John Ross Reading and Memorial April 29

Northtown Books will host a reading of poems and stories in memory of John Ross on Friday, April 29th from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The well-known journalist, who died this past winter in Mexico, has been celebrated in Mexico City and San Francisco’s Mission District, both for his writing and his devotion to be-bop and rebellion.

John Ross lived in Humboldt County for a decade beginning in the mid ‘70’s, mostly in the three or four blocks of downtown Arcata. His first poetry chapbooks were read and published on H Street, and while others were issued from San Francisco and Mexico City and his journalism brought him international renown, the poems and stories of those years appear throughout his work.

The event will be hosted by Jerry Martien and will feature old friends and fellow writers reading from John’s work, followed by a performance of some of his poems set to the music of SquarPeg.

A memorial ceremony will take place the following Sunday, May 1, in Trinidad. Meet in front of the elementary school at 2 PM, rain or shine. Bring a single red flower. Be prepared to walk to the cemetery (about a quarter mile). Arrangements will be made for anyone unable to walk this distance (email cemone@reninet.com in advance).

For much more about John and his life and work, go here.

John Ross 1938-2011

We're very sad to note the recent passing of poet and journalist John Ross, a longtime friend of Northtown Books.

John was a fixture on the poetry scene in Arcata in the 70s, and after he moved his home base to Mexico he'd still make regular stops in Humboldt on his various book tours. We'll miss him.

His friend Frank Bardacke gives a good account of John's life and work at Counterpunch.


Photo from the North Coast Journal Blogthing.

GROUP PORTRAIT

(l-r) Erik Syverson, Monika Zerzan, Jay Herzog, Dante Digenova, Deric Mendes, and standing in for Simone Goldenberg, Max (in front).


The staff at Northtown recently was asked, along with several other local independent bookstores, to help judge the North Coast Journal's flash fiction contest.

The group picture above was taken for the paper by Bob Doran.

NORTHTOWN'S FIRST TV AD

Northtown Books does a little couch potato outreach and airs a television ad.

Watch it below in all its glory.

A Book of Local Interest

Working the Woods, Working the Sea, a new anthology of poems and prose from the Pacific Northwest, has a connection to Northown Books above and beyond the fact that work by longtime local authors Jim Dodge, Jerry Martien and Freeman House are prominently featured.

It's co-edited by Jerry Gorsline, who founded Northtown Books (originally just called "The Bookstore") in 1965 before selling it to Jack Hitt a year later (the store was actually located in the north part of town back then).

As with many of the publications from Empty Bowl Press, a sense of place is integral to the pieces included here, and as the title might suggest, it favors writing about lived experience and a physical connection to the landscape over heady abstraction.

The book also includes work by Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and numerous others, and is available now here at Northtown Books.