Cascadia Daily, Jan. 30, 2018

New fiction from Anca Szilágyi in Cascadia Magazine

Cascadia Magazine is pleased to publish our first original work of fiction, “Scrolling through the feed,” a story by Seattle-based writer Anca Szilágyi. She’s the author of the newly-released novel Daughters of the Air, and her piece in Cascadia Magazine is a darkly humorous vignette set in a surreal version of Seattle. It’s got zombies, orange chicken, people running around with steak knives, and the deep dark woods of Seattle’s Interlaken Park. Check it out!

And thanks to Alexis Hilliard for her collage illustration entitled– appropriately enough– “Cascadia.” Alexis grew up in Portland,  is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts, and now lives in Brooklyn.


BC government announces new roadblocks in path of pipeline

The National Observer reports that British Columbia’s NDP government has announced a series of new regulations that could put KinderMorgan’s plan to construct a second pipeline across BC in jeopardy. The new restrictions concern risk of spills into the Salish Sea. Meanwhile, Canada’s National Energy Board is hearing testimony from a variety of communities who would be negatively affected by the pipeline. In southern Oregon, tribal nations are joining in opposition to a proposed LNG pipeline, while the Puget Sound Clean Air agency ordered a temporary halt to construction of an LNG terminal in Tacoma, citing concerns raised by environmentalists and tribes.

A new self-managed homeless camp opens in Portland

Activists have constructed what could be a new 30-bed homeless camp in a park in Northeast Portland’s Wilkes neighborhood. The “Village of Hope” is self-managed, has its own code of conduct, and awaits to see if it will be swept away by police. And at the Georgia Straight, Stanley Woodvine, a writer who is homeless, reports on how authorities are cracking down on those who live in camper vans and cars through Vancouver.

Immigration activist Villalpando to be at State of Union

Maru Mora Villalpando, the Seattle-based immigration activist who’s recently been targeted by ICE for deportation, will be present at Trump’s State of the Union speech this evening as a guest of WA senator Maria Cantwell, Northwest Public Radio reports. Seattle’s Real Change has an interview with Villalpando: “Trump has decided to utilize ICE as a police force to silence a dissident.” And the Washington state legislature is debating a bill to ensure that DACA immigrants continue to receive college financial aid, despite their status.

With a little help, fishers are returning to the Cascades

Fishers are cute! The mink-like critters that once roamed the Cascade range were nearly exterminated in the 19th century. But two years ago, biologists sought to reintroduce fishers into the wild, and a reporter with KCTS caught up with them in the south Cascades of Washington state. Evidence points to a small population taking hold. “[the biologists] inspect branches for tufts of fur. They find their first clue piled on a log at the base of the tree.“They love taking poops on logs,” Lewis says.”

Oregon Book Award finalists announced

Literary Arts today announced the finalists for the 2018 Oregon Book Awards, which include prizes for fiction, poetry, young adult, and non-fiction. Some of this year’s finalists include Lidia Yuknavitch, Omar El Akkad, and Samiya Bashir. Top awards will be announced at a gala event on April 30.

“Hibernation, Warming,” a poem by Kevin Craft

This month’s poet in residence at the Seattle Review of Books is Kevin Craft, the editor of the distinguished journal Poetry Northwest. Today’s poem is “Hibernation, Warming,” reflections on a home in winter:
“You’d rather stay under this blanket agreement.
Not any storm can house you off the cuff.
The troposphere brushes your cold turned cheek.”
Be sure to click the link above and read the whole poem!


Signing off for today from Cascadia Daily world headquarters in the Jet City…  –Andrew Engelson

Photo credits: fisher by Phil Johnston, Lost Coast Interpretive Association, via Bureau of Land Management