Portland Magazine Editor, Brian Doyle, publishes his first novel
By Jocelyne LaFortune, Staff Writer -- lafortun12@up.edu
Looking for a new read?
Brian Doyle, editor of the award-winning Portland Magazine and staffer in UP's Marketing and Communications department, recently published a new novel called "Mink River."
"The novel is in one way an attempt to say thanks to Oregon, to celebrate Oregon, to sing at length about Oregonness, to stitch rain and stories and ale and fish and timber and laughter and pain and mud all together into an Oregon story," Doyle said.
The novel takes place in the small, fictional town of Neawanaka, located in Tillamook County near the Oregon coast.
"(The novel) is made up of lots of intertwined, overlapping stories. Each one has a different voice, a different feel," Doyle said. "Each chapter is short –maybe a page or two – but there are hundreds of them that make up the book."
The idea for the book came to Doyle 20 years ago when he began writing what he thought would be just a short story.
"It started out as a short story, but the characters seemed so real, I thought I just had to keep listening to what they had to say," Doyle said.
Doyle has written nine other books, including "The Grail," a nonfiction account of a year spent in an Oregon vineyard, and "Spirited Men," a collection of essays about male writers and musicians. "Mink River" is his first novel.
According to Doyle, the writing process was exciting and full of surprises.
"Writing the novel was certainly an adventure," Doyle said. "I kind of just had to let it happen. I remember thinking, ‘Whoa Nellie, I hope this works out.' I sat down and typed just to see what would happen."
The characters in the book came alive for Doyle as he wrote.
"It was hard sometimes because characters would do things I disapproved of. But I felt like I had to let it happen," Doyle said.
Doyle said his job with Portland Magazine has helped his own writing endeavors.
"There are lots and lots of brilliant people, lots of stories, lots of ideas. It's enormously stimulating," Doyle said. "I cannot imagine being only a writer – I'd miss the fizz and sizzle of the campus, the verb tense of life here."
Students interested in writing should work hard at it, according to Doyle.
"Read like a maniac. Write every day – doesn't matter what. Get a job – eating is a great habit and you cannot make a living as a writer," Doyle said. "Don't write only about yourself – one of the great lessons you learn with age is that all the best stories are about other people."
"Mink River" is currently available in the campus bookstore and can also be ordered through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.
Doyle hopes that one day the book will be considered a great novel of the Northwest.
"It would be a great compliment if my book was listed next to greats like ‘A River Runs Through It' and ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'" Doyle said. "Maybe one day ‘Mink River' will be on a book list at UP."
