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"Soldier to Advocate" November 11

image of Prof. Poet George Venn

Carol Knutson's writing and literature students at Clatsop Community College and the Coaster Theatre present Prof./Poet George Venn and his slide presentation and reading from his new work "Soldier to Advocate" concerning the relationship between Nez Perce Chief Joseph and C.E.S. Woods Veteran's Weekend, Sunday evening at 7 pm on Nov. 11, 2007 at the Coaster Theatre. Donations will be accepted at the door.

In SOLDIER TO ADVOCATE, George Venn (1943B) combines his diverse and distinguished talents. When he received the 1994 Stewart Holbrook Award for “outstanding contributions to Oregon’s literary life,” the presenting official said, “Few people know as much about our region as George Venn.” When he received the 1995 Andres Berger Award for poetry, The Oregonian described him as “One of the best-known and most respected poets in the state.” In 1995, the National Council of Teachers of English recognized his work with a Multicultural Publishing Award.

In a sense, Venn’s thirty-two year commitment to cross-cultural literacy and understanding culminates in SOLDIER TO ADVOCATE. That began in 1972 at Eastern Oregon University when Venn invited elders from plateau tribes to address his class on campus—the first such Native American literature course east of the Cascades. For the rest of his thirty-two-year career as Professor of English, he taught, encouraged, and published Native American students, writers, and writing. As Writer-in-Residence, his own publications include poems about Coyote, a memoir on the Upper Skagit, and an address (forthcoming) on the Nez Perce fire myth, “Beaver and the Grande Ronde River.” On retiring in 2002, he received the Distinguished Teaching Award from Eastern Oregon University.

In 1970, while teaching and completing his M.F.A. at the University of Montana, Venn first read the outrageous story of the betrayed non-treaty Nez Perces. In 1976, while teaching at the Chief Joseph Summer Seminar in Wallowa County, Venn heard Alvin Josephy tell that tragic story again. Years later, while serving as General Editor of the nationally-praised OREGON LITERATURE SERIES, he became acquainted with the life and writing of Charles Erskine Scott Wood. Drawn by Wood’s complex relationship with Joseph, Venn has written and lectured about Wood’s writing since 1995.

Distinguished alumnus of Albertson College of Idaho, Venn is the author of four other books, most recently WEST OF PARADISE, finalist for an Oregon Book Award. In 2005, his collection, MARKING THE MAGIC CIRCLE, was selected by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission as one of the 100 best Oregon books in the past two hundred years. “Forgive Us...,” a poem published in OFF THE MAIN ROAD, was awarded a Pushcart Prize, and other poems have been anthologized in seventeen different state, regional, and national collections. His prose has been published in over thirty different periodicals and anthologized in sixteen collections. He now lives and writes in the Grande Ronde Valley.