Interviews / Reviews

Genevieve Hudson in The Portland Review:

“Fiercely observant … Heald does something few writers can and many hope to do: he writes about what he knows, what we all know, in a way that helps us know it deeper, realer, and more importantly. He tells us what it means to be him, and in doing so, what it means to be human.”

Bitch:

“The collection of personal essays covers well-trod territory—unrequited love, sexual misadventures, Olympic careers, the success and self-loathing of writing for a living—but does so with tenderness, intelligence, and wit, exploring nostalgia and sentiment without being overly nostalgic or sentimental.”

Think Out Loud:

“Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension is a kind of field guide to Heald’s twenties. In his telling, this is a decade of self-definition and self-discovery — a time that’s both painful and thrilling. Above all, Goodbye is about dealing with disappointment, and learning how to embrace a life that doesn’t fit the pattern you’d set for yourself.”

The Oregonian:

“Heald is a talented writer whose essays are funny and personal and sneaky-deep, in the style of Geoff Dyer or John Jeremiah Sullivan, only with a strong Northwest grounding.”

The Portland Mercury:

“Heald dials in the perfect amount of self-awareness—just enough to feel intimate and clear, but not so much that things get navel-gazey or indulgent.”

Lisa and Michael on the Late Night Library podcast:

“Michael had a ponytail and he played the trumpet. And he was working on a novel, which was really the final nail in the coffin.”

Interview on NW Book Lovers:

” … I guess I was trying to understand where things had gone wrong.”

Kill Your Darlings (Australia!):

“Although there is something fun and nostalgic about the CYOA aesthetic as recaptured by Love is Not Constantly Wondering, it serves a serious function: the dissonance between the ‘choices’ and the narrative serve as a reminder that being in a destructive relationship is ultimately an irrational abandonment of agency.”

SF Weekly:

“One More for the People is an intimate, hilarious, affecting collection, one that stakes out new territory between talk, journal, memoir, and essay … “

Vol 1 Brooklyn:

“… Grover has made something more essential: a wrenching, frustrating, moving account of one very particular life — and its decidedly universal relevance.”

Interview with Martha on The Jefferson Exchange. (Scroll down to Feb 14 podcast)

Interview with Martha on Fried Gold podcast.

The Portland Mercury’s “Best Local” list of 2011:

” … these books would’ve made it onto this list on their own merits, but they also mark the debut of a noteworthy new Portland publisher.”

Eugene Register Guard:

” … Grover pays the world a warm, thoughtful and funny sigh, even when it’s asking her to scream.”

NW Book Lovers:

A Zinester’s Path to Publishing

The Oregonian:

“Grover has had brain operations and endured a terrible succession of hospitals and treatments — but her wry, observant take on what’s happening is often quite funny. She’s a natural storyteller with a smart sense of pacing who’s able to convey her experiences in a way that’s uplifting without getting all “movie of the week” on her readers.”

Bitch:

“One More for the People is a beautiful, substantial book, both in content and design.”

The Portland Mercury:

” … there were several moments where I found myself putting down Portlander Martha Grover’s One More for the People to take deep, stabilizing breaths … it’s never self-pitying, and it provides a totally fascinating window into what it’s like to be young and sick.”

Paper Fort (Literary Arts):

“Though this is technically a compilation of Grover’s hilarious and heartbreaking zine Somnambulist, in my opinion it coheres into one of the freshest, most compelling memoirs I’ve ever read. Without the slightest trace of bathos but quite a lot of humor, Grover details her struggle with Cushing’s Disease, whose 81 symptoms include dramatic changes to her appearance, not to mention the dreaded possibility of moving back in with her eccentric family. Published by promising upstart Perfect Day Publishing, and featuring a letterpress-printed cover, this is also hands down the best-looking book of 2011.”

Conversation with Vol 1 Brooklyn:

As we head into the middle of November, I think it’s safe to say that Lisa Wells’s collection Yeah. No. Totally. (released by the Portland-based indie press Perfect Day Publishing) is a safe bet to be recorded as one of my favorite books of the year.

Interview with the Charleston City Paper:

“The New Whatever”

Bitch:

And in case you missed ‘em the first time around …

The Stranger (here and here)

The Portland Mercury (interview)

The Willamette Week (interview with Lisa, Michael, Jeremy, & Wilson about THIS! FEST)

and speaking of THIS! FEST:

WWeek

Mercury

Oregon Live