"The Beadworkers is a feast of wit and storytelling." —Louise Erdrich
Hood River READS 2025
For some books, a cover-to-cover read is required so that you don’t lose your way, but The Beadworkers invites you to start where you like and pick any path you please—all will lead to thoughtful, thought-provoking places.
The first section, land and life, presents three feasts: Feast I is a poem that is both an offering and a blessing. Feast II explores connections to language, tradition, history, myth, and memoir presented in first person. Feast III features a woman reflecting on routine and loss.
Indian Wars presents two stories of historical fiction. One Is a conversation between two friends— Frenchman and a Lakota—as news of the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee unfolds. In the second story, a 10-year-old girl narrates episodes of upheaval and uncertainty in the early 1960s.
I tell my story/I conjure my powers/I make a wish has five parts. The monologue in “Beading Lesson” combines instruction with its accompanying oral tradition. Two friends in “wIndin!’ face life’s challenges and choices while one creates a board game highlighting cultural traditions and community transactions.
“Rootless” is a first-person account of a chance meeting between travelers. In “Falling Crows,” a family reacts and responds to an injured vet. In “Katydid,” two friends navigate fracture and forgiveness.
The final section, human beings, features “Antíkoni,” a play based on Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. It features issues of Indigenous identity and challenges.
Meet the Author
Beth Piatote
BETH PIATOTE is a writer, scholar, and Indigenous language activist. She is the author of Domestic Subjects: Gender, Citizenship, and the Law in Native American Literature and The Beadworkers: Stories. She has also written many essays, short stories, poems in journals and anthologies, including PMLA, American Quarterly, Kenyon Review, World Literature Today, and POETRY. The Beadworkers was long-listed for the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her full-length play, Antíkoni, had its world premiere in Los Angeles in November 2024 with Native Voices and has been translated into Japanese. She is dedicated to the study of Nez Perce language and literature and supports Indigenous language revitalization, including the Indigenous Poetics Lab that she created at UC Berkeley; a forthcoming book of poems is centered on Nez Perce land and language. She is an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Director of the Arts Research Center etetwa UC Berkeley. She is Nez Perce enrolled with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and holds a PhD from Stanford University.
Upcoming Events
Your book and all events are free.
KICK-OFF and book distribution
10 am – 2 pm – Cascade Locks and Parkdale book distribution
2 pm – Hood River Library program and refreshments
Join us for the Hood River READS 2025 kick-off celebration! This beloved community initiative returns with The Beadworkers: Stories by Beth Piatote, a masterful collection praised by Louise Erdrich for its wit and storytelling prowess.
The kick-off celebration and book distribution begins at 2:00 PM at the Hood River Library, featuring a special program and refreshments.
Free copies of this award-winning book will be available for pickup at the Parkdale and Cascade Locks libraries between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
Saturday, February 8
All Library Branches
But They Were Here First: Native Americans and White Colonists in the Pacific Northwest
Join Pat Evenson-Brady, Executive Board of the History Museum of Hood River County, for a fascinating talk on Native Americans and White Colonists in the Pacific Northwest.
Learn about the region’s complex history!
With a special performance by Celilo Village youth Eagle River Warrior Drum Group.
Saturday, February 22 @ 2 PM
Hood River Library Reading Room
Writing With/Out Constraints: a generative workshop with Beth Piatote
Sign-up required. Sign up here.
Saturday, March 1 @ 2-4 PM
Hood River Library Meeting Room
AUTHOR PRESENTATION
by Beth Piatote
Sunday, March 2 @ 2 pm
Hood River Library Reading Room
Hood River Library Book Club: The Beadworkers
The book group will be held in the library meeting room. You can also join via Zoom.
Wednesday, March 12 – 12:30 PM
Hood River Library Meeting Room and Zoom
Workshop: For the Love of Beads: Beginnings and Basics of Two-Needle Beadwork
with Brigette McConville (Warm Springs)
Ages: Teens and Adults. Sign-up required –
Sign up for only ONE session per day.
Saturday, March 22
Two separate sessions:
10 AM – 1 PM
1:30-4:30 PM
Hood River Library Meeting Room
The Land, The People: Native Americans and the Natural World
Land Stewardship: Leon Ganuelas (Yakama), Manager of Yakama Wildlife Resource Management; Native Rights and Treaties: Russell Spino (Warm Springs), CRITFC Chief of Police
Saturday, March 29 @ 11 AM – 12:30 PM
FISH Food Bank Meeting Room
Native American Beadwork Display
More details coming soon.
Date coming soon
History Museum of Hood River County
Other Highlights
Author presentations at local schools
Student posters in the Library
Poetry post in the Library lobby
Hood River READS 2025
Thank You to Our Contributors
Many Volunteers!
Waucoma Books
Hood River County Teachers
Weatherly Printing
Middle and High School Artists
Starbucks
Special Thanks To Our Sponsors
Hood River County Library Foundation
Starseed Foundation
Hood River County Education Foundation
Friends of the Hood River County Library
Hood River Valley Leos
Hood River Cultural Trust
Gorge Community Foundation’s
Pat Hazlehurst Endowment Fund
for their continuing support of the Hood River County Reads literacy project
Looking Back: Past Hood River Reads Books
19 Years of Reading Together
Hood River County Reads is a county-wide project sponsored by the Friends of the Library. Our goal is to encourage individuals and families to read and discuss books. We choose books and authors that reflect the diversity of our community and that will be shared widely.
We encourage you to read and discuss all the Hood River Reads’ books:
2006: Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
2007: Gonzales and Daughter Trucking Company by Maria Amparo Escandon and Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
2008: River Song by Craig Lesley
2009: Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler
2010: The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss
2012: The Circuit/Cajas de carton by Francisco Jimenez
2013: Ricochet River by Robin Cody and Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe
2014: Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems by William Stafford
2015: Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea and Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan
2016: Martin Marten by Brian Doyle
2017: Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger and Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
2018: Moreno. Prieto. Brown by Alejandro Jimenez and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
2019: Temperance Creek by Pamela Royes
2020/2021: The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch
2022: A Fire Story by Brian Fies
2023: rough house by Tina Ontiveros
2024: Beloved Beasts by Michelle Nijhuis
