Placed: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon

by Irene Cooper (Editor), Ellen Santasiero (Editor)

An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon, Vol. 1 is a composition of entries collected in 2018 - 2020 based on place and phenomena unique to our pocket of the planet, from Warm Springs to Fort Rock to Burns and everywhere in-between. It includes 37 contributors writing their unique perspective and experience of the high desert. Started before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations, and the social and political upheaval of 2020, and completed just prior to the presidential election, Placed is a snapshot of our before, and a series of lenses by which to view our possible future.

180 pages, Paperback

Published October 26, 2020

About the author

Irene Cooper is the author of FOUND (Atmosphere Press, 2022), a psychological thriller set in the Colorado Rockies, COMMITTAL, poet-friendly spy-fy about family (V.A. Press, 2020) & spare change (FLP, 2021), finalist for the Stafford/Hall Award for poetry. She co-edited Placed: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon with Ellen Santasiero in 2021. Irene co-founded Blank Pages Workshops and The Forge, an online writing intensive, & supports AIC-directed creative writing opportunities at a regional prison.

Reviews

[Neb63 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Placed is a collection of short essays and poems about life in central Oregon and the wildlife, people, and fauna that inhabit it. The selection of writers chosen for this collection is diverse and each piece captures this area’s feel accurately.

As someone who has lived in central Oregon off and on for over ten years and has family that have lived here since 1980, it was exciting seeing this relatively forgotten part of an already obscure U.S. state represented in book form. Some essays are more focused on day to day life, while others focus more on the nature that make central Oregon distinct.

As much as I enjoyed this collection, I couldn’t help but feel like many of the essays could’ve been longer. Just when some of the best essays in this book become interesting, they end.

That being said, for those interested in what central Oregon is actually like, as opposed to what the tourism websites claim, this is nice and accessible collection of essays and poems to start with.