I live in a houseboat on a river in Oregon. It’s a floating home, permanently moored, not something that put-puts around. Otters, beavers, and muskrats are my neighbors, along with a variety of birds, including eagles, hawks, and herons. Other houseboats are moored here too, so I also have human neighbors. For the most part, houseboat people are kind, maybe a wee bit eccentric, and generous. They keep to themselves unless you’re in trouble (like, say, a log stuck under your houseboat for many years is one day forced free by a strong current and thrusts itself up through your deck, causing alarm and wreckage; this actually happened to me recently). Then they come immediately to your aid.
We all love the quiet we find here on the river and in the nearby forest.
I’m a writer and editor. (See Editing Services.) I taught writing workshops and classes in and around Portland for many years. I have a dog, Brio, and a cat, Hadley.
With Brio on one of our favorite trails
Bio: Published a book of fiction, The Riverhouse Stories. Short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in various literary quarterlies, magazines, and newspapers.
If you’re interested, you can find some of my work online. Garrison Keillor read “Emily Dickinson’s To-Do List” on his radio program, The Writer’s Almanac, and that poem has appeared in a few anthologies, most recently in Visiting Emily: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Emily Dickinson, edited by Sheila Coghill and Thom Tammaro, published by the University of Iowa Press. It will also appear in the upcoming 10th edition of Literature and the Writing Process (Pearson). The only other poetry online is in YB Poetry, the Animal Issue (Issue 5).
A short story is published here in the online journal Melusine. Another short story, “Choose Your Partner,” was published in the Winter 2011 issue of J Journal: New Writing on Justice and was nominated for a Pushcart. You can read an excerpt here. An essay, “The Full Brontë,” was published in A Woman’s Europe, a collection of essays by women travelers, published by Travelers’ Tales.
Recipient of an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist’s Fellowship (for fiction) and a fellowship from the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts (for nonfiction). Co-writer and co-director for a video program on disability titled “Looking Up,” which won a first place award at the John Muir Medical Film Festival and was a finalist at the American Film Festival. Co-writer for The Peasant and the Priest, a documentary about the effects of globalization on Tuscany (directed by Esther Podemski, 2011).
December 13, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Hi Andrea, I heard Garrison Keillor read your Emily Dickenson poem the other day. It shocked me into realizing how long it has been since Lee and I have talked to you. I thought your poem was the most succinct summary of a life that I ever heard. Lee and I are doing well. We would love to hear from you. Bill (and Lee)Green.
December 14, 2010 at 10:16 am
So great to hear from you, Bill. I’ll send you and Lee an e-mail right away.
March 31, 2011 at 10:58 am
Hi Andrea- just discovered your wonderful blog and am looking forward to spending more time reading both here (I too have an aging mother) and elsewhere.
March 31, 2011 at 10:59 am
PS- I stopped by to read the accordion piece you mentioned in a comment you left on my blog, but haven’t found it yet. Could you please add a search button? It would be very helpful to your readers!
March 31, 2011 at 11:10 am
Thanks for coming by, Margaret. I’m so glad the WP home page featured you. Otherwise, I would have missed out on your brave admission of loving the accordion. Here’s my piece on that topic: http://andreacarlisle.com/2010/09/26/the-accordion-player-2/
Yes, a search button is a good idea. I don’t know how to do it but will try to figure it out.
October 1, 2011 at 10:59 am
Hi Andrea, I recently browsing through an old copy of The Reader’s Digest when I happened on an article entitled “Keeper of My Own Flame”. I had remembered reading the piece before and googled your name – are you the same Andrea?
Either way I am happy to have found your blog
October 1, 2011 at 11:33 am
Yes, I wrote that essay a long time ago. It was originally titled “To Build a Fire.” That was not exciting enough, I guess, for its first publisher, the Chicago Tribune. They changed the title to “Primal Flame.” Reader’s Digest reprinted it in a much abridged version and they called it “Keeper of My Own Flame,” a title I didn’t like at all. However, the letters I received from elders all over the country were wonderful. People talked about the wood stoves and fireplaces and coal stoves that had once kept them warm and I was so pleased they shared their memories with me. And now here you are. We never know who our writing will touch. Thanks for reading the blog. Welcome to Alice’s world.
November 22, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Hello Andrea,
As an aspiring writer myself, I was delighted when Leigh Coffey told me about your blog “Go Ask Alice”. I was touched by your entry about your mother and it made me wish mine were still around. I have become a “follower” and will look forward to receiving notice of future entries. Thanks for your wit and warmth. Sher
November 23, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Hello, Sher and welcome. Leigh is such a wonderful promoter of Alice’s world. Special kudos to her for passing the blog on to you. I hope it will bring back many good memories of times you had with your mother.
December 26, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Andrea, my partner Pamela and I have been looking for you since the first time we read The Riverhouse Stories to each other. We are reading them again and decided to try again to locate you, with obvious success! We would love to see your riverhouse. We often look at them wondering which one might be Pubah and Lazy’s. Happy to know you are still floating around the river. Might actually need some editing services in the future, as well. Hope to be on touch. Thank you for these wonderful stories. They always lift our spirits! Blessings, Alison and Pamela
December 26, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Hello Alison, I’m glad you and Pamela found me and Alice. Yes, I’m still on the river. I can’t imagine trying to live on land after all these years.
When the time comes to discuss editing, just contact me at the e-mail address for the blog: andrea@andreacarlisle.com.
June 8, 2012 at 12:24 am
are you a 94 old lady????????????????? i need this for a project so answer
June 8, 2012 at 9:13 am
No, but my mother is in her nineties. She was ninety-four when I started writing this blog about her. Now she’s ninety-six. Good luck with your project, Pipi LongStocking.
June 8, 2012 at 12:30 am
could you put more about yourself like your childhood
June 8, 2012 at 9:19 am
This blog really isn’t about me, Aimee. It’s about my mother. There are lots and lots of stories here about her childhood way back at the beginning of the last century. You could read, for example, the blog post titled “Running Around with Mama,” or the one called “The Children’s Hour.”
June 8, 2012 at 9:21 am
Hmmmm…Aimee, I see by your e-mail address that you and Pipi Longstocking might be one and the same. I hope your school project is a success.
June 9, 2012 at 10:29 am
we are the same I just wanted to make sure you answered
i am doing a Poetry anthology and you wrote the poem ” A christmas poems for Kittens”, right? because i need to write a little bio about the author… another question are you these asian model?
June 9, 2012 at 11:04 am
Alas, no. I am not the model of the same name whose title is “Babe of the Day” and whose pictures come up when anyone Googles “Andrea Carlisle.” If only…
Yes, I wrote “A Christmas Poem for Kittens.” I will send you an e-mail and we can talk about your anthology.