3rd & Oak: Stories

by Maryka Biaggio, Kerry Cathers, Elyse Garrett

How many stories can a single urban edifice inspire? The writers of the Novelitics Writers Collective found quite a few at the corner of 3rd & Oak.

As it turns out, 3rd & Oak is the place to find hidden compartments from which to view the neighbors, demons who create graffiti and demons who spew grief, portal-traveling witches, stolen bags of gold, lost sisters, and maybe even the man who is trying to kill you.

It’s the place to remember the love of your life, the girl who got away, the home you’ve always dreamed of, and Barry the Abominable Bozeman . . . but, for heaven’s sake, no union plumbers.

Check out the array of stories one address can inspire in this delightful short story anthology.

245 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 23, 2024

About the author

Maryka Biaggio, PhD, is a psychology professor turned novelist with a passion for history and the human spirit. After a successful academic career, she turned to writing historical fiction inspired by real people—figures whose lives illuminate the complexities of their time. Her debut novel, Parlor Games (Doubleday, 2013), was praised by New York Times bestselling author Daisy Goodwin as “a wildly entertaining and constantly surprising ride.” She has since published Eden Waits, The Point of Vanishing, The Model Spy, and Gun Girl and the Tall Guy. Her forthcoming novel, Margery and Me, will be published by Regal House in 2026 and has been hailed by distinguished author Valerie Martin as “a wry, lively, and wicked-good novel.”

She loves the challenge of starting with actual historical figures and dramatizing their lives—figuring out what motivated them to behave as they did, studying how cultural and historical context influenced them, and recreating their emotional world through dialogue and action. She prides herself on carefully researching the period, place, and people to provide readers with an immersive experience.

Her fiction has garnered numerous accolades, including the Willamette Writers Award, Oregon Writers Colony Award, Historical Novel Society Review Editors’ Choice, La Belle Lettre Award, a Michigan Upper Peninsula Notable Book Award, and a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant. She served on the Board of the Historical Novel Society North America Conference from 2015 to 2025 and has mentored writers in the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s Writer-to-Writer Mentorship program since 2020.

An avid opera fan, she also enjoys gardening, art films, and, of course, great fiction. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Learn more at my website.