Regional Literary Events
Some Regional Literary Events—
January 23-February 13, 2005
January
Sunday, 23rd
Big Bang: The Origins of the Universe Sunday the 23rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Simon Singh's Big Bang: The Origins of the Universe "casts a celestial light on the origins of the universe in this essential look at how our world came to be," said Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind. Only Simon Singh's ability for explaining the unexplainable, could turn something like the Big Bang into a whole lot of fun.
William Stafford reading at the Multnomah County Central Library, U.S. Bank Meeting Room, 801 S.W. 10th Ave., 2:00 Sunday.
Oregon Legacy Authors Series: Oregon City author Jeffrey St. Clair discusses his book Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me, 3 p.m. Driftwood Public Library, 801 S.W. Highway 101, Lincoln City.
Workshops and Awards:
The Attic Workshops: Winter workshops in screenwriting, fiction, poetry, memoir writing, and journalism begin the week of Jan. 23. The Attic, 4232 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Register: www.atticwritersworkshop.com or 963-8783, from $200.
Writer’s Circle: Writer and performer Gigi Rosenberg leads an eight-week series for writers, noon Wednesdays beginning Jan. 26: $185. 771-0860.
Midwinter Mystery Writer Weekend: Join local mystery writers for events including dinner with guest speaker author Ann Rule; workshop with Portland author April Henry; book signings and mystery quilt workshop, Jan. 28-30. Cannon Beach. Details: Wendy Higgins, The Ocean Lodge, 1-800-777-4047.
For Students, Please Note: Kate Herzog 2005 Writing Scholarships: Willamette Writers and Barnes & Noble are accepting entries for writing scholarships for high school seniors, college freshmen and sophomores. Details: 503-452-1592 or www.willamettewriters.com. Deadline: Feb. 28.
For those living or working in Clackamas County: The Clackamas Cultural Coalition intends to recognize cultural achievements of various local organizations and individuals in a public ceremony this spring, with gifts totaling $10,000. These funds represent new funding for county arts and culture, derived from Clackamas County's portion of Oregon Cultural Trust funds. The Coalition is now accepting nominations of organizations or individuals who have demonstrated excellence in their artistic or cultural fields. Gifts in the amounts of $1,000 and $500 will be awarded to various honorees, selected among a pool of nominations submitted by February 10. The Clackamas Cultural Coalition is comprised of 14 representatives from a wide range of Clackamas County arts, heritage and humanities interests. Based on substantial public input, the Coalition developed Clackamas County's cultural plan. Adopted in 2003, the plan is the basis from which the awards criteria have been developed: Nominees must exemplify excellence and be deserving of recognition in the arts, heritage or humanities. Nominees must have lived or worked in Clackamas County for at least one year prior to nomination. Nominations should made as follows: Any person may submit only one nomination; include your own name, address, phone number and e-mail; include name, address, phone number and e-mail of nominee; using no more than 200 words, describe why your candidate exemplifies cultural excellence and is deserving of recognition. Email your nomination by 5 p.m., Feb. 10, 2005 to culturalcoalition@hevanet.com or send to Clackamas Cultural Coalition, PO Box 2181, Oregon City, Oregon, 97045. If you'd like more information about the Coalition or the Clackamas County Plan for Arts, Heritage and Humanities, you can visit the Arts Action Alliance website: ww.co.clackamas.or.us/artsaction/. For more information about the Oregon Cultural Trust, visit www.culturaltrust.org.
Monday, 24th
Oregon Writers Colony: Marc Acito. Monday the 24th, 7:00PM Powell’s Books in Beaverton. Portland's own writer, columnist, and all-around-funny-guy, Marc Acito, concentrates his discussion this evening on writing techniques that keep readers turning those pages. Writing his hit comic novel, How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater, Acito employed whatever he could to make his novel stand above all the others clamoring for reader and publisher attention. This OWC event is free.
