Oregon Reads 2014 - William Stafford Centennial

Oregon reads 2014 and William Stafford's face

In 2009 the Oregon Library Association asked Oregonians to read the same books in celebration of the Oregon Sesquicentennial. In 2014, OLA is going to do it again. This time we are going to commemorate the centennial of Oregon’s most celebrated poet, William Stafford.  

Sherwood Public Library is celebrating with events, speakers and displays throughout 2014. Check out this page and displays in the Library all year for information .

The Oregon Library  Association  is organizing the statewide celebrations. Read about it  here.

picture of books

Fall Focus on: Sherwood Reads

Join us this Fall for a Community Reading experiment! We are encouraging everyone in Sherwood to read Every War has Two Losers between now and the end of the year as part of our year-long Oregon Reads centenary celebration of William Stafford.

Bringing together the themes of place, war and peace and both his prose and poetry writings, this book will serve as focus around which to look at the work of Stafford and his impact on Oregon and beyond. On December the 13th the Library will host a book discussion in our Community Meeting Room. Come and talk about what you liked (or didn't) about the book. What moved you and how (or if) it changed your mind about any of the themes it covers.

The first six people to register for our discussion will receive a free paperback copy of Every war has two losers. Ask at the front desk.

book cover

Suggested reading:

Every war has two losers by William Stafford In Every war... excerpts from journals and speeches, letters and other writings, including some of his poetry on the topic, are collected together and paint a portrait of a man deeply committed to peace.  A film of the same title was made based on the book.  The film explores Stafford's life and work through the prism of an impressive series of gifted writers and poets who either knew or admired him, conjuring a poetic vision of peace, beauty and serenity juxtaposed against the hellish backdrop of war. 

Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems by William Stafford
"[Ask Me] does what Stafford's poetry itself does—it performs a small, creaturely act of reaching out. . . . Honoring a beauty that escapes national boundaries, and throwing his lot in with the outcasts, Stafford celebrates otherwise neglected yet crucial areas of our personal and public experience. If poetry itself seems at times to be 'hallowed by neglect,' a book such as Ask Me goes a long way toward proving that perception wrong."—Star Tribune
"Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems is a wonderful one-volume introduction to Stafford's poetry."—Oregonian
 

Early Morning by Kim Stafford In Early Morning, Stafford's son Kim creates an intimate portrait of a father and son who shared many passions: archery, photography, carpentry, and finally, writing itself. But he also confronts the great paradox at the center of William Stafford's life. The public man, the poet who was always communicating with warmth and feeling-even with strangers-was capable of profound, and often painful, silence within the family. By piecing together a collage of his personal and family memories, and sifting through thousands of pages of his father's daily writing and poems, Stafford illuminates a fascinating and richly lived life. (review from Goodreads)

portrait of william stafford

Summer Focus on: War and Peace

This July we remember the start of World War I one hundred years ago. It is well worth noting that the "war to end all wars" as it was known, did not in fact end war, but ushered one of the more bloody eras in human history. William Stafford  was well known for his principled opposition to war. Stafford utilized both prose and poetry to discuss his anti-war ideas. From 1942 to 1946, William Stafford was interned in camps for conscientious objectors after refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army.  As a pacifist, he worked on conservation projects for Civilian Public Service, an alternative program for young men who refused to participate in World War II.   

Spring Focus: Poetry

April is National Poetry Month. April through June we will be celebrating poets and poetry,  especially focusing on Oregon's poets. William Stafford wrote poetry all his life and served as Oregon's fourth Poet Laureate from 1975-1990. OnApril 15th, we will be lucky enough to host an evening with Oregon's current Poet Laureate, Paulann Petersen. 

Stafford "is known for his unique method of composition, his soft-spoken voice, and his independence from social and literary expectations" according to the Poetry Foundation review of his life and work.  He was also one of the most accessible and well-known modern American poets. 

Listen to a William Stafford poem being read aloud here

February Focus on: Oregon, Stafford's chosen home

After World War II, Stafford took a position as a teacher at Chaffey High School in greater Los Angeles. In 1947, he was recruited by Lewis & Clark College president Morgan Odell, himself a conscientious objector in World War I. Stafford remained at the college until his retirement in 1979, with brief absences to teach at San Jose State University, and the University of Iowa and to make frequent reading and workshop tours. He was in demand for the remainder of his life for poetry readings and writing workshops, activities in which he had been a pioneer.

In 1970 he was named to a one-year position as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the office later known as poet laureate. Four years later, Governor Tom McCall appointed him Oregon’s fourth poet laureate, a position he held until August 1989. He lived in Lake Oswego until his death in 1998.  
[excerpted from The Oregon Encyclopedia]

An Oregon Message

by William Stafford

When we first moved here, pulled   
the trees in around us, curled   
our backs to the wind, no one   
had ever hit the moon—no one.
Now our trees are safer than the stars,   
and only other people's neglect   
is our precious and abiding shell,
pierced by meteors, radar, and the telephone.
From our snug place we shout
religiously for attention, in order to hide:   
only silence or evasion will bring
dangerous notice, the hovering hawk
of the state, or the sudden quiet stare   
and fatal estimate of an alerted neighbor.
This message we smuggle out in   
its plain cover, to be opened   
quietly: Friends everywhere—
we are alive! Those moon rockets   
have missed millions of secret   
places! Best wishes.
Burn this.

William Stafford, “An Oregon Message” from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1998 by William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Listen

​To archival recordings of poet William Stafford, with an introduction to his life and work. Recorded 1970 and 1978, Library of Congress.

January Focus on: William Stafford's Life

William Stafford (1914-1993) was one of the most prolific and important American poets of the last half of the twentieth century. Among his many awards, Stafford served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and received the National Book Award in 1963 for his poetry collection Traveling through the Dark. During his lifetime, Stafford wrote over sixty books of poetry that still resonate with a wide range of readers. Stafford's perspectives on peace, the environment, and education serve as some of the most articulate dialogs by a modern American writer. (information from OakKnoll press).

To celebrate Stafford's Centennial on January 17th of this year  we will be looking at the story behind the man, his family and the state he chose as his home for many years.

 Read an article on his life from the Oregon Encyclopedia.