short stories. His 2005 novel
The Stranger, a Seattle pub­ “Shoot the Buffalos” won him
lication, recently called author the American Book Award in
Matt Briggs a “genius of lit­ 2006.
Along with the awards, he
erature.”
In Roger Rook 220 of the has garnered good reviews
Literary Arts Center, on Nov. from such larger newspapers
7 Briggs read a selection of his as The New York Times and The
short stories to the gathered Seattle Times.
For this reading, he strayed
crowd.
People sitting comfortably away from his self-described
in unmistakably purple chairs “dirty, old man stories” and
intently listened to his works, read from a varied group of
witnessing the words that have tales that covered a gambit of
made him well-known in the subjects, from flying men to
a wart that gets a little out of
literary world. •
“It’s a story,” joked Briggs hand.
* His writing style merges
after telling a tale of a time
when a fact-checker asked him well-thought-out descriptions
of
events,
people
and
things with
a sense of
whimsical
fantasy. A bit
of dark humor
also
helps
move his sto­
ries from one
Author of three collections of
point to the
next.
short stories, "The Remains of
Those
River Names/' "Misplaced Al­
interested in
ice" and "The Moss Gatherers."
Briggs’ writ­
ing can access
his Web site
Recently published his first nov­
and blog at
www.seed­
el, "Shoot the Buffalo."
cake.com to
keep up with
his work. The
Winner of several prizes, in­
site also fea­
cluding The American Book
tures his ran­
Award and The Stranger Genius
dom thoughts
and a sidebar
Award.
outlining his
upcoming
readings.
|| The Clackamas Print
Continued from POET, Page 1
“What I mean by that is, a risk
can be trying out something in the
classroom,” she continued, “or con­
fronting someone who is not treating
a faculty member fairly, or volunteer­
ing at the Red Cross and going to
work at a shelter right after Katrina
hit”
Gray has taken these types of
chances and will continue to do so, a
trait which has led her to much suc­
cess throughout her 15-pius years at
the college.
As an English instructor, Gray
likes to “mix it up” with the courses
she teaches.
T love inter-disciplinary (teach­
ing),” she said. “I am teaching Arts
and Sciences 200.”
The class focuses on Africa, and
is a “lab science for non-science
people.”
As for her other classes, “poetry
writing would probably be my favor­
ite,” she said.
“I wanted to become an English
instructor because I loved writing
and it was a good fit,” she added.
Gray also enjoys traveling when
she finds the time.
wanted
to become
an English
instructor
because I
loved writing
and it was a
good fit,”
Kate Gray
English Instructor,
Full-time Faculty
Associate President
Recently, she went to Oxford,
England, to speak at the Sylvia Plath
Symposium, commemorating the
poet’s 75th birthday. Together with
a few other speakers, Gray spoke
about her use of Plath’s poetry j
teaching.
“After reading her poems
letters home, hearing recordin;
her reading, launching videos
pictures, students wrote a poet
Sylvia in Sylvia’s voice,” Gray i
in her proposal for the sympo<
She has her poetry class do
assignment each term.
Plath has significantly influe
Gray’s own poetry.
“She was a pretty intense ch
ter and fascinating,” she said. “I
studied her work a long time.”
Gray has an impressive res
when it comes to poetry. She
had her work published in i
magazines,
including P<
Northwest, The Seattle Review
The Oregonian.
In addition, in 2000, her t
book, Where She Goes, won the
Light Chapbook Contest
So with the many different
of her life, how does Gray ma
to keep from going insane? W1
her secret?
“How you balance it is you ft
your passion,” Gray simply sait
WHO IS
MATT BRIGGS?
—
M“1
—--------------- T
Coming This Week To Theaters.
11/16 - Love in the Time ofCholora, rated R, starring Javier Bardem, Giovanna
Mezzogiorno and Benjamin Pratt.
*
11/16 - Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, rated G, starring Dustin Hoffman,
Natalie Portman and Jason Bateman.
11/16 - Beowulf, rated PG-13, starring Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and
Angelina Jolie.
“I