The Authors of the OE
Lars Nordström was born in 1954 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he lived until 1974. He was educated at the University of Stockholm, Portland State University, and Uppsala University, where he received his Ph.D. in American literature in 1989. He is the recipient of several Fulbright and Swedish Institute grants, as well as a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Fellowship. In 1988, he settled on a small vineyard in Beavercreek, Oregon, where he farms winegrapes, writes, and translates. Nordström has published poetry, prose, interviews, translations, and scholarly material in books and magazines in many different countries.
David Oates writes about nature and urban life from Portland, Oregon. His books include City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary (OSU Press, 2006), and Paradise Wild: Reimagining American Nature (OSU Press, 2003). His essays and poetry have appeared in many periodicals, including Orion, Earth Island Journal, Creative Nonfiction, Northern Lights, High Country News, the Oregonian, ISLE, Yellow Silk, and Poetry/LA. His book of essays about asserting joy and creativity in an era of propaganda, lies, and torture is entitled What We Love Will Save Us (Kelson Books, 2009).
Kris Olson has degrees from Wellesley College (1969) and Yale Law School (1972). She was a federal prosecutor with U.S. Attorney Sid Lezak (1974-1984), associate dean at the Northwestern School of Law (1984-1994), and U.S. Attorney (1994-2001). Olson was senior counsel to Congressman Earl Blumenauer, retiring in 2003 to write a biography of Kathryn Harrison. She is chair of the Spirit Mountain Community Fund and serves on the boards of the ACLU, Artists Repertory Theatre, Lezak Project, Metropolitan Public Defender, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, Trust for Public Land, and Westwind Stewardship Group.
Chet Orloff is director emeritus of the Oregon Historical Society and adjunct professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the Portland State University. From 1972 to 1975, he was a teacher in Afghanistan. He is the founder and editor of the journal Western Legal History and was senior editor of the Oregon Historical Quarterly. He has been active in museum and historical agency affairs since 1970 and now operates Oregon History Works, advising and consulting in historical interpretation and public history.
Polly Owen is the Manager of the Oregon Hazelnut Industry Office. The office is comprised of the Hazelnut Marketing Board, which administers Federal Marketing Order 982; the Oregon Hazelnut Commission, which is responsible for production research; and the Nut Growers Society of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, which is the industry trade association. She has worked for the industry since 1995. Prior to that, she raised cattle and sheep and served as Chairman of the National Livestock and Meat Board. She has a degree in Food Science and Technology from Oregon State University.
Cornelia Paraskevas was born in Athens, Greece, where she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Athens (B.A. in English, 1980). With the help of a Fulbright scholarship, she completed her M.A. in Linguistics at the Univeristy of Kansas (1982). She earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Univeristy of Kansas in 1987. Her research interests include language and immigration, the contact zone between grammar and writing, style, and pedagogical linguistics. Since 1989, she has been teaching linguistics and composition theory at Western Oregon University. She is married and has two children.
Paul Pavlich is chair of the History and Political Science Department and pre-law adviser at Southern Oregon University where he was a colleague of Les AuCoin. He is a member of the Oregon State Commission on Legal Aid. He has a B.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary, an M.A. in Political Science from UNLV, and a J.D. from University of California, Berkeley. Prior to teaching at SOU, he practiced law in Portland with Miller, Nash, Wiener, Hager and Carlsen and had a brief career in the NFL as a tight end for the Cleveland Browns.
David Pelinka is a graduate of Portland State University and has worked as a Systems Analyst at Portland Community College since 1996. His interest in OMSI began in the 1960s, when he visited the Washington Park museum and attended summer science classes there. He currently volunteers at OMSI part-time and is gathering material for a comprehensive history of the museum.
Susan Pesznecker is a fourth-generation Oregonian whose grandparents and great-grandparents settled and farmed the land in what is today known as Malin. She is a registered nurse and a college English teacher, earning an M.A. in nonfiction writing from Portland State University in 2007. Susan currently teaches composition and creative writing at Portland State University and Clackamas Community College. She is the author of Crafting Magick with Pen and Ink (Llewellyn, 2009) and has published nonfiction essays in Oregon Quarterly and Oregon Humanities.
Joe Peterson has taught both History and Education courses at Southern Oregon University, recently authored a history of Ashland, Oregon published by Arcadia Publishing, and works with regional teachers to improve how American History is taught.
