2006 APH Conference
Speakers

Keynote Speaker: Bob Welch:

Newspaper columnist Bob Welch, an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, has been honored four times by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and dubbed 2004's top columnist by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. He is author of American Nightingale, Where Roots Grow Deep, My Oregon and the award-winning A Father for All Seasons.

A seasoned speaker who uses heart and humor to inspire audiences, Welch has appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," spoken at the Massachusetts Statehouse and keynoted conferences from coast to coast. Using oral history interviews, diaries, journals and other resources, Welch pieced together the life story of Frances Slanger, a Polish-born Jewish American nurse who had died sixty years ago near the beaches of Normandy. His book, American Nightingale, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Telling the story of Slanger, who gave her life to help stem the tide of the Nazi regime, Welch reminds audiences that, like a pebble in the water, we often leave ripples that we sometimes don't even realize.

"I've written seven other books, most of which deal with a more personal sense of history than reflected in Nightingale," Welch said in an email. "Where Roots Grow Deep, for example, is about what we pass on from one generation to the next, stories based on the lives of my wife's farming grandparents outside of Carlton, Ore."

In a generous gesture, Welch will provide conference participants with a free copy of that book, which has five stars on Amazon.com and about which one reviewer wrote: "Through stories sometimes humorous and sometimes poignant, Welch suggests that we all inherit legacies and pass on legacies—it's only a matter of what kind."

Read more about Bob Welch and his speaking presentations at his Web site at www.bobwelch.net.

Other featured speakers:

• Ursula Bacon: "Leaving Footsteps in the Sand"

  Author of The Nervous Hostess Cookbook: A Comforting Guide to Worry-Free Entertaining, Shanghai Diary and the upcoming prequel Eternal Strangers, Ursula Bacon has helped bring 350 book titles to life in the past twenty years as co-owner of Bacon Bestsellers with her husband, Thorn.

  As a child, she escaped from Nazi Germany in 1939 with her parents and landed in Shanghai, China, along with more than 18,000 other Middle European Jews. The family spent most of the war years in a Japanese-controlled "Designated Area," often referred to as the Shanghai Ghetto. The family came to the United States in 1947.

  Her most recent book, Shanghai Diary, has been chosen as a major motion picture project and was selected by Barnes and Noble for its "Discover Gifted New Authors 2004 Holiday Selection." One of her Barnes and Noble booksigning events was filmed by C-Span2. Her prequel to Shanghai Diary, titled Eternal Strangers, is scheduled to be released in December 2006.

  She also has contributed eight stories to the popular Chocolate for a Woman's Soul series, Simon and Schuster.

  Her Web site is www.ursulabacon.com and the family business Web site for Bacon Bestseller Books, facilitating the creation of exceptional books, is www.baconbestsellerbooks.com. The family business Web site states that a well-made custom book is less expensive, lasts longer and makes a greater impression than any other form of communication designed to influence a reader, an outcome or a customer.

• Lauren Kessler: "Your Truth, The Truth, Whose Truth? The Personal Historian's Guide to Insight, Honesty and Storytelling—Where fact ends and fiction begins"

  Director of Literary Nonfiction at the University of Oregon, Lauren Kessler is author of eleven books, including the upcoming Dancing with Rose: Life Among the Demented and Deranged (Viking, 2007); Washington Post bestseller Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, The Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era (HarperCollins, 2003); Los Angeles Times bestseller The Happy Bottom Riding Club (Random House, 2000); Full Court Press; After All These Years; and the award-winning Stubborn Twig.

  Stubborn Twig (Random House, 1993; new edition Oregon Historical Society Press, 2006) won the Frances Fuller Victor Award for best literary nonfiction in 1994.

  Kessler's essays and journalism have appeared in the New York Times magazine, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Salon, Nation and Writers' Digest.

  She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, where she developed the love of American social and cultural history that is clear in her work. Oral history in particular plays a significant role in many of her projects. After graduating from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, she did brief stints as an advertising copywriter and a newspaper reporter.

  Kessler teaches writing seminars at the University of Oregon. She is the founder and editor of Etude, an online magazine devoted to new and emerging voices in literary nonfiction. Her Web site is www.laurenkessler.com.

• Dr. Laurie Mercier, associate history professor and former Oral History Association president, will teach a two-part "Introduction to Oral History" workshop. Especially good for newcomers, Mercier's workshop will teach basics of oral history interviewing—type of equipment to use, questions to ask, preparation to do beforehand, interviewing tips and techniques. In Part II, participants who bring a tape recorder will obtain practical hands-on experience interviewing a colleague—and see what it's like to be interviewed by someone else about their own lives.