About Angela Allen

Angela is nationally recognized writer in Portland, Ore., who worked for 25 years as a daily newspaper columnist, reviewer and staffer. Since 2006, she has pursued a freelance writing, teaching and photography career, contributing to regional, national and international publications and Web sites. Nosing around the Northwest, she covers food/wine, restaurants, style, art, architecture, homes, jazz, classical music, farmers and opera. And people, lots of people.



Angela teaches writing in the Oregon schools as a member of Portland’s Wordstock. She worked as the Eastern Oregon Writer-in-Residence sponsored in part by Fishtrap, at which she taught creative writing throughout Harney and Malheur counties. She focuses on photography and creative writing in Portland's elementary schools through Right Brain Initiative, and for several years, she worked as a Writer in the Schools for Literary Arts in Portland. She offers private and group enrichment classes, spiced up with word fun, that hone writing skills, prepare students for SAT verbal tests, increase vocabulary, and help with college essays. She will even come to your home!

She holds a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Oregon (1984) and is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop. She has numerous journalistic publications and is among four poets contributing to Saturday Afternoons (Clothesline Press).

Her photography shows have drawn on color (“Vivid”) and on "Oregon's Other Side," a visual journey of Eastern Oregon. Among other places, her work was featured at Portland’s former CaroleZoom Studio; Firehouse Gallery in Louisville’s up-and-coming NuLu neighborhood; and at Lilly's, Kathy Cary's award-winning Louisville restaurant.

Her love for the arts, written word, eye for color, and tolerance for life’s quirkiness keeps her sprits high.