Poetry Slam & Open-Mic at Xenos Monday! This (Monday, January 24th) is the first Poetry Slam and open-mic at Xenos for 2005! Xenos House of Culture, 8527 N Lombard St., in St. Johns (North Portland) Monday, January 24th Poetry Open-mics: Start at 8:00 PM every Monday, Poetry Slams: Start at 8:30 PM on the 2nd & 4th Mondays each month, Sign-ups: Start at 7:30 PM every Monday. Open to all ages! Prizes to the top three poets! Not a poet? Come anyway, and bring all your friends to enjoy the fun! On slam nights, we need audience members to be judges, timekeepers, scorekeepers and cheerleaders! Without you, it's not a slam! This is totally interactive poetry! Slam Rules: Bring 3 original poems to read, one for each round (assuming you make it past the first round of judging). Try to keep them under 3 minutes in length, as your score will be docked for going over. Try to have your poems memorized. If you do, you will get bonus points, but we won't hold fast to this rule. Come read your poems if you want to! No props! The rest is small potatoes, and we'll explain it to you there! Questions? Call Phread: 503-283-8860 or 503-754-2911.
Tim Wise reads from his book White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, 7 p.m. Monday, at Reading Frenzy, 921 S.W. Oak Street. Activist, lecturer and director of the new Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE), Wise works from anecdote rather than academic argument to recount his path to greater cultural awareness in a colloquial, matter-of-fact quasi-memoir that urges white people to fight racism.
Jennifer Jordan signs copies of her book Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain, 7 p.m., Monday, REI, 1405 N.W. Johnson Street. K2 is called the "Savage Mountain" and it has earned the name. Though not quite as tall as Everest, it is far more dangerous. Located at the border of China and Pakistan in the remote Karakoram range, K2 has some of the harshest climbing conditions and weather of any place in the world. At the beginning of the 2004 climbing season, ninety women had successfully summited Everest, but only five female climbers had reached the peak of K2. Today, all of those brave pioneers are dead. These courageous, remarkable women can no longer tell their tales of defeating the ferocious mountain. Jennifer Jordan, a journalist and filmmaker, tells the haunting and compelling, sometimes tragic, stories of how these women lived and died on the mountains they pursued. Mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, poets and engineers, the female pioneers of K2 were complex personalities in the controversial world of high-altitude mountaineering, and their lives and deaths are a reminder of the high price climbers often pay to follow their dreams. CNF
Poet on Assignment: A conversation with Aurora Levins Morales. Monday, January 24th, 12:30-2:30. Portland State University, Multicultural Center1825 SW Broadway, Suite 228. Aurora Levins Morales is a poet, historian, and activist. She writes powerfully and personally about the current state of the world from the perspective of a feminist who is both a Puerto Rican and a Jew. Join Aurora as she reads from her work and speaks about her experience as a poet-commentator. Sponsored by the Women's Resource Center, Chicano-Latino Studies, and In Other Words Bookstore.
The Portland Edge. Monday the 24th, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. Most livable city in the USA, on the cutting edge for smart urban growth, a model mass transportation system: all these accolades apply to Portland, Oregon. But critics often deride Portland's heavy-handed bureaucracy and sky-rocketing housing costs as an example of good intentions gone wrong. So, which is it? A group of Portland State University faculty have tackled the issue with The Portland Edge: Challenges and Successes in Growing Communities. Contributors appearing this evening include Jennifer Dill, Karen Gibson, Chet Orloff, and Connie Ozawa.
Tuesday, 25th
Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. Tuesday the 25th, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. Judge Judy makes it look so easy. Evidence presented: wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am-judgment. But there are millions of folks who would rather chew off their left arm than make a decisive call. Making decisions, says Malcolm Gladwell in Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking can be learned, or at least improved. Leaping from one example to the next, Gladwell demonstrates how to improve that faculty he calls "thinking without thinking," whether at home, work, or at play.
William Stafford reading at Broadway Books, 1714 N.E. Broadway, 7 p.m., Tuesday.
Laurie Lynn Drummond presents Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You (a “stunning debut collection of short fiction”), Annie Bloom's Books, Tuesday, January 25, 2005, 7:30 PM. Combining Southern grace and urban brutality, ex-cop Drummond debuts with 10 short stories grouped into five blistering fictional portraits of Baton Rouge policewomen. Each lady is tough even without her bulletproof vest, and all are plagued by death and corruption as they undertake the bracing, dehumanizing enforcement of justice. In the three "Katherine" stories, the protagonist relates in her own dispassionate voice how she fired two shots into a robbery suspect's chest and then massaged his heart through the gaping bullet wound. She possesses a keen talent for detecting danger and the gruesome gift of determining cause and time of death-a few hours, a day, a week-from the first pungent whiffs of a corpse. In "Liz," a haunted traffic officer recuperates from a car accident, dredging up grisly memories from her days on the force; in "Mona," the burned-out protagonist struggles not to lose control in her professional and personal life. Choosing original characters over cliches and gritty detail over simplification, Drummond continually surprises with her profiles in courage, which focus on a captivating minority on the force.
