The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Erica Berry, the Portland, Ore.,-based author of Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear, was named the 2023 Writer in Residence by the Writer’s Guild of Astoria. During her week as the writer in residence on the North Coast, Berry will make progress on her second nonfiction book, Hot Heads, which she describes as “a mix of cultural criticism, journalism and memoir exploring the influence global warming has on romantic love.” Berry’s exploration of the linkage of climate change and romantic love flows from an assignment by Outside magazine. Imagining the existence of love in the face of an impending ecological catastrophe, she said, “is critical for helping us cope.”

The directors of the Writer’s Guild, who selected Berry from among more than 30 accomplished applicants, were impressed by the way Berry’s writing weaves through and connects what may appear to be fragments of larger themes. A chapter of Wolfish, for example, links the reintroduction of wolves to Oregon to Aesop’s fable about the wolf and the shepherd boy and the author’s youthful tendency toward hyperbole.

Learn more at http://www.astoriavisualarts.org.