News

Suzanne Matson, a 1981 graduate of Portland State University, will be at Portland State Friday, March 10, to read from her newly released novel, The Tree-Sitter. The reading begins at 6:30 p.m. in room 236 Smith Memorial Student Union (1825 SW Broadway). Wine and light fare will be served at the catered event, and the author will sign books following the reading.

A passionate and tensely pitched tale of first love and idealism, The Tree-Sitter, is set in the forests of Oregon. Suzanne Matson’s “most gripping, resonant, and timely book to date” (Elizabeth Graver, author of Awake and The Honey Thief), is the gripping story of two young and idealistic lovers who, in their own ways, must decide what it means to do what is right.

The Tree-Sitter is a riveting and beautifully executed novel about the price of love and idealism for two Oregon college students. Placing a dramatic love story within the context of a larger political and moral conflict, Matson has crafted a moving and compelling novel that readers will not soon forget.

About the author: Suzanne Matson is the author of The Hunger Moon and A Trick of Nature. Following her graduation from Portland State University in 1981, Matson earned an MA in creative writing and a PhD in English at the University of Washington. She teaches at Boston College and lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Reviews: “Thoughtfully told, this story of the all-encompassing blaze of first love and an uneasy eco-activism is surprising and honest.”– Publishers Weekly

“The Tree-Sitter is one of those rare, elegantly written, quietly intense books that, without resorting to sensationalism or fanfare, winds up keeping you awake at night...Suzanne Matson has given us a timely, thoughtful, morally complex novel about what’s come to be known as “eco-terrorism.”—Suzanne Berne, author of A Perfect Arrangement

Title: The Tree-Sitter
Author: Suzanne Matson
Publication Date: February 20, 2006
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York, NY

Contact: Peggy Savage, (503-913-1908), peggysavage@aol.com
Literary Alliance, Portland State University