Wednesday 26th
Donna Zajonc presents The Politics of Hope (containing “cogent research on human potential and leadership”) at Annie Bloom's Books, Wednesday, January 26, 2005 7:30 PM. Donna Zajonc [Say-John], a former Oregon state representative, is a political leadership coach, professional seminar leader, and author. Her recent book, The Politics of Hope: Reviving the Dream of Democracy, addresses the viability of collaborative, nonpartisan politics as a potent political strategy. Zajonc was called to public leadership at a young age. At 28, she was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives for three consecutive terms, serving from 1978 to 1984. She was a chairperson for multiple committees and was named Assistant Minority Leader. Zajonc later served as campaign manager for an Oregon state governor's race.
William Stafford reading at Portland State University, Smith Center, Room 238, 1825 S.W. Broadway, 7 p.m., Wednesday.
Classics Book Group. Wednesday the 26th, 7:00PM, Powell’s Books in Beaverton. This month our classics book group is reading Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. Everyone's welcome, new members and old.
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress. Wednesday the 26th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. With Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a Smartmouth Goddess behind her, Susan Jane Gilman has turned her pen on herself in Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress. Eschewing the tedious chick-lit formula of getting, keeping, or losing a man, Gilman revels in and ridicules her own habits of sleeping with inappropriate men and a half dozen other mean, uncool things that make her life most un-PC, but a tad more interesting, and certainly more humorous, than the gals down in the word processing pool.
Mountain Writers Series Joins Janice Griffin Gallery in Welcoming Writer Brian Doyle. Brian Doyle will be reading at Janice Griffin Gallery in the Pearl District on January 26 at 7 p.m. Our hosts for the evening, Thomas Augustine and Janice Griffin will be providing drinks and some fairly substantial hors d’oeuvres, New Orleans-style. So don’t worry about those after-work hunger pangs. Come see the beautiful artwork of Janice Griffin and bask in the company and words of Brian Doyle and your fellow literature fanatics. Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon – twice named the best university magazine in America. He is the author of four essay collections, most recently Leaping: Revelations & Epiphanies, and editor of God Is Love, a collection of the best spiritual essays from Portland Magazine. Doyle’s own essays have appeared in The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion, Commonweal, and The Georgia Review, among other periodicals, and in the Best American Essays anthologies of 1998, 1999, and 2003. He is also a columnist for The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. Who: Brian Doyle. What: Reading. Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Janice Griffin Gallery, 1301 NW 12. Cost: FREE.
Thursday, 27th
William Stafford reading at West Linn Library, 1595 Burns St., West Linn, 7 p.m.
Jared Diamond, Thursday the 27th, 7:30PM, First Congregational Church. Jared Diamond, celebrated author of Guns, Germs and Steel, which catalogued why certain civilizations succeed and others not, turns to why societies have crashed. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed traces the fundamental pattern of cultural collapse using as examples the Polynesian culture of Easter Island, the native American Anasazi and Maya, and the doomed Viking colony of Greenland. Ecological and political suicide can be avoided. It's our choice. This event is co-sponsored with Illahee. Please note: This free event will be held at the First Congregational Church, 1126 S.W. Park Avenue: Seating is first come, first served.
Friday, 28th
Susan Vreeland. Friday the 28th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. Susan Vreeland did the Dutch masters in Girl in Hyacinth Blue and the Italian Renaissance in The Passion of Artemsia. With Life Studies, Vreeland broadens her stroke. Though mainly concerned with the Impressionists, Life Studies takes in Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Picasso in a rich, multi-layered series of vignettes about great painters and the people who have been moved by them.
Saturday, 29th
William Stafford reading at Oregon City Library, 362 Warner Milne Road, Oregon City, 2 p.m.
Sunday, 30th
Poets D.H Bleything & Frank Vehafric read at Mountain Writers Center. D.H. Bleything, a native Oregonian, lives in Portland with his wife and daughter. His earlier poems were published in Dog River Review, Artifact, Mud, Quarto and The Portland Review. His more recent work has appeared in, or is scheduled for, Windfall, PoetSpeak Anthology, ByLine, The Penwood Review and Radix. Frank Vehafric has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1979, having moved from central Pennsylvania where he attended Penn State. The sight of Mt. Shasta, snowcapped, at sunset, seen from I-5 on his way north in March of 1979, was his initiation to Sacred Geography. This epiphany drives his belief that “our identity begins with our sense of place and is formed by the commitments we make to the living beings we share that place with.” Vehafric works as a union business agent and is blessed with wife, Emily, and two children, Brad and Cory. Who: D.H. Bleything & Frank Vehafric. What: Poetry Reading. Date: Sunday, January 30, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cost: $3 Suggested Donation.
