Bookshelf Spring 2021

“BLACK POOL”

Dustin Morrow, film faculty

Emmy Award-winning director Dustin Morrow’s most recent film, “Black Pool,” made its streaming debut on Amazon Prime at the end of 2020. Set all in one night in a basement, the thriller centers on an Irish immigrant who believes he’s captured the man who murdered his father and, hammer in hand, is ready to make him pay. “Black Pool” explores Irish history and identity, as well as the lasting legacy of “The Troubles,” Northern Ireland’s 30 years of bloody conflict. Morrow was joined for this project by David Jordan (Rodriguez) ’15, producer; Michael Hull ’15, cinematographer; Connor Jones ’15, camera; Christina Dodge ’17, sound; and Jaden Fooks ’16, sound. “Black Pool” was screened at more than 30 film festivals, picking up dozens of awards, including “Best Thriller” from the Oregon Independent Film Festival. —JENNIFER LADWIG

Go to the film site

“AMERICAN DREAMER”

Tim Tran MBA ’88

This memoir, winner of a Best Indie Book Award, tells the story of Tim Tran and his journey from Vietnamese refugee to CFO of a multi-billion-dollar company. Tran escaped Vietnam after it fell under the Communist regime. He describes the despotism he survived, as well as the challenges he faced after arriving in Portland in 1979 with everything he owned in a plastic sack. Tran is the retired chief financial officer of Johnstone Supply.

See the book site

“CERTAIN AND IMPOSSIBLE EVENTS”

Candace Jane Opper MFA ’12

Still troubled by the death of a classmate who took his own life after musician Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994, Opper immerses herself in the cultural history of suicide in America in this investigative memoir, winner of the Kore Press Memoir Award as selected by author Cheryl Strayed. From middle school health classes to the influence of the internet and social media, Opper reveals how no individual suicide—well-known or hardly documented—exists in a vacuum.

See the publisher’s site

“CURLING VINES AND CRIMSON TRADES”

Kellie Doherty MS ’16

In book two of the Broken Chronicles queer adult fantasy novel series, rare goods trader Orenda just wants to live a simple life. But when her wife is kidnapped, she must complete a list of nearly impossible tasks and trades in order to get her back. The problem is, her best friend also has been given a list, and the final task is to kill Orenda. Doherty won a Rainbow Award for the first book in the series.

See the publisher’s site

“TOGETHER // UNTETHERED”

Ryan Petteway, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health faculty

Ryan Petteway, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health faculty, addresses the intersections of COVID-19, structural racism and racialized police violence in this poignant poem, written and performed soon after the 2020 shutdowns began. The winner of the 2020 National Poetry Month Award and a nominee for a 2021 Pushcart Prize, “TOGETHER // Untethered” is part of the series “Upon the Body: Poems of/to a Black Social Epi, Vol.II”

See the poem performed

We feature notable alumni publications of music, fiction, nonfiction and poetry in the Bookshelf section of the magazine every issue. To be considered, send press materials and an image of the work’s cover to psumag@pdx.edu.