{"title":"Brian Doyle","description":"BRIAN DOYLE (1956-2017) was the longtime editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon. He is the author of six collections of essays, two nonfiction books, two collections of \"proems,\" the short story collection Bin Laden's Bald Spot, the novella Cat's Foot, and the novels Mink River, The Plover, and Martin Marten. He is also the editor of several anthologies, including Ho`olaule`a, a collection of writing about the Pacific islands. Doyle's books have seven times been finalists for the Oregon Book Award, and his essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion, The American Scholar, The Sun, The Georgia Review, and in newspapers and magazines around the world, including The New York Times, The Times of London, and The Age (in Australia). His essays have also been reprinted in the annual Best American Essays, Best American Science \u0026amp; Nature Writing,  and Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies. Among various honors for his work is a Catholic Book Award, three Pushcart Prizes, the John Burroughs Award for Nature Essays, Foreword Reviews' Novel of the Year award in 2011, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2008 (previous recipients include Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, Flannery O'Connor, and Mary Oliver).","products":[{"product_id":"mink-river-paperback","title":"Mink River - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eLike Dylan Thomas' \"Under Milk Wood\" and Sherwood Anderson's \"Winesburg, Ohio, \" Brian Doyle's stunning fiction debut brings a town to life through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a small fictional town on the Oregon coast there are love affairs and almost-love-affairs, mystery and hilarity, bears and tears, brawls and boats, a garrulous logger and a silent doctor, rain and pain, Irish immigrants and Salish stories, mud and laughter. There's a Department of Public Works that gives haircuts and counts insects, a policeman addicted to Puccini, a philosophizing crow, beer and berries. An expedition is mounted, a crime committed, and there's an unbelievably huge picnic on the football field. Babies are born. A car is cut in half with a saw. A river confesses what it's thinking. . . \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's the tale of a town, written in a distinct and lyrical voice, and readers will close the book more than a little sad to leave the village of Neawanaka, on the wet coast of Oregon, beneath the hills that used to boast the biggest trees in the history of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51370109960415,"sku":"9780870715853","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/T8qN0B30Nn9780870715853.webp?v=1789150378"},{"product_id":"the-plover-paperback","title":"The Plover - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeclan O Donnell has sailed deep into the vast, wild ocean, having had just finally \u003ci\u003eenough\u003c\/i\u003e of other people and their problems. He will go it alone, he will be his own country, he will be beholden to and beloved of no one. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut the galaxy soon presents him with a string of odd, entertaining, and dangerous passengers, who become companions of every sort and stripe. \u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of their adventures and misadventures in the immense blue country one of their company calls Pacifica. Hounded by a mysterious enemy, reluctantly acquiring one new resident after another, Declan O Donnell's lonely boat is eventually crammed with humor, argument, tension, and a resident herring gull. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBrian Doyle's \u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e is a sea novel, a maritime adventure, the story of a cold man melting, a compendium of small miracles, an elegy to Edmund Burke, a watery quest, a battle at sea---and a rapturous, heartfelt celebration of life's surprising paths, planned and unplanned.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51370207936735,"sku":"9781250062451","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/o8HPUr526Z9781250062451.webp?v=1789153644"},{"product_id":"the-mighty-currawongs-paperback","title":"The Mighty Currawongs - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eBoth intimate and irreverent, \u003ci\u003eThe Mighty Currawongs\u003c\/i\u003e taps into the small truths of what makes a life worth living-from the oddly hilarious to the cherished and pure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51370488627423,"sku":"9781597090520","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/9qCWOxZHoo9781597090520.webp?v=1789161439"},{"product_id":"bin-ladens-bald-spot-other-stories-other-stories-paperback","title":"Bin Laden's Bald Spot: \u0026 Other Stories: \u0026 Other Stories - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWelcome to the peculiar and headlong world of Brian Doyle s fiction, where the odd is happening all the time, reported upon by characters of every sort and stripe. Swirling voices and skeins of story, laughter and rage, ferocious attention to detail and sweeping nuttiness, tears and chortling--these stories will remind readers of the late giant David Foster Wallace, in their straightforward accounts of anything-but-straightforward events; of modern short story pioneer Raymond Carver, a bit, in their blunt, unadorned dialogue; and of Julia Whitty, a bit, in their willingness to believe what is happening, even if it absolutely shouldn t be.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eFunny, piercing, unique, memorable, this is a collection of stories readers will find nearly impossible to forget: \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... The barber who shaves the heads of the thugs in Bin Laden s cave tells cheerful stories of life with the preening video-obsessed leader, who has a bald spot shaped just like Iceland.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... A husband gathers all of his wife s previous boyfriends for a long day on a winery-touring bus.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... A teenage boy drives off into the sunset with his troubled sister s small daughters...and the loser husband locked in the trunk of the car.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... The late Joseph Kennedy pours out his heart to a golf-course bartender moments before the stroke that silenced him forever.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... A man digging in his garden finds a brand-new baby boy, still alive, and has a chat with the teenage neighbor girl whose son it is.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... A man born on a Greyhound bus eventually buys the entire Greyhound Bus Company and revolutionizes Western civilization.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... A mountainous bishop dies and the counting of the various keys to his house turns... tense.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e... A man discovers his wife having an affair, takes up running to grapple with his emotions, and discovers everyone else on the road is a cuckold too.