Monday, 31st
Douglas Coupland. Monday the 31st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Liz Dunn is overweight, crabby, and plain with nothing on the horizon except oral surgery and an armful of schmaltzy videos to get her through an oral convalescence. Tuh-duh: Enter Jeremy with all the tools necessary to upend Liz's rather pathetic existence. A real chance for happiness dangles before Liz's heart as Jeremy takes her from one end of the globe to the next, and puts her in undesired danger. Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby is a haunting tale on the trail of loneliness.
An End to Suffering. Monday the 31st, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. To end suffering, end desire, Lord Buddha said more than 2,500 years ago. Springing from a deep religious heritage, Gautama, who later became known as the Buddha, traversed southern Asia, wrestling, as he went, with problems of personal identity, alienation, and suffering in the bewildering times in which he lived. More than 2,500 years later, Pankaj Mishra retraced the steps of Lord Buddha to search for relevance to Buddhist teachings in a world that still suffers under class oppression, poverty, terrorism, and cultural strife. The original and provocative result of Mishra's journeys is An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World.
February
Tuesday, 1st
Sam Lipsyte. Tuesday the 1st, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. What if somebody finally wrote to his high school alumni bulletin and told... the truth? From the author of The Subject Steve ("I laughed out loud — and I never laugh out loud," said Chuck Palahniuk) comes Home Land, an update from hell, and the most brilliant work to date by Sam Lipsyte. The Eastern Valley High School Alumni newsletter, Catamount Notes, is bursting with tales of success: former students include a bankable politician and a famous baseball star, not to mention a major-label recording artist. Then there is the appalling, yet utterly lovable, Lewis Miner — a.k.a Teabag — who did not pan out. This is his confession in all its bitter, lovelorn glory.
Flights of Fantasy. Tuesday, February 1, 2005 from 7 to 8 p.m. Please join Willamette Writers for an evening with Fantasy and Science Fiction writers Irene Radford, Mike Moscoe and Mary Rosenblum on Tuesday, February 1st, 7 - 8 p.m. Radford is the author of the popular Dragon Nimbus, Merlin Descendents and Stargods series. When Guardian of the Freedom: Merlin's Descendents #5, is published in April of this year she will have 13 books in print. Moscoe, who also writes under the name Mike Shepherd, has published nine novels and numerous short stories. His book series include Kris Longknife, Lost Millinenium, and Mechwarrior. More than sixty pieces of Rosenblum's short fiction have appeared in Asimov's Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as well as a host of anthologies. She has also published mainstream and magic realism short stories. Charges: The Adult meeting is free for members, guest of members pay $5 and nonmembers $10. The YWW meeting is free. YWW escorts may attend either the adult or YWW meeting at no charge. Location: The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th (at the corner of SW 11th and Clay) in downtown Portland. Socializing begins at 6:30. More detailed information is available at www.willamettewriters.com.
Wednesday, 2nd
Janis Amatuzio (a forensic pathologist) presents Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality & Living (including “real stories told to her by patients”) at Annie Bloom's Books, Wednesday, February 2, 2005 7:30 PM. Forensic pathologist Janis Amatuzio first began recording the stories told to her by patients, police officers, and other doctors because she felt that no one spoke for the dead. She believed the real experience of death - namely, the spiritual and otherworldly experiences of those near death and their loved ones - was ignored by the medical professionals, who thought of death as simply the cessation of breath. She knew there was more. From the first experience of a patient in her care dying to the miraculous "appearances" of loved ones after death, she began recording these experiences. Dr. Amatuzio found that by telling the story of their death to a loved one, she could help bring some sense of completion to the grieving family and friends. Written by a scientist in approachable, nonjudgmental language for anyone who has lost someone they love, this book offers stories that can't be explained in purely physical terms.
Write Time Writing Group. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:00PM, Powell’s Books in Beaverton. Character development, narrative flow, and finding an agent are amongst the topics we discuss. Bring a few copies of your current project to exchange and critique with other members of this group. New members are always welcome to join.
