The sun setting over the St. John's Bridge, a large, blue-green suspension bridge.

Book Genres and the Best Portland Parks To Read Them In

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If there’s anything Portlanders can agree on, it’s that we love our green space. Take a stroll within any one of Portland’s whopping 154 Parks and you’re sure to notice all kinds of park-goers: the picnickers, the dog walkers, the bubble blowers, the spikeballers . . . but keep your senses tuned and you’ll notice the quiet force of another kind of park-goer: the readers. Usually tucked beneath the shadiest trees with a cozy blanket and perhaps a few snacks, these bookworms understand the importance of a beautiful environment when it comes to enjoying literature. But with so many parks to choose from—all with their own unique flair and personalities—how are Portlanders supposed to decide where to bring their newest literary conquest? Good news! I’ve compiled a list of popular book genres and the Portland parks they can be best enjoyed at. The next time you crave that fresh pacific air and a cozy reading session, you can easily decide where to head.

Romance: Laurelhurst Park

From the nervous first date by the pond to the couple pushing the boundaries on PDA, one lap around Laurelhurst Park is all you need to see that romance is simply in the air there. It’s not a far stretch to imagine your own beloved protagonists strolling through the park’s regal pathways or the historic winding streets of the surrounding Laurelhurst neighborhood–making this park the perfect fit for your newest romance read.

Classics: Washington Park

As one of the oldest and largest parks in Portland, Washington Park in northwest Portland provides the sense of history and drama requisite for enjoying a good classic. Dust off your favorite Brontë or Steinbeck and head to this Portland favorite to make those classic stories come alive in a new way.

Sci-Fi: Elizabeth Caruthers Park

If you’re looking for a futuristic vibe in Portland (though some may argue that’s an Oxymoron), look no further than Elizabeth Caruthers Park. Positioned beneath the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) sky tram and the tall, modern, glassy buildings of the Southwest Waterfront, this park calls to mind many popular sci-fi themes, such as technology, healthcare, artificial intelligence, and dystopia.

Children’s: Westmoreland Park

If there’s a little one in your life, packing up your favorite children’s books and heading to Westmoreland Park in Portland’s Sellwood-Westmoreland neighborhood is a must. Let the kiddos get some energy out playing on this park’s beautiful nature-based playground and then settle down with a cozy, educational read (bonus points for nature themes in the book itself).

Poetry: Peninsula Park

Peninsula Park in north Portland is home to a public rose garden, a gorgeous fountain, and a historical bandstand. The park’s stunning landscaping and historic architecture create a cerebral quality perfect for enjoying poetry both old and new.

Literary Fiction: Cathedral Park

The sophisticated, serene nature of Cathedral Park makes it a perfect place for literary fiction lovers to crack the code on their latest lyrical masterpiece. Situated in the St. Johns neighborhood directly under the majestic St. Johns Bridge, this park is also the perfect place to capture the obligatory #Bookstagram story featuring the gorgeous, artful covers associated with the genre.

Nonfiction: Mt. Tabor Park

We’ve gone a little broad here, but at 176 acres in size, Mt. Tabor Park in southeast Portland has enough room for a whole host of nonfiction titles. That being said, the best fit might be nonfiction titles about geology, geography, or geochemistry. Mt. Tabor is actually a volcanic cinder cone. The more you know!

While we can’t come close to hitting each book genre or each of Portland’s many parks, hopefully this guide can be a jumping off point next time you decide to take your reading to the great outdoors. The perfect book-park pairing is sure to enhance your reading experience and provide a wonderful way to explore our city’s vast array of unique parks and green spaces. Happy reading!

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 Start to Finish: An Introduction to THE FRENCH SCI-FI PROJECT

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Ooligan Press is very excited to announce our newest title, tentatively called The French Sci-Fi Project, publishing in Spring 2024! This book will be a collection of translated French science fiction short stories. These stories cover many topics ranging from language and technology to utopia and health in futuristic contexts.

We are thrilled to be working with
Dr. Annabelle Dolidon for this project. Dr. Annabelle Dolidon is a professor of French at Portland State University. She teaches French language classes as well as literature seminars and courses on film and comics. She specializes in post-WWII novels and short stories and has a special interest in science fiction. She has published articles on the genre in academic journals and an open-source textbook for all to use, available on PDXScholar, the open educational resources platform of the university. She has also published three other textbooks for the French classroom.

