Go! Eastern Oregon

ENTERPRISE  — The final Fishtrap Fireside of the season takes place Friday, April 4, 7 p.m. at Fishtrap, 107 W. Main St.

The event features readings from two Wallowa County favorites, Nathan Slinker and Kirsten Rohla, plus a special guest from neighboring Union County, Nate Lowe.

Since the program launched in 2013, more than 170 Oregon writers have stepped up to the podium to share their work. Audiences have enjoyed a variety of creative writing, including poetry, fiction, history, humor, memoir, sci-fi, essays, travelog, food stories and much more.

Admission to Fishtrap Fireside is free although donations are always welcome. Light snacks are provided and drinks are available for purchase. An intermission takes place after the featured readings followed by an open mic. Five open mic spots are available. Writers of all ages and experience are encouraged to sign up beginning at 6:30 p.m. For those who can’t make it to Enterprise, anyone anywhere can take in Fireside online at Fishtrap.org and on Fishtrap’s YouTube Channel.

April’s Fishtrap Fireside is sponsored by Good Groceries.

Featured Readers

Nate Lowe is a writer, teacher and college administrator. A Midwest farm kid turned college writing professor, rurality has always been a touchstone for his career, writing, and personal life. In 2017 he was hired as dean at Eastern Oregon University, an opportunity to advance his career dedicated to education and student success while nurturing his family’s love of remote and wild places. Over the years, Lowe’s creative essays — many of them about the farm and ranch folks he grew up with — have appeared in such journals as “Ascent,” “South Dakota Review,” “Blood Orange Review,” “Beecher’s Magazine” and “The Chattahoochee Review.”

Kirsten Rohla lives in Joseph, and has been writing her whole life. She is an enthusiastic life-long learner, loves a relaxing day on the lake and works hard to keep her dog in the good life. She has a bachelor’s in creative writing and secondary education, a master’s in curriculum and instruction, an editing certificate, and taught literature and writing for 15 years.

Nathan Slinker has published poems in many journals including “Third Coast,” “Mid-American Review,” “The Greensboro Review” and “Kenyon Review Online.” He has been a Fishtrap fellow, a semi-finalist for the “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize and he was a finalist for New River Press’s Many Voices Prize. He runs Alder Slope Nursery just outside of Enterprise.