Peter DeLeo. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:30PM, Powell’s Books on Burnside. In November 1994, a single-engine plane carrying Peter DeLeo and two friends to a sightseeing and photography trip crashed in the Sierra Nevadas. DeLeo miraculously weathered the sub-freezing conditions with sixteen broken bones and no emergency supplies, water, or food, to reach civilization and bring help to his injured friends. In Survive!: My Fight for Life in the High Sierras, DeLeo relates his own remarkable story in gripping detail — a must-read for fans of Into Thin Air and Touching the Void.
Thursday, 3rd
The Private Life of Rocket Science. Thursday the 3rd, 7:30PM, Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science describes a daughter's journey to rediscover her father and understand the culture of space engineers. During the late 1960s, while M. G. Lord was becoming a teenager in Southern California and her mother was dying of cancer, Lord's father disappeared into his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, building the space probes of the Mariner Mars 69 mission. Thirty years later, Lord found herself reporting on the JPL, triggering childhood memories and a desire to revisit her past as a way of understanding the ethos of rocket science. Astro Turf is the brilliant result of her journey of discovery.
Friday, 4th
Pam Houston. Friday the 4th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. The long-awaited first novel from the bestselling author of Cowboys Are My Weakness, Sight Hound is a very special (and unique) love story between a woman, Rae, and her dog, Dante, a wolfhound who teaches "his human" that love is stronger than fear. With the wit and dead-on candor we've come to expect from Houston, Sight Hound unfolds a story that illuminates the intangible convenant between loved ones — be they canine or primate. In its starred review Publishers Weekly writes, "Houston's gift for capturing the dynamic of unorthodox webs of relationships is on pleasing display in this gruffly warmhearted novel."
Saturday, 5th
Gala in the Grove. Celebrate the birth of The Grove Review. The event will be held on Saturday, February 5, 2005 at the Lawrence Gallery (903 NW Davis St.) in the Pearl district in downtown Portland. The festivities will commence at 7pm and are expected to last until about 10pm. Delicious appetizers from Fife Restaurant will be provided - along with wine, beer, and musical entertainment -all within the inviting atmosphere of the gallery. There will be readings by Ursula K. Le Guin, David Biespiel, Willa Schneberg, and David Filer and an opportunity to view art on display by the journal's contributors. In addition, the authors and artists will stay after the readings to meet with the public and to sign books. There will be a suggested donation of $15 per person to help support the journal. Donations will be accepted the night of the event. All members of the public are invited to attend.
Monday, 7th
The Effects of Light Monday, the 7th, 7:30PM, Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. Miranda Beverly-Whittemore's The Effects of Light is an evocative debut that features two sisters whose lives are forever altered by a series of photos. Throughout their childhood, Myla and Pru Wolfe pose for a haunting series of photographs. Young, beautiful, and motherless, the sisters bond fiercely in their shared sense of loss and unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Thirteen years later, the older sister receives a mysterious communication that calls her back to her past, forcing her to relive — and come to terms with — the event that changed her family forever. Blending themes of lost innocence, sexual awakening, and triumph over loss, The Effects of Light follows in the tradition of such bestselling first novels as Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Lovely Bones with "passionate writing, skillful plotting, and intriguing characters" (Booklist).
Stalking the Divine. Monday the 7th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. In Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith with the Poor Clares, a stirring work in the tradition of The Cloister Walk, Kristin Ohlson — a longtime skeptic — opens up to the Poor Clares, cloistered nuns who maintain a rigorous, round-the-clock schedule of prayer. The result is an inspiring personal journey as well as a poignant reflection on the power of church and faith, no matter what your religion may be. Booklist calls it "a quietly moving, surprisingly humorous testament of faith."
Tuesday, 8th
Science Fiction Book Group Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM, Powell’s Books in Beaverton. This month we discuss Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. New members are always welcome to join.
Wrap Reading Tuesday the 8th, 7:30PM Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. Come hear provocative and powerful new works read by the authors featured in Everyday Revolutions. This anthology is a collection of poems, stories, and essays of low-income writers from the Portland area, written in Write Around Portland's free creative writing workshops this past fall. A panel discussion about writing and social justice will immediately follow the reading.
Wednesday, 9th
The Quince Seed Potion Wednesday the 9th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. Set against the backdrop of Iran's turbulent modern history, Morteza Baharloo's The Quince Seed Potion is the saga of an indentured servant's devotion and love for his masters during the years 1928 to 1981. Booklist calls this timely debut novel "a humanizing perspective on a history too many Americans know only through authoritarian stereotypes."
