Friday, November 3, 2023 at 7:00pm
Free Admission
Or watch it online at fishtrap.org
Fishtrap Fireside continues its 11th season of readings and stories from local, Wallowa County writers on Friday, November 3 featuring Susan Pesti-Strobel, Pamela Royes and Marika Straw.
Fireside is a monthly reading series designed to feature diverse voices of local writers. Each month offers a fresh look at what people of the West are thinking about and writing down. Since the program launched in 2013, more than 150 Wallowa County writers have stepped up to the podium or logged on virtually to share their work. Audiences have enjoyed a variety of storytelling including poems, fiction, history, humor, memoir, sci-fi fantasy, essay, travelogue, food stories, comedy, and much more.
Fishtrap Fireside takes place in Fishtrap’s new event space, the historic Bowlby Building on Main Street in Enterprise. Admission is free although donations are always welcome. For those who can’t make it to Enterprise, anyone anywhere can take in Fireside online at Fishtrap.org and on Fishtrap’s YouTube Channel.
November’s Fishtrap Fireside is sponsored by Copper Creek Mercantile
More on the featured readers for November below:
Susan Pesti-Strobel
When she was born in a town called Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary, Susan Pesti-Strobel knew immediately that her life would be intertwined with words, language in general, and languages. Later, after becoming an English major by accident, she also realized that her life was to take on a Jack Londonesque hue: always in a westerly direction, she moved to and lived in several countries and states. She taught Hungarian to Germans, English to spouses of NATO personnel from all over Europe, after-school art to DOD school students, college writing to students in four states, some Shakespeare, and some Gothic literature, also in college. In between she popped popcorn at a movie theater, managed an arts and crafts center, worked as a kindergarten aid, and volunteered in several thrift stores. She is sure she did a lot more. Throughout, she kept playing with words for fun and for sanity. In 2003 she joined a poetry group at Utah State University and launched a career as a promising young poet in her fifties.
Pamela Royes
Pamela Royes lives on a farm with her husband Skip and an undetermined number of (from big to small) cows, horses, mules, dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, and honeybees. But no pigs. Pam loves planting things, baking sourdough bread, playing her ukulele, and writing. She is currently writing a novel for young adults, and working on a book of essays about people, food, and landscape.
Marika Straw
Marika Straw is a queer, nonbinary, Jewish writer, musician, and community organizer from Wallowa County. After 2½ years as a domestic violence advocate, they are shifting back towards creative endeavors such as writing, performing as a singer-songwriter, and collaborating with an amazing team to create a nonprofit called People Like Us serving Wallowa County’s LGBTQIA+ population. Marika’s writing honors include being published in New Moon magazine at age 14, being featured at Fishtrap Fireside, and being awarded “Best Opinion/Editorial Article of 2011-2012” for their college newspaper column on human rights. You can also find Marika sharing their original songs for piano and voice at the Range Rider on November 9th from 7-9 pm.