October Writing Project: Jessica Mehta & Gary Lark

The ACE Writing Project is a monthly author reading series hosted by Art Center East. The October 16 Writing Project will feature two poets with recent titles published by Portland’s Airlie Press: Jessica Mehta and Gary Lark. Each author will read a selection of their work followed by time for discussion. An abbreviated community open mic will conclude the evening. The readings will begin at 7:00 pm; free admission.

Jessica Mehta, born and raised in Oregon and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is the author of numerous books including poetry, fiction, short story collections, and creative non-fiction. Her novel The Wrong Kind of Indian won gold at the 2019 Independent Book Publisher Awards. Mehta recently concluded a fellowship at Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington DC where she curated an anthology of poetry by incarcerated indigenous women. Her most recent poetry collection, Savagery, is a reflection on what it means to be indigenous in today’s increasingly hostile, post-colonial America. Reflecting on self, place, and space and with strong confessional leanings, Savagery creates a lens (and mirror) into indigenous issues and disparities while also providing a constant offering of hope.

Gary Lark is a retired librarian, storyteller, carpenter, janitor, salesman, and hospital aide who lives with his wife in Oregon’s Rogue Valley. Lark’s third book of poetry, Ordinary Gravity, drops you into the world of western Oregon logging towns in the fifties and sixties—a way of life undergoing change—with forays into the small towns, the woods, and on the rivers. Gary Lark is a keen, elegiac witness to the people in this world and the generation marked by the Vietnam War, and their hard-won wisdom and ironies. These poems and people “enrich the thin life of this planet,” as the title poem states. In life, one shouldn’t presume too much, but there are gains—”All you have to do is brave the thorns.”

The ACE Writing Project meets every third Wednesday, 7:00 pm at Art Center East. Open mic sign-up begins at 6:45 pm. The ACE Writing Project is always free and open to the public and is supported in part by the Oregon Poetry Association. Art Center East is located at 1006 Penn Avenue in La Grande. For more information visit www.artcentereast.org or call 541-624-2800.