Barbara Drake, professor emerita of English at Linfield College, will read from her latest work on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Reading room of the Jereld R. Nicholson Library at Linfield.
The memoir, “Morning Light: Wildflowers, Night Skies, and Other Ordinary Joys of Oregon Country Life,” describes her life in western Oregon’s Yamhill Valley and the lessons and adventures that arose from living in the country. What Drake thought would be a temporary relocation turned into an appreciation and exploration of rural life. Ultimately, she and her husband decided to remain living in the rural countryside as long as possible. “Morning Light” articulates the couple’s farm life experiences, which include training herding dogs, encounters with a man who lived on their farm 80 years before, and lessons in family and natural history.
Drake taught composition and women’s studies at Michigan State University before coming to Linfield College in 1983 to teach creative writing and develop the English Department’s new creative writing major. In addition to “Morning Light,” she is the author of “Peace at Heart: an Oregon Country Life,” which was an Oregon Book Award finalist in 1999. Drake’s books of poetry include “Driving One Hundred,” “Love at the Egyptian Theatre,” “What We Say to Strangers,” “Life in a Gothic Novel,” “Bees in Wet Weather” and “Small Favors.” Her writing appears in numerous literary magazines and anthologies.
The reading is part of Linfield’s Readings at the Nick series. It is free and open to the public, and sponsored by the Linfield Nicholson Library and the Linfield English Department. For more information, contact Susan Barnes Whyte at 503-883-2517, swhyte@linfield.edu.