The goal of this project is to introduce the French science fiction genre to English readers and foster discussion. Each of the stories will feature an introduction by Dr. Dolidon and discussion questions to accompany the story and help guide conversation around the topic.

This project is Ooligan’s first translated anthology title, which makes it extra special and allows the press to learn additional skills. Our Rights department has been working closely with French publishers and authors to acquire the rights to the stories and negotiate their terms. At this point, we are in the early stages and still working on acquiring rights to the remaining stories and going through the process of contracts. The translation process for the titles we have acquired is currently taking place as well.

My name is Kyndall Tiller, and I am the current project manager. We have a fantastic team currently working hard on this project! Over the summer our team started working on the beginning marketing stages. We did a lot of market research, which is crucial since science fiction is not a genre that Ooligan works with a lot. In our research, we created personas to best identify who the target audience for this book will be. We also looked at comparative titles and their place in the market, along with their marketing strategies. During the fall term, the team focused on the marketing plan and continued to build our contact list. Some of the marketing aspects we’ve been working on are key selling points, keywords, and brainstorming marketing strategy. Because of how unique this project is, this process has been really interesting and allows for a lot of creativity from the team. We are also working on a fundraising campaign to raise money for the rights and translation costs, so keep a look out for that!

This project is so fun because it is something completely new to the press. We have a longer timeline than the past few titles have had, which is going to give us the opportunity to experiment with some really cool marketing and publicity ideas. It will be a learning process for everyone involved and allows students to work with a new genre and translations. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting project!

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Sci-fi in Translation

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Here at Ooligan we’ve been working on our newest project, the French Sci-Fi Project, a collection of science fiction short stories translated from French, in partnership with PSU’s Language department. We’re excited to expand our horizons into the international scene with this new book and hope that we can continue to publish books in translation in the future.

But for now, if you’re interested in looking past the horizon on your bookshelf into international waters, here’s a list of five science fiction books that have been translated into English from a range of languages including Chinese, German, and Italian. In this list you’ll find mystery, aliens, challenged humanity, and international influence, giving anyone who’s just coming into science fiction a little breathing room to start their journey into the unknown.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu

If you’re looking for the next science fiction world to dive into with a series, look no further than Cixin Liu’s Hugo Award winning book, The Three-Body Problem. In this first book of the trilogy, you’ll be introduced to the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the military sends signals out into the universe for signs of alien life. The reply? An alien race looking for a new home. Will they succeed in invading our planet with the help of a few of our own? Or will humanity come together to fight back against a global invasion? Pick up the whole series to find out!

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver

As the French Sci-Fi Project inspired this list, it’s only natural that another short story collection be included, and Italo Calvino’s The Complete Cosmicomics, originally published in Italian in 1965, made the cut. Though Calvino originally published the stories in Italian, he later would publish these short stories in a literary magazine in Cuba, his native country, as well. The stories explore natural phenomena and the origins of our universe, with readers calling Calvino’s writing “nimble and often hilarious.” If you’re looking to think outside of the realms of our reality, pick up this collection!

The Cusanus Game by Wolfgang Jeschke, translated by Ross Benjamin

As a winner of the Harrison Award for international achievements in science fiction, any of Jeschke’s works could be included in this list, but it was The Cusanus Game that won him the Deutscher Science Fiction Preis, a highly regarded German science fiction literary award. The novel, published in 2005, follows a biologist during the aftermath of nuclear fallout in Northern Europe. Jeschke serves up Fallout with a time traveling twist that captures readers interest until the end. Pick this book up if you’re ready to get back to the roots of the science fiction genre while keeping your feet (and the protagonist’s) firmly planted on our home planet.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

An international bestseller from Murakami, one of Japan’s most successful authors, 1Q84 is for anyone who enjoys The Matrix and has been diving too deeply into “ShiftTok” and the concept of reality shifting. The main character enters an alternate reality at the suggestion of a taxi driver. As the two main characters’ timelines overlap throughout the dystopian society, it reveals just how connected everything is. While lighter on the science fiction tropes, this book is sure to please anyone looking for a heartfelt story of human connection.

The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn: One More Last Rite for the Detective Genre by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, translated by Josh Billings

Want an Agatha Christie mystery novel with some Russian sci-fi humor? Look no further than the writings of the Strugatsky brothers and The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn. For at least three decades the brothers were the most popular science fiction writers in Russia, and the most influential Russian science fiction writers in the world. The novel reads like a Hercule Poirot mystery when the lead detective’s ski vacation is rudely interrupted by a dead body and mysterious events start happening around the chalet. This book, like the last, is for those who want a genre bend to their sci-fi, and want to be sitting on the edge of their seats to find out what happens next.

