PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – On one of Calvin Trillin’s past pilgrimages to Portland to read to local fans, he decided to grab a bite at the bar of the hotel where he was staying. He remembers the meal, a Northwest specialty: smoked-salmon hash and a local beer.
“I realized right then that the lot of the traveling man had been lifted just a little,” the humorist said in a phone interview from New York City.
It’s not just the food that’s to Trillin’s liking when he visits Portland. It’s the vibes he feels in a city that’s crazy for literature and supportive of writers – the famous, the not-so-famous, and the many who manage to keep nursing hope they will someday get published.
Trillin is about to make yet another trip to Portland, this time to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of the nation’s most respected promoters of the written word: the nonprofit Literary Arts organization. Trillin, Elizabeth Gilbert and local poet Zach Schomburg are among those scheduled to appear at a birthday bash Literary Arts is throwing for itself – and for the local writers’ community – on Sept. 8 at Portland’s largest concert hall.
Nonprofits around the country promote writers and writing, such as The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Grub Street in Boston, the Richard Hugo House in Seattle, the 92nd Street Y in New York, Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, and Portland’s Literary Arts.