PICO IYER was born in Oxford, England, to parents from India, and was educated at Eton, Oxford and Harvard. He is the author of two novels and seven works of nonfiction, on globalism, migration, crossing cultures and literature, among them Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul and, most recently, The Open Road, an account of 35 years of talks and travels with the Dalai Lama. A writer for Time since 1982, he publishes up to 100 articles a year, in venues from National Geographic to the New York Times, PortlandMagazine to The New York Review of Books. Since 1992 he has been living in a two-room apartment in rural Japan.
DAVID LASKIN has written books and articles on a wide range of subjects including history, weather, travel, gardens and the natural world. His book, The Children’s Blizzard, won the Washington State Book Award and the Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award for Nonfiction. David’s other titles include Braving the Elements: The Stormy History of American Weather and most recently The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War. A frequent contributor to The New York Times Travel Section, he also writes for the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, and Seattle Metropolitan. He and his wife Kate O’Neill, the parents of three grown daughters, live in Seattle with their two sweet old dogs.
PRAMILA JAYAPAL is the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone), a grassroots nonprofit organization created in November 2001 in response to the backlash against immigrant communities of color. She has been involved in international and domestic social justice issues for over 15 years, working across Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as domestically. In 1995, she was awarded a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in India and write about development and societal issues. Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland, grew out of that experience
EVA CASTELLANOZ—traditional artist, curandera (healer), activist, and teacher—is a leading spokesperson for Oregon's Latino community. She has received numerous arts awards, including a National Heritage Award in 1989 for her coronas, the floral crowns used in Mexican rituals. Oregon and National Public Radio programs have explored her life and work. She served on the Oregon Arts Commission from 1997 to 2001, and in 2010 the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affiairs honored her for community service. Castellanoz lives in Nyssa, Oregon, near seven of her nine children and many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Special Gathering Guests
ELLEN WATERSTON lives in Bend, Oregon, where she is the director of The Nature of Words. Her memoir, Then There Was No Mountain, was rated one of the top ten books by the Oregonian in 2003 and earned her an appearance on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer. Her poems have appeared in Naugatuck Review, Cadence of Hooves, Deer Drink the Moon, High Desert Journal, Ronde Dance and other reviews and anthologies. Her awards include the 2009 and 2005 WILLA Award
in Poetry and the 2007 Obsidian Prize in Poetry. Where The Crooked River Rises, a collection of her award-winning personal and nature essays about Central Oregon’s High Desert, was published by OSU Press in the fall of 2010. She has been awarded the 2009 Island Institute Writing Residency in Sitka Alaska and the 2010 Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology Writing Residency at the Oregon Coast. Ellen joins us this year as the Werner Writer-in Residence at Fishtrap.
LARRY COLTON is the only person to have pitched in the Major Leagues and been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Since baseball he has taught high school, worked for Nike, and published hundreds of magazine articles for publications such as Esquire, New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Ladies Home Journal. His book Goat Brothers was a main selection for the Book of the Month Club. His next book, Counting Coup, was the winner of the Frankfurt e-book of the year award. His most recent book, No Ordinary Joes, about four submariners from WWII, was published in October 2010. Additionally, he is the founder of two non-profit programs: Community of Writers, dedicated to improving writing instruction and student achievement in Oregon schools; and Wordstock, the acclaimed Portland Book Festival. Larry will be offering a talk during the workshop week on how to write a winning book proposal.
PICO IYER was born in Oxford, England, to parents from India, and was educated at Eton, Oxford and Harvard. He is the author of two novels and seven works of nonfiction, on globalism, migration, crossing cultures and literature, among them Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul and, most recently, The Open Road, an account of 35 years of talks and travels with the Dalai Lama. A writer for Time since 1982, he publishes up to 100 articles a year, in venues from National Geographic to the New York Times, Portland Magazine to The New York Review of Books. Since 1992 he has been living in a two-room apartment in rural Japan.
DAVID LASKIN has written books and articles on a wide range of subjects including history, weather, travel, gardens and the natural world. His book, The Children’s Blizzard, won the Washington State Book Award and the Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award for Nonfiction. David’s other titles include Braving the Elements: The Stormy History of American Weather and most recently The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War. A frequent contributor to The New York Times Travel Section, he also writes for the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, and Seattle Metropolitan. He and his wife Kate O’Neill, the parents of three grown daughters, live in Seattle with their two sweet old dogs.
PRAMILA JAYAPAL is the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone), a grassroots nonprofit organization created in November 2001 in response to the backlash against immigrant communities of color. She has been involved in international and domestic social justice issues for over 15 years, working across Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as domestically. In 1995, she was awarded a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in India and write about development and societal issues. Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland, grew out of that experience
EVA CASTELLANOZ—traditional artist, curandera (healer), activist, and teacher—is a leading spokesperson for Oregon's Latino community. She has received numerous arts awards, including a National Heritage Award in 1989 for her coronas, the floral crowns used in Mexican rituals. Oregon and National Public Radio programs have explored her life and work. She served on the Oregon Arts Commission from 1997 to 2001, and in 2010 the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affiairs honored her for community service. Castellanoz lives in Nyssa, Oregon, near seven of her nine children and many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 
ELLEN WATERSTON lives in Bend, Oregon, where she is the director of The Nature of Words. Her memoir, Then There Was No Mountain, was rated one of the top ten books by the Oregonian in 2003 and earned her an appearance on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer. Her poems have appeared in Naugatuck Review, Cadence of Hooves, Deer Drink the Moon, High Desert Journal, Ronde Dance and other reviews and anthologies. Her awards include the 2009 and 2005 WILLA Award
in Poetry and the 2007 Obsidian Prize in Poetry. Where The Crooked River Rises, a collection of her award-winning personal and nature essays about Central Oregon’s High Desert, was published by OSU Press in the fall of 2010. She has been awarded the 2009 Island Institute Writing Residency in Sitka Alaska and the 2010 Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology Writing Residency at the Oregon Coast. Ellen joins us this year as the Werner Writer-in Residence at Fishtrap.
LARRY COLTON is the only person to have pitched in the Major Leagues and been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Since baseball he has taught high school, worked for Nike, and published hundreds of magazine articles for publications such as Esquire, New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Ladies Home Journal. His book Goat Brothers was a main selection for the Book of the Month Club. His next book, Counting Coup, was the winner of the Frankfurt e-book of the year award. His most recent book, No Ordinary Joes, about four submariners from WWII, was published in October 2010. Additionally, he is the founder of two non-profit programs: Community of Writers, dedicated to improving writing instruction and student achievement in Oregon schools; and Wordstock, the acclaimed Portland Book Festival. Larry will be offering a talk during the workshop week on how to write a winning book proposal.