Modern classics from the Pacific Northwest

Bellingham’s own Kathryn Trueblood comes to mind here; your friendly critic picked up her most recent, very admirable story collection, “Take Daily as Needed,” on a recent trip to Ravenna’s Third Place Books in Seattle (your critic was visiting his mother). It is Trueblood’s fourth book, all of which have appeared from small (or very small) presses. This one is out of University of New Mexico Press, small indeed, yet it offers more plausible life, and recognizable human experience, than nearly anything marketed as literature by the big New York publishers these days.

Trueblood, who teaches English at Western Washington University, is especially good at depicting what happens to those who are burdened with sensibility but who struggle to make ends meet. As culture gets meaner, as resources are stripped away from those in need, and as all but the lucky find themselves drifting frighteningly downward, how is anyone supposed to keep their dignity? With grit, humor, honesty and courage, and plenty of sex and swearing. Mothers and sons, and unreliable men, fill these vital stories. Tip your cap her way if you see Trueblood on campus, or off.