Thursday, 10th
Deadly Diversions Book Group. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell’s Books in Beaverton. This month David Farris will join our group to discuss his mystery Lie Still. New members are always welcome to join.
Kevin Sampsell and Monica Drake. Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. Powell's own Kevin Sampsell, author of the new story collection, Beautiful Blemish, has edited The Insomniac Reader, an anthology of short stories and essays that explore the dark sides (literally and figuratively) of people and the strange details of what some of them do at night while most of us sleep. With contributions from such stellar authors as Jonathan Lethem, Aimee Bender, Jonathan Ames, Rick Moody, and more, The Insomniac Reader promises to keep you up until the wee hours. Sampsell will be reading with Monica Drake, a Portland-based writer and journalist who will present her own story from the anthology, "Gymkhana."
Mark Epstein. Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. It is common in both Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis to treat desire as the root of all suffering and problems, but psychiatrist Mark Epstein believes this to be a grave misunderstanding. In his defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, one another, and our world. Full of practical advice, Open to Desire is a lasting guide for finding peace both in ourselves and in our most highly charged interactions.
Friday, 11th
Ingrid Newkirk. Friday the 11th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. In Making Kind Choices, PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk presents fabulous ideas for cruelty-free living that will not only enhance your life, but those of your neighbors, your community, animals, and the earth itself. Choosing a compassionate lifestyle that makes you feel good and positively impacts the environment and animals has never been easier; this practical and accessible handbook tells you how to do it.
Sunday, 13th
Graywolf Press and Mountain Writers Series Present Poet Mark Wunderlich. Mark Wunderlich follows the success of his debut collection, The Anchorage, with Voluntary Servitude (Graywolf Press, 2004). These poems ask of the beloved, “You say, Don’t wreck me, and I say I won’t, but how can I know that?” Here the poet is both servant and master to memory, sex, family, and the will of the lover, and the resulting poems describe the physical and psychological constraints and releases of relationships at the breaking point. Wunderlich is the author of The Anchorage (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), which won the Lambda Literary Award. He has published individual poems, essays, reviews and interviews in the Paris Review, Yale Review, Boston Review, Chicago Review, Fence and elsewhere. Wunderlich has taught at Stanford, San Francisco State University, Barnard College, and Ohio University. Mark Wunderlich is professor of literature at Bennington College in Vermont and lives in New York’s Hudson River Valley. Who: Mark Wunderlich. What: Poetry Reading. Date: Sunday, February 13, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cost: $3 Suggested Donation.
January 23-February 13, 2005
January
Sunday, 23rd
Big Bang: The Origins of the Universe Sunday the 23rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Simon Singh's Big Bang: The Origins of the Universe "casts a celestial light on the origins of the universe in this essential look at how our world came to be," said Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind. Only Simon Singh's ability for explaining the unexplainable, could turn something like the Big Bang into a whole lot of fun.
William Stafford reading at the Multnomah County Central Library, U.S. Bank Meeting Room, 801 S.W. 10th Ave., 2:00 Sunday.
Oregon Legacy Authors Series: Oregon City author Jeffrey St. Clair discusses his book Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me, 3 p.m. Driftwood Public Library, 801 S.W. Highway 101, Lincoln City.
Workshops and Awards:
The Attic Workshops: Winter workshops in screenwriting, fiction, poetry, memoir writing, and journalism begin the week of Jan. 23. The Attic, 4232 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Register: www.atticwritersworkshop.com or 963-8783, from $200.
Writer’s Circle: Writer and performer Gigi Rosenberg leads an eight-week series for writers, noon Wednesdays beginning Jan. 26: $185. 771-0860.
Midwinter Mystery Writer Weekend: Join local mystery writers for events including dinner with guest speaker author Ann Rule; workshop with Portland author April Henry; book signings and mystery quilt workshop, Jan. 28-30. Cannon Beach. Details: Wendy Higgins, The Ocean Lodge, 1-800-777-4047.
For Students, Please Note: Kate Herzog 2005 Writing Scholarships: Willamette Writers and Barnes & Noble are accepting entries for writing scholarships for high school seniors, college freshmen and sophomores. Details: 503-452-1592 or www.willamettewriters.com. Deadline: Feb. 28.