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnd many others.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51370492657887,"sku":"9781597099158","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/8K2jrC1TIf9781597099158.webp?v=1789161446"},{"product_id":"one-long-river-of-song-notes-on-wonder-paperback","title":"One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom a \"born storyteller\" (\u003ci\u003eSeattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e), this playful and moving bestselling book of essays invites us into the miraculous and transcendent moments of everyday life.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Brian Doyle passed away at the age of sixty after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted readers who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the twenty-first century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt a moment when the world can sometimes feel darker than ever, Doyle's writing, which constantly evokes the humor and even bliss that life affords, is a balm. His essays manage to find, again and again, exquisite beauty in the quotidian, whether it's the awe of a child the first time she hears a river, or a husband's whiskers that a grieving widow misses seeing in her sink every morning. Through Doyle's eyes, nothing is dull. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDavid James Duncan sums up Doyle's sensibilities best in his introduction to the collection: \"Brian Doyle lived the pleasure of bearing daily witness to quiet glories hidden in people, places and creatures of little or no size, renown, or commercial value, and he brought inimitably playful or soaring or aching or heartfelt language to his tellings.\" A life's work, \u003ci\u003eOne Long River of Song\u003c\/i\u003e invites readers to experience joy and wonder in ordinary moments that become, under Doyle's rapturous and exuberant gaze, extraordinary.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51375564030175,"sku":"9780316492881","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/bYnDRR4XfM9780316492881.webp?v=1789203743"},{"product_id":"wonder-is-a-lovely-place-to-be-365-days-of-wit-wisdom-and-irrepressible-imagination-hardcover","title":"Wonder Is a Lovely Place to Be: 365 Days of Wit, Wisdom, and Irrepressible Imagination - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWonder Is a Lovely Place to Be\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e gathers 365 essays, poems, and sketches from Brian Doyle, revealing his keen eye for grace and an imagination shaped by his Catholic faith.\u003c\/b\u003e Drawing from both beloved and previously unpublished works, this collection invites readers to notice holiness woven through ordinary, everyday moments.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith a keen eye for detail--the slap of flip-flops on pavement, a kindergartener released to the playground with arms flung open and untied shoes, a no-look pass in a neighborhood pickup basketball game--Doyle shapes small moments into stories and aims them straight at the human heart. His writing is a summons to live with wide eyes and open hearts in a fragile world: \"Do not tire, do not despair, . . . be relentless, be merry, . . . be alert, be attentive--for there is holiness all around us like an ocean.\" In Doyle's vision, holiness lives in pain as much as it does in joy, and \"no moment is mundane, every moment is a miracle, every moment is a meal.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDoyle wrote everywhere--on envelopes, inside book jackets, on the backs of menus--driven by the conviction that we are \"here so briefly\" and called, each day, to \"see clear\" and \"bring [our] best selves to bear.\" Some of these fragments became essays published around the world; many others remained scattered across his desk like driftwood from a life immersed in language. Now his wife, Mary Miller Doyle, gathers his writing--including never-before-seen stories, poems, sketches, and even cartoons--into a daily collection that invites readers into his sacred imagination on all year long.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA born story catcher, Brian Doyle was a master of the brief essay, the tight poem, and the achingly beautiful anecdote. Though the magazine editor, novelist, and author of \u003ci\u003eOne Long River of Song\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Book of Uncommon Prayer\u003c\/i\u003e died of brain cancer at sixty, readers continue to return to his work for the way it reveals the joyful, wild mystery of holiness humming through all things.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376789749983,"sku":"9781932057416","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/z5Uj0NEoaC9781932057416.webp?v=1789225342"},{"product_id":"shimmer-of-something-lean-stories-of-spiritual-substance-paperback","title":"Shimmer of Something: Lean Stories of Spiritual Substance - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eProse poems, chants, litanies, simple songs, cadenced prayers, brief bursts of rhythmic observation, elegies to little moments that are not little at all in the least whatsoever--welcome to the melodic world of Brian Doyle's \"proems,\" swirling with voices unreeling tales, souls telling stories, moments photographed with ink. Accessible, easy to read, blunt, brief, and sometimes unforgettable, \"these are not poems,\" says the author, \"but life set to the music of poetry.\" In A Shimmer of Something, Brian Doyle's characteristic humor and sincerity combine to make this collection a delight to read. From his conviction that miracles breed ripples that do not cease, to his lack of faith about the life of an elderberry bush, to the amusing story of a friend's experience of driving the Dalai Lama to Seattle, to the humorous experience of his second Confession, to an intimate story of love and loss, Doyle's lean stories of spiritual substance inspire, entertain, and captivate.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378503155935,"sku":"9780814637142","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/JQuJqb1STA9780814637142.webp?v=1789257922"},{"product_id":"the-kind-of-brave-you-wanted-to-be-prose-prayers-and-cheerful-chants-against-the-dark-paperback","title":"The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be: Prose Prayers and Cheerful Chants Against the Dark - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eProems, taut tales, small stories with rhythm and blues and grace and bruise and laughter between the lines. Brian Doyle's \u003ci\u003eThe Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be\u003c\/i\u003e is a book of cadenced notes on the swirl of miracle and the holy of attentiveness; a book about children and birds, love and grief and everything alive, which is to say all prayers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378508857567,"sku":"9780814646519","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/oDG_yUX28L9780814646519.webp?v=1789257935"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/brian-doyle.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}