Add these five international science fiction titles to your list now, and be ready to dive into the world of French science fiction when Ooligan releases the French Sci-Fi Project in Spring 2024!

A child in a spacesuit attached to a book

How the Big Five Publish Genre Fiction

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Booksellers are often tasked with ensuring the shelf a new book is placed on aligns with the marketing the publisher is going for. Is The Handmaid’s Tale science fiction or dystopian fiction or “speculative fiction” as Margaret Atwood herself would have it? Ursula Le Guin famously countered Atwood’s definition, calling this categorizing “arbitrary” and “restrictive.”

Regardless of what you call them, fiction books as a whole sell more copies than nonfiction books—and thrillers, mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy are the most read. And while pop culture critics lament the downfall of our supposed literary culture, what are writers and publishers alike to do in creating, acquiring, and publishing books to cater to the growth in genre fiction readers? Since the Big Five have the most publishing power, the best way to investigate the popular fiction they make is to dive into their genre fiction-focused imprints.

Penguin Random House

Starting out with original adaptations of Star Trek, Bantam Books (and science fiction subdivision Bantam Spectra) has put out works by modern genre heavyweights like Danielle Steel and George R. R. Martin. Though they no longer publish manga, the Del Rey imprint specializes in science fiction and fantasy books, publishing novelizations of video games along with classics like Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern series and the “weird fiction” of China Miéville. Not to mention numerous digital imprints such as Alibi (mystery), Loveswept & Flirt (romance), and Hydra (horror and scifi)—or the semi-independent DAW Books distributed by Penguin Random House.

Ballantine Books’s move away from early pulp fiction acquisitions conflicted with rival Ace Books, as they squabbled to get rights to The Lord of the Rings. They now both sit under the same Penguin Random House umbrella, and Ace Books boasts a backlist of Dune, The Once and Future King, and Neuromancer and shares that same editorial team with fantasy imprint Roc Books that published the Discworld series and The Dresden Files series.

Macmillan

Tor Books is the jewel of Tor Publishing Group, formerly Tom Doherty Associates, publishing almost three thousand works since just 1980 and known as the imprint that published Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive series. The Tor/Forge blog and Tor.com website are renowned for their insight into the speculative fiction publishing world too.

Housed under Macmillan’s St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books is one of the only imprints focused on mystery, thriller, and suspense novels. The Cassie Dewell novels of C. J. Box (which would become the TV show Big Sky), the gothic whodunnit The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller, and works by Louise Penny (who recently published State of Terror, co-written with Hillary Clinton) were all Minotaur books.

HarperCollins

The entire Harlequin branch of HarperCollins nearly monopolized the romance market for decades, including everything from erotica to paranormal and historical love stories. After acquiring Avon Publications, many early “cheesecake” paperbacks were folded into HarperCollins, and newer releases include tie-ins to the TV show Bridgerton. Early works by Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle now fall under Harlequin. However, ebooks and self-published works have started to outpace the popularity of formally published romances.

Harper Voyager was originally Eos Books, but now publishes science fiction, epic fantasy, and especially urban fantasy. Voyager boasts work of tabletop role-playing game legend Gerald Brom, military sci-fi writer William H. Keith (as Ian Douglas), and speculative fiction writer and poet Beth Cato.

Hachette

Forever and Forever Yours are Hachette’s romance imprints, but the big dive into genre fiction is through science fiction and fantasy imprint Orbit. Popular reads from Orbit include The Witcher series and The Broken Earth Trilogy. Acquisition of Gollancz also means Hachette oversees the out-of-print ebook collection website, SF Gateway.

Simon & Schuster

Still a separate entity, at least for now with the merger court case pending, the only real genre fiction imprint left at Simon & Schuster is the speculative fiction Saga Press. Mostly featuring up-and-comers like Catherynne M. Valente, Rebecca Roanhorse, Ken Liu, and T. Kingfisher, it’s no surprise they still market the works of Le Guin.

Publishing works of popular genre fiction is no small task—Ooligan Press’s first fantasy title in its twenty-year history, Court of Venom, was released April 5, 2022. However, it’s easy to see that walking up to the dystopian fiction shelf in your local bookstore may not just be the work of an attentive bookseller, but the work of an entire imprint intent on bringing a love of genre fiction all the way from the top of the editorial team to the hands of those ready to be swept away to another world.