Featured on September 15, 2007

Tonight’s featured guest is Martha Gies. Martha is a writer, teacher, and human-rights activist on multiple continents in multiple languages. I suspect she might rank those passions in a different order than I have. And she is a very attentive person.
 
I first met Martha some years ago when I enrolled in one of her workshops at Marylhurst University. One of my daydreams is to someday accompany Martha on one of her workshops in Mexico. I can personally attest to the level of attention she pays to her students. Her writing attests to the attention she pays to the rest of the world.
 
A fourth-generation Oregonian, Martha has been publishing her work for more than 30 years. She studied fiction with Raymond Carver, and her publishing credits include short stories, screenplays, and her first book, Up All Night, a collection of profiles of the people who keep the world running while the rest of us are sleeping.
 
In what feels like another life, I once worked the graveyard shift as a policewoman and jail matron. I know that “night shift” truly is a different world. But where I have occasionally wondered about the person delivering my paper at 5 a.m. or the late-night DJ on the radio, Martha sought out 23 of these nearly invisible people, interviewed them, followed them in their nightly routines, then wrote their stories for the rest of us to know them.
 
The stories in Up All Night ring true to me. She lets her subjects speak for themselves about what is important and about the realities of their worlds. These glimpses into the mostly unseen mechanics of our modern world are fascinating. I confess I read the book the first time in a single sitting.
 
Up All Night is available at the book table for purchase during the break, and Martha will be available to sign your copy. If you’ve ever wondered what happens at the zoo after dark, or what it’s like to take care of pediatric cancer patients through long nights, here’s your chance to find out.

For more information about Martha www.veracruzworkshops.com
and http://marthagies.blogspot.com/

Introduction by Marianne Klekacz
Photo by Carla Perry