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Something About Me and My Book:: THE BALLAD OF THE NEW CARISSA AND OTHER POEMS celebrates the Oregon Coast in all of its magnificence. Wergeland applies her own set of lenses to this panorama, highlighting the pulse of the weather, shifting sands, and creatures in the sea and on the shore. Humans flirting with dangerous tides do not escape her scrutiny. These poems examine a rich segment of America’s Pacific edge.

VOICE BREAK: Following the advice of a community college music instructor, Kari Wergeland began taking voice lessons with a respected teacher at the age of 24. After roughly two years of study, with dubious results, she decided to stop singing. She began working as a librarian and eventually turned to writing newspaper articles, fiction, and poetry. Twenty years later, and on something of a whim, Wergeland enrolled in a workshop called The Natural Singer, with vocal coach Claude Stein. Inspired to resume voice lessons, it wasn’t long before she discovered her singing had changed. Voice Break is a long poem of possibility that tells the story of the author’s voice.

Kari Wergeland, who hails from Davis, California, is a librarian and writer. She moved to Oregon at the age of 14 and eventually attended the University of Oregon, where she earned a B.A. in English. She also holds an M.L.S. in Librarianship from the University of Washington and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry from Pacific University. Wergeland wrote a children’s book review column for The Seattle Times, which ran monthly for 11 years. She currently works as a librarian for Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, California, and lives part-time on the Oregon Coast.