Kelso grad's memoir describes coming of age with climate change at April WordFest

Brianna Craft will read from her memoir, Everything That Rises, at WordFest on Tuesday, April 11, 6-8 p.m., at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

Craft graduated valedictorian of her Kelso High School class. Today she lives in London, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development. She started as an intern in 2011 at the UN climate negotiations. Four years later, she witnessed the adoption of the Paris Agreement first hand. Craft now works to further equity in the negotiations for the world’s poorest countries, which have done the least to cause the climate crisis but are the most vulnerable to its impacts. She holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from Brown University and is an alumna of the University of Washington.

Douglas Maynard will read from his new book, Hero of the Yacolt Burn. A retired high school/middle school history teacher with a bachelor’s degree from Central Washington University, and a master’s degree from Washington State University, Maynard has lived nearly all his life in the Lewis River Valley. “As a child, I often stood looking out my grandparents’ large picture windows and wondered why so many trees looked like they were charred,” he writes. “I was told it was because of the Yacolt Burn.” This became the inspiration for his second book. Maynard is also the author of Three Summers, about the relationship between two cousins. He now divides his time between Woodland, Washington, and Indo, California.

Grays Harbor poet Carrie Born will read from her collection, titled Diesel Cats' Poetry, about the world of heavy construction and other blue-collar work. Born graduated from St. Martin's University with a master's in counseling psychology and completed a 6,000-hour union heavy equipment apprenticeship. She has two poetry zines in the Timberland Library.

An open mic will follow the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6-8 p.m., in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Alan Rose at http://www.alan-rose.com.