Books published by Chemeketa Press

Nella Larsen's 1929 novella follows friends Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, two black women who pass as white. Their anxieties about passing culminate in tragedy, revealing the powerful repercussions of hiding one's identity. Nearly a century later, Larsen's exploration of race remains urgent and relevant as ever.

Recovering from a factory accident that nearly claimed his eyesight, a young John Muir ventured into the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The flowers, wildlife, and rock formations he saw during the summer of 1869 changed how he would look at nature forever. Recollected at the end of his life from early journals and sketches, this ecstatic personal narrative gives insight into the forward-looking nature lover who would become known as father of the nation's parks system. To read this book is to become Muir's hiking partner, sharing in "a glorious botanical and geological excursion" that would blaze the trail for the modern-day environmental movement.

This collection of essays, historical documents, stories, and poetry works explores the American tendency to decide who is "us" and who is "them" in terms of immigration, wealth, race, and other externals. The collection offers readings of varying levels of difficulty and from a wide range of perspectives so that student writers will have many appropriate topics to focus on and respond to.

This collection of philosophical, political, and personal readings about the twin themes of freedom and responsibility is designed for use within a wide range of composition classes. Shorter and more accessible works will serve early composition courses, and more complex works will serve well in more advanced composition courses. Authors include Susan B. Anthony, Marcus Aurelius, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emma Goldman, Zora Neale Hurston, Thomas Jefferson, Helen Keller, Niccolò Machiavelli, Barack Obama, Thomas Paine, Richard Rodriguez, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Henry David Thoreau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Sojourner Truth, Mark Twain, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

An anthology of poetry and prose by members of the Oregon State Penitentiary writing group, Penned Thoughts. Edited by Michele Dishong McCormack, group facilitator. The collection explores themes of gratitude and faith, hopes and dreams, life, love, family, and regret.