For those living or working in Clackamas County: The Clackamas Cultural Coalition intends to recognize cultural achievements of various local organizations and individuals in a public ceremony this spring, with gifts totaling $10,000. These funds represent new funding for county arts and culture, derived from Clackamas County's portion of Oregon Cultural Trust funds. The Coalition is now accepting nominations of organizations or individuals who have demonstrated excellence in their artistic or cultural fields. Gifts in the amounts of $1,000 and $500 will be awarded to various honorees, selected among a pool of nominations submitted by February 10. The Clackamas Cultural Coalition is comprised of 14 representatives from a wide range of Clackamas County arts, heritage and humanities interests. Based on substantial public input, the Coalition developed Clackamas County's cultural plan. Adopted in 2003, the plan is the basis from which the awards criteria have been developed: Nominees must exemplify excellence and be deserving of recognition in the arts, heritage or humanities. Nominees must have lived or worked in Clackamas County for at least one year prior to nomination. Nominations should made as follows: Any person may submit only one nomination; include your own name, address, phone number and e-mail; include name, address, phone number and e-mail of nominee; using no more than 200 words, describe why your candidate exemplifies cultural excellence and is deserving of recognition. Email your nomination by 5 p.m., Feb. 10, 2005 to culturalcoalition@hevanet.com or send to Clackamas Cultural Coalition, PO Box 2181, Oregon City, Oregon, 97045. If you'd like more information about the Coalition or the Clackamas County Plan for Arts, Heritage and Humanities, you can visit the Arts Action Alliance website: ww.co.clackamas.or.us/artsaction/. For more information about the Oregon Cultural Trust, visit www.culturaltrust.org.
Monday, 24th
Oregon Writers Colony: Marc Acito. Monday the 24th, 7:00PM Powell’s Books in Beaverton. Portland's own writer, columnist, and all-around-funny-guy, Marc Acito, concentrates his discussion this evening on writing techniques that keep readers turning those pages. Writing his hit comic novel, How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater, Acito employed whatever he could to make his novel stand above all the others clamoring for reader and publisher attention. This OWC event is free.
Poetry Slam & Open-Mic at Xenos Monday! This (Monday, January 24th) is the first Poetry Slam and open-mic at Xenos for 2005! Xenos House of Culture, 8527 N Lombard St., in St. Johns (North Portland) Monday, January 24th Poetry Open-mics: Start at 8:00 PM every Monday, Poetry Slams: Start at 8:30 PM on the 2nd & 4th Mondays each month, Sign-ups: Start at 7:30 PM every Monday. Open to all ages! Prizes to the top three poets! Not a poet? Come anyway, and bring all your friends to enjoy the fun! On slam nights, we need audience members to be judges, timekeepers, scorekeepers and cheerleaders! Without you, it's not a slam! This is totally interactive poetry! Slam Rules: Bring 3 original poems to read, one for each round (assuming you make it past the first round of judging). Try to keep them under 3 minutes in length, as your score will be docked for going over. Try to have your poems memorized. If you do, you will get bonus points, but we won't hold fast to this rule. Come read your poems if you want to! No props! The rest is small potatoes, and we'll explain it to you there! Questions? Call Phread: 503-283-8860 or 503-754-2911.
Tim Wise reads from his book White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, 7 p.m. Monday, at Reading Frenzy, 921 S.W. Oak Street. Activist, lecturer and director of the new Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE), Wise works from anecdote rather than academic argument to recount his path to greater cultural awareness in a colloquial, matter-of-fact quasi-memoir that urges white people to fight racism.
Jennifer Jordan signs copies of her book Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain, 7 p.m., Monday, REI, 1405 N.W. Johnson Street. K2 is called the "Savage Mountain" and it has earned the name. Though not quite as tall as Everest, it is far more dangerous. Located at the border of China and Pakistan in the remote Karakoram range, K2 has some of the harshest climbing conditions and weather of any place in the world. At the beginning of the 2004 climbing season, ninety women had successfully summited Everest, but only five female climbers had reached the peak of K2. Today, all of those brave pioneers are dead. These courageous, remarkable women can no longer tell their tales of defeating the ferocious mountain. Jennifer Jordan, a journalist and filmmaker, tells the haunting and compelling, sometimes tragic, stories of how these women lived and died on the mountains they pursued. Mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, poets and engineers, the female pioneers of K2 were complex personalities in the controversial world of high-altitude mountaineering, and their lives and deaths are a reminder of the high price climbers often pay to follow their dreams. CNF
Poet on Assignment: A conversation with Aurora Levins Morales. Monday, January 24th, 12:30-2:30. Portland State University, Multicultural Center1825 SW Broadway, Suite 228. Aurora Levins Morales is a poet, historian, and activist. She writes powerfully and personally about the current state of the world from the perspective of a feminist who is both a Puerto Rican and a Jew. Join Aurora as she reads from her work and speaks about her experience as a poet-commentator. Sponsored by the Women's Resource Center, Chicano-Latino Studies, and In Other Words Bookstore.
