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Chuckanut Radio Hour featuring Frances McCue, author of Timber Curtain

Timber Curtain occupies a space between ramshackle and remodel. It starts with the demolition of a houseRichard Hugo House, the Seattle literary center where poet Frances McCue worked and lived. The poems were originally written as narration for McCues forthcoming (2018) documentary Where the House Was, but these cinematic poems engage with the material on the page and the fantastical, interwoven vision as only a book can. The poems spiral out to encompass icebergs, exorcisms, the refugee crisis, and the ethics of the myths-of-place we create for ourselves. The speaker is plainspoken, oracular, wry, indicting, and hopeful. Like the Seattle skyline, poems erase and recombine, censored but bleeding through into a landscape forever saturated with ghosts.

Frances McCueis a poet, essayist, reviewer and arts instigator. From 1996-2006, she was the founding director of Richard Hugo House in Seattle. In 2011, McCue became the first writer to win the Washington State Book Award for one book (The Bled, a poetry collection) and place as a finalist for a second book (The Car that Brought You Here Still Runs). The Bled also won the Grub Street National Book Prize and was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award. McCues new book, Timber Curtain, is a poetry narrative that traces the loss of an old building in Seattle and charts an artists dialogue with erasure and gentrification. Charles DAmbrosio calls it a Northwest Classic.

The Chuckanut Radio Hour, a recipient of Bellingham's prestigious Mayor's Arts Award, is a radio variety show that began in January 2007. Each Chuckanut Radio Hour includes guest authors, musicians, performance poet Kevin Murphy, and episodes of "As the Ham Turns" serial radio comedy, not to mention groaner jokes by hosts Paul Hanson, Kelly Evert, and announcer Rich Donnelly. The Chuckanut Radio Hour's first guest was Erik Larson and has since included Alexander McCall Smith, Elizabeth George, Cheryl Strayed, Tom Robbins and Garrison Keillor, among many others. Tickets for the Chuckanut Radio Hour are $5 and will soon be available at Village Books and BrownPaperTickets.com. Receive a free ticket with pre-purchase of Timber Curtain. The Radio Hour airs every Friday at 7am, Saturday evening at 7pm and Sunday at 9pm on SPARK RADIO, KMRE 102.3FM. Co-sponsored by the Whatcom Community College Community and Continuing Education, 12th Street Shoes, and Westside Pizza.