Lichen Songs

Poet, writer, literary historian, editor, linguist, and educator, George Venn (1943) is an eclectic, complex, and distinguished figure in western American literature. As one university press editor described him, “Venn’s blend of creativity and scholarship is unique....” His distinguished and eclectic literary practice may be best affirmed by Marking the Magic Circle (OSU Press, 1987), a 200-page collection of fiction, poetry, essays, translations, and photographs. In 1988, this book won an Oregon Book Award and silver medal from Literary Arts; in 2005, Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission and the Oregon State Library selected it as one of the 100 best Oregon books in two centuries. As a student, George Venn studied at The College of Idaho, at Central University, Quito, at University of Salamanca, at City Literary Institute, London, and at the University of Montana (MFA 1970). In the 1970s, he won a Breadloaf scholarship and studied briefly with the novelist John Williams. In 1980, his