Books-Wood Wortman

I am the author of The Portland Bridge Book, the first and second editions published by the Oregon Historical Society Press in 1989 and 2001. After OHS went out of the business of books, I founded my own press, took out a loan on our house (with partner Ed Wortman’s collaboration) and published a third edition in 2006. It won a silver medal from Independent Publisher in 2007. Our latest project, funded in part by a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, is Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass: Poems and Bridges Real and Imagined by 70 Poets, with Directions for Five Self-Guided Explorations, also not a money maker.

I am a University of Portland alum (M.Ed., class of '98). Brian Doyle, editor of Portland Magazine, paid me for my first poem, $25, in 1994. It was years before I realized that being paid for a random poem was like winning the lottery. The Winter 2008 issue of Portland also includes one of my poems, and others are forthcoming. I've been a student of serious poetry since 2003. The American Society of Civil Engineers Oregon Section named me Journalist of the Year in 2007. Bridges and the free-lance life have been the means for genres to cross between my left and right brain.

My favorite byline involves yellow chalk. Looking Glass Bookstore, when it was on SW Taylor, published "Bridges that Open Like Oysters" on the sidewalk outside its front door for a few hours before a reading. I watched passersby leap out of their way to avoid my stanzas.

Sharon Wood Wortman	I've been a writer and often enrolled student since 1984, giving up full-time seniority at Union Pacific's Albina Yards to support a couple of kids with words. The gamble, despite my depression-born grandmother's protests, worked. I now have ten grandchildren of my own who don't miss many meals. I am the author of The Portland Bridge Book, the first and second editions published by the Oregon Historical Society Press in 1989 and 2001. After OHS went out of the business of books, I founded my own press, took out a loan on our house (with partner Ed Wortman’s collaboration) and published a third edition in 2006. It won a silver medal from Independent Publisher in 2007. Our latest project, funded in part by a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, is Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass: Poems and Bridges Real and Imagined by 70 Poets, with Directions for Five Self-Guided Explorations, also not a money maker. I am a University of Portland alum (M.Ed., class of '98). Brian Doyle, editor of Portland Magazine, paid me for my first poem, $25, in 1994. It was years before I realized that being paid for a random poem was like winning the lottery. The Winter 2008 issue of Portland also includes one of my poems, and others are forthcoming. I've been a student of serious poetry since 2003. The American Society of Civil Engineers Oregon Section named me Journalist of the Year in 2007. Bridges and the free-lance life have been the means for genres to cross between my left and right brain. My favorite byline involves yellow chalk. Looking Glass Bookstore, when it was on SW Taylor, published "Bridges that Open Like Oysters" on the sidewalk outside its front door for a few hours before a reading. I watched passersby leap out of their way to avoid my stanzas.
	The Portland Bridge Book, 3rd edition (Urban Adventure Press, 2006), won a silver award from Independent Publishers. The big river bridges of Portland-Vancouver profiled with photographs and drawings from the Historic American Engineering Study of the Willamette River bridges for the National Park Service/Library of Congress in 1999. The book Includes poetry, maps, a chapter on How and Why Bridges are Built (by Ed Wortman), glossary, Portland Transportation History Timeline, with emphasis on construction of the Willamette River Bridges, many illustrations and drawings, and stories. For example, where exactly the Fremont Bridge--the longest tied-arch bridge on this side of the world--cracked during construction. For more about the book, and for a virtual tour of the Morrison Bridge, go to <www.bridgestories.com>.
Available at many Portland-area independent bookstores and at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver	The Portland Bridge Book, 3rd edition (Urban Adventure Press, 2006), with Ed Wortman, 208 pages, soft cover, $24.95.
	Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass--Poems about Bridges Real and Imagined by 70 Poets, with Directions for Five Self-Guided Explorations (Urban Adventure Press, 2007), was funded in part by a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. The cover, by Joseph Boquiren, lays out Portland-Vancouver according to landmark bridge geography. How to find your way around the Portland-Vancouver area. Seven poems about bridges by the author, plus poems by William Stafford, Doreen Gandy, Lawson Inada, Ted Kooser, Dorianne Laux, Paulann Petersen, Ed Edmo, Walt Curtis, Judith Arcana, and 50 others.
Available at most Portland-area independent bookstores and at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver.	Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass--Poems about Bridges Real and Imagined by 70 Poets, with Directions for Five Self-Guided Explorations (Urban Adventure Press, 2007), edited by Sharon Wood Wortman and Kirsten Rian, with 37 interior drawings by Ed Wortman, maps by Scott Bronson, 264 pages, soft cover, $10,