Nestucca Spit Press Meditations – A Blog by Matt Love

May 24, 2023

The State of Our Nation 5-12-82

May 19, 2023

Saturday Morning Homeless Report From the Southern Oregon Coast

May 17, 2023

Excerpt from The Savage of State Street: The Thieving and Literary Lives of Smoky Epley

May 8, 2023

Oregon Tavern Age: Death and More Death at the Sea Star

May 2, 2023

Henk Pander and Tom McCall (Part 2)

April 17, 2023

Henk Pander and Tom McCall (Part 1)

April 12, 2023

Oregon Tavern Age: Heritage Pub

April 10, 2023

Oregon Tavern Age: Bassmaster Classic

April 5, 2023

The Old Crow Book Club is Here

April 3, 2023

Three New Nestucca Spit Press Books Out!

March 31, 2023

The Destruction of a Wetlands (Part 2)

March 27, 2023

The Destruction of a Wetlands (Part 1)

March 22, 2023

Reflections on the Great Recession of 2008-09

March 6, 2023

Scenes of Steve Prefontaine (Scene 6)

March 1, 2023

Scenes of Steve Prefontaine (Scene 5)

February 27, 2023

Scenes of Steve Prefontaine (Scene 4)

February 24, 2023

Scenes of Steve Prefontaine (Scene 3)

February 22, 2023

Scenes of Steve Prefontaine (Scene 2)

February 20, 2023

Scenes of Steve Prefontaine (Scene 1)

February 17, 2023

Oregon Tavern Age: The 82^nd Avenue River

Support Meditations Blog

The Old Crow

Book Club

$11.99 + $3 Shipping

In December of 2020, author Matt Love moved to Portland to care for his elderly father.

Returning to the Rose City jolted Love after 23 years residing on the Oregon Coast. In the Sellwood neighborhood where he lived, Love met a homeless man named Mark. They formed a friendship over literature and the unforeseen magical discoveries in street libraries. They created The Old Crow Book Club, and yes, sometimes that involved drinking Old Crow on a sidewalk.

The club also included several other Sellwood homeless men and women cut from John Steinbeck's Cannery Row cloth.

In due course, Love learned the members' stories of homelessness and how they survived. He wondered what happened to his beloved state of Oregon and attempted to help Mark get off the streets only to run up against the seemingly futile policies to address the crisis.

Along the way, he had the best conversations about books in his life and wrote The Old Crow Book Club, where he recounts his interactions with the homeless people in his neighborhood and offers some suggestions how to alleviate what he considers the greatest man-made American humanitarian disaster of his adult life.

The Old Crow Book Club is available for purchase here and select independent bookstores in Oregon.

Choice Cuts

of Oregon Fiction

$22.99 + $3 Shipping

Choice Cuts of Oregon Fiction by Matt Love contains 20 stories, all set in Oregon. The cast of characters includes a depressed Santa Claus, Steve Prefontaine, Jack Ramsay's fast break offense, socialist squirrels, a clearcut, a dead deer, a junior high football team, a high school tennis player, a dissipated teacher, a man who evolves into a beaver, a homeless vet, a jilted preacher, a double date to a prom, rural degenerates, a wily caterer, and much more.

The publication of the collection culminates a quarter century of the author's writing about Oregon and rambling around the state.

Choice Cuts is available for purchase here, through Amazon, or select independent bookstores in Oregon.

The Savage

of State Street

Nestucca Spit Press is proud to present The Savage of State Street: The Thieving and Literary Lives of Smoky Epley. He is the greatest unheralded writer in Oregon history and also one of its more mediocre, colorful and persistent thieves.

$19.99 + $3 Shipping

In 1973, Oregon State University Press published Men in Exile: An Anthology of Creative Writing by Inmates of the Oregon State Penitentiary. Twenty-two of Smoky Epley's pieces appeared in the book.

Smoky spent most of his adult life in state and federal prisons for robbery. In 2008, during one of his brief stints of freedom, Smoky became friends with Matt Love, an Oregon author and publisher. They met after Love discovered Men in Exile and wrote a newspaper column about the landmark book. Smoky read the column and reached out.

He returned to prison in 2009 after forging a check. Upon his release in 2011, Love encouraged Smoky to write a memoir. He completed half of Auto before dying in February of 2013.

The Return of My Mix Tapes

The State of Our Nation 5-12-82

Saturday Morning Homeless Report From the Southern Oregon Coast

Trump Takes a Molalla Dump

Molalla

Excerpt from The Savage of State Street: The Thieving and Literary Lives of Smoky Epley

Pistol River Magic

Oregon Tavern Age: Death and More Death at the Sea Star

South Coast Bible Coffee Shop

The Book Critics!

Anya

Mark’s Heart Attacks

Oregon Tavern Age: Poetry

The Old Crow Book Release

Henk Pander and Tom McCall (Part 2)

Henk Pander and Tom McCall (Part 1)

Oregon Tavern Age: Heritage Pub

Linda, the Bookstore Clerk

Oregon Tavern Age: Bassmaster Classic

The Old Crow Book Club is Here

Three New Nestucca Spit Press Books Out!

Marty! Marty! Marty!

The Destruction of a Wetlands (Part 2)

The Destruction of a Wetlands (Part 1)

Some Things Going On

The Wordless Street Sign

The Usual RV/Trailer Suspects

Oregon Tavern Age: Birthday

Reflections on the Great Recession of 2008-09

Smoky Returns