Thursday, July 21, 7 PM: Local Author Brenda Johnson: Reading, Q&A and Signing

Brenda says: I’ve written a memoir, and you might say, "What? Brenda isn't famous."

Right. But the famous--the Nelson Mandelas and Maya Angelous, write autobiographies. Those who want to tell a story, and we all have a story about love and loss, the wise and worn, the silly and sublime, write memoirs. Poet Jennifer O'Lear writes, "Life is found in the dust that falls," and Barry Lopez says, "The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them."

 Get Over It (maybe not all of it) is a collection of stories about things I want to get over, from loss of a marriage to being judgmental, as well as wonderful moments I don't want to get over.

 It's a sorry time in our nation and world, both fraught with suffering and sorrow. The horror in Ukraine is palpable. Voting restriction, gun violence, and loss of personal choice in our country carry their own horror. Lopez tells us to give our stories away where they are needed. Maybe mine will offer something to someone.

You may find your story in Get Over It (maybe not all of it).

Brenda’s bio: I spent my early years on a ranger station on the wild and scenic Selway River in the panhandle of Idaho. Miss Calvert taught me to read in a one-room schoolhouse before my family moved over the mountains to Montana, where I swam in new rivers with my brother and sister. The Big Sky still draws me home every summer.

I studied Camus and poetry in college and learned to love the written word in all its glorious forms. As a public school reading specialist, I turned students onto the code, the word, and the story.

​I live in Eugene, Oregon, with a fine little dog on a pretty little street with very fine neighbors. I hike, bike, ski, and garden. Children—neighbors, students, my kids and their kids, are an important part of my life. https://www.brendajohnsonauthor.com/about-the-author