Sarah Olson
Art Director
Sarah Olson was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, one of the southernmost cities in the world. Her travel-enthusiast parents took her to many locations abroad, ultimately settling in the United States. She is a graduate of the Art Institute of Portland.
An accomplished designer who started out in fashion design and children’s illustration, she transitioned to structural interior design to focus primarily on residential remodels. She has been recognized by the Building Industry Association of Washington and received the 2008 Building Excellence Award for Residential Exterior.
Much as writers seek le mot juste for their work, Sarah is often seeking out the perfect 2-D or 3-D objects for the indoor and outdoor spaces under her transformative care. She will respect the retro look and cozy feel of a Portland Craftsman, yet fill it with the sudden, brazen color and daring form of contemporary New Zealand glasswork and ceramic sculpture as a provocation, a challenge to the aesthetic status quo.
Her eye for finding local as well as international talent led her to Penduline.
Bonnie Ditlevsen
Editor
Bonnie Ditlevsen began her career of linguistic wanderlust as a translator in Europe before earning a master’s degree in English and taking it with her to central China. It was there, teaching academic writing at Xi’an International Studies University, that she heard the call both to perform music and to write. She sang blues for the first time, did voiceover for an avant-garde Chinese film production, took part in a radio show and a modeling gig, and chaired her first creative writing competition. Back again in Europe, she focused solely on vocal music, performing in a jazz-rock ensemble, an a cappella swing jazz trio, and a blues band. In Portland she studies classical singing, concentrating on medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque works, and lends her voice as a 1st soprano member of the Trinity Cathedral Choir and the Bach Cantata Choir.
She has published narratives on education, short satirical fictions, memoir pieces, and poetry, and has performed her work in front of audiences in Oregon, Washington, and California. In 2013 and 2014 she curated, promoted and hosted two literary series in southeast Portland, the Penduline Reading Series and the Penduline Poetry Series, inviting dozens of local, regional and international writers, poets and musicians to share their work.
Mission Statement:
Penduline (pronounced PEN-djoo-lyne) is a Portland-based literary and art magazine that seeks to create a presence for emerging as well as established visual artists and writers of sudden fiction, flash fiction, prose poetry, poetry, and short stories.
