Saturday, March 20, 1999

Barbara Drake

Barbara Drake received a BA from the University of Oregon in 1961, an MFA in 1966. She taught at the Department of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University from 1974 through 1983, was a visiting writer at Lewis & Clark College 1979-80 and 1982-83, and at Whitman College. She’s taught guest courses at Willamette University and Southern Oregon Community College, and since 1983 has been teaching writing and literature at Linfield College where she is a full professor in the English Department. Her teaching specialties include creative writing, Irish literature, American women writers, and environmental literature.

Her nonfiction book, Peace At Heart: An Oregon Country Life, was published by Oregon State University Press in 1998. Her books of poetry include Love At The Egyptian Theatre, Life In A Gothic Novel, What We Say To Strangers, Bees In Wet Weather, and Space Before A. She also wrote the textbook, Writing Poetry and is co-author of Concepts in Literature for grades 7-12.

Barbara Drake’s poetry and prose has appeared in numerous anthologies including the Prescott Street Reader, The Plain Truth of Things, O Poetry! and The Sumac Reader. Her articles, poetry, fiction and reviews appeared in Northwest Magazine, North American Review, Northwest Review, Centennial Review, Western Humanities Review, Green House, and Wormwood Review.

Barbara was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Graduation Award in 1966, a Northwest Arts Foundation grant to study British poetry in England during the summer of 1985, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1986, and the Edith Green Distinguished Professor Award from Linfield College in 1993.

She lives on a small farm in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range with her husband. They raise wine grapes and Romney sheep. She has eight adult children and six grandchildren. Her interests include photography, travel, hiking and art.

Dmea Roberts

Dmae Roberts is an Amerasian playwright, actress and radio producer. Her first Drammy-nominated full-length play was the autobiographical Mei Mei: A Daughter’s Song. Other plays include Breaking Glass, produced in 1995, Janie Bigo, The Journey of Lady Buddha, her multimedia play about Kuan Yin, and Picasso in the Back Seat, which received the Portland Drama Critics Circle award for Best Original Play in 1996, an Oregon Book Award in playwriting.

Dmae has also written and produced more than three hundred features, audio arts pieces and documentaries for National Public Radio, MonitorRadio, the Osgood Files, and Public Radio International.

Her honors include the George Foster Peabody award for her radio docu-play Mei Mei, an Oregon Institute of Literary Arts award, and grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts, and fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission and New Langton Arts.

Her 13-part radio series LEGACIES: Tales From America was hosted by James DePreist and broadcast on National Public Radio to more than one hundred stations. She just completed three one-hour radio documentaries distributed on National Public Radio called LEGACIES: Faith, Hope and Peace, winner of the Heart of America award for Best in Radio.

Dmae has also acted extensively on Portland stages as Mary Ann in ESCAPE FROM HAPPINESS, as Lizzie Borden in BLOOD RELATIONS, as Lady Macbeth in MACBETH, as Hortensio in TAMING OF THE SHREW (for which she received a Drammy nomination), and as Mistress Ford in MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, for which she received a Drama Critics Circle award.

As the executive producer of MEDIARITES, a non-profit organization dedicated to multicultural arts production in radio, theatre and literature, she continues her personal mission to create works that bring diverse communities together.

www.mediarites.org