The NW Authors Series will welcome Portland author Rachel King at 2:00pm on Saturday, February 22 at the Cannon Beach Library. Patrons can come to the library or join the talk from home via Facebook livestream.
King was a finalist for the 2024 Oregon Book Award for Fiction for her short story collection, “Bratwurst Haven.” Set in a small town in Colorado a decade after the Great Recession, “Bratwurst Haven” is a collection of twelve interrelated stories about the employees of the St. Anthony Sausage factory. King explores the struggles of the low-wage workers in the factory—a laid-off railway engineer, an exiled computer whiz, an older man with cancer but no health insurance—as they help and comfort one another in America’s postindustrial economy.
Rachel King is an editor and author of two poetry chapbooks, the novel People Along the Sand, which centers on the passing of the 1967 Beach Bill, and the linked short-story collection Bratwurst Haven, winner of a 2023 Colorado Book Award and finalist for a 2024 Oregon Book Award. Her short stories have appeared in journals such as One Story, North American Review, and Northwest Review, and her books have been featured in outlets such as the Oregonian, Boulder Weekly, and the Colorado Review. Inspired by her relatives’ and her own experiences, she often writes fiction that explores exile, land use issues, mental health, and/or workers’ rights. Rachel worked in editing jobs for over a dozen years, and currently assists in the labor and communication departments at a nurses’ union. When not writing or working, Rachel enjoys reading, walking, and acting.