The Portland Edge. Monday the 24th, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. Most livable city in the USA, on the cutting edge for smart urban growth, a model mass transportation system: all these accolades apply to Portland, Oregon. But critics often deride Portland's heavy-handed bureaucracy and sky-rocketing housing costs as an example of good intentions gone wrong. So, which is it? A group of Portland State University faculty have tackled the issue with The Portland Edge: Challenges and Successes in Growing Communities. Contributors appearing this evening include Jennifer Dill, Karen Gibson, Chet Orloff, and Connie Ozawa.
Tuesday, 25th
Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. Tuesday the 25th, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. Judge Judy makes it look so easy. Evidence presented: wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am-judgment. But there are millions of folks who would rather chew off their left arm than make a decisive call. Making decisions, says Malcolm Gladwell in Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking can be learned, or at least improved. Leaping from one example to the next, Gladwell demonstrates how to improve that faculty he calls "thinking without thinking," whether at home, work, or at play.
William Stafford reading at Broadway Books, 1714 N.E. Broadway, 7 p.m., Tuesday.
Laurie Lynn Drummond presents Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You (a “stunning debut collection of short fiction”), Annie Bloom's Books, Tuesday, January 25, 2005, 7:30 PM. Combining Southern grace and urban brutality, ex-cop Drummond debuts with 10 short stories grouped into five blistering fictional portraits of Baton Rouge policewomen. Each lady is tough even without her bulletproof vest, and all are plagued by death and corruption as they undertake the bracing, dehumanizing enforcement of justice. In the three "Katherine" stories, the protagonist relates in her own dispassionate voice how she fired two shots into a robbery suspect's chest and then massaged his heart through the gaping bullet wound. She possesses a keen talent for detecting danger and the gruesome gift of determining cause and time of death-a few hours, a day, a week-from the first pungent whiffs of a corpse. In "Liz," a haunted traffic officer recuperates from a car accident, dredging up grisly memories from her days on the force; in "Mona," the burned-out protagonist struggles not to lose control in her professional and personal life. Choosing original characters over cliches and gritty detail over simplification, Drummond continually surprises with her profiles in courage, which focus on a captivating minority on the force.
Wednesday 26th
Donna Zajonc presents The Politics of Hope (containing “cogent research on human potential and leadership”) at Annie Bloom's Books, Wednesday, January 26, 2005 7:30 PM. Donna Zajonc [Say-John], a former Oregon state representative, is a political leadership coach, professional seminar leader, and author. Her recent book, The Politics of Hope: Reviving the Dream of Democracy, addresses the viability of collaborative, nonpartisan politics as a potent political strategy. Zajonc was called to public leadership at a young age. At 28, she was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives for three consecutive terms, serving from 1978 to 1984. She was a chairperson for multiple committees and was named Assistant Minority Leader. Zajonc later served as campaign manager for an Oregon state governor's race.
William Stafford reading at Portland State University, Smith Center, Room 238, 1825 S.W. Broadway, 7 p.m., Wednesday.
Classics Book Group. Wednesday the 26th, 7:00PM, Powell’s Books in Beaverton. This month our classics book group is reading Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. Everyone's welcome, new members and old.
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress. Wednesday the 26th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. With Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a Smartmouth Goddess behind her, Susan Jane Gilman has turned her pen on herself in Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress. Eschewing the tedious chick-lit formula of getting, keeping, or losing a man, Gilman revels in and ridicules her own habits of sleeping with inappropriate men and a half dozen other mean, uncool things that make her life most un-PC, but a tad more interesting, and certainly more humorous, than the gals down in the word processing pool.
Mountain Writers Series Joins Janice Griffin Gallery in Welcoming Writer Brian Doyle. Brian Doyle will be reading at Janice Griffin Gallery in the Pearl District on January 26 at 7 p.m. Our hosts for the evening, Thomas Augustine and Janice Griffin will be providing drinks and some fairly substantial hors d’oeuvres, New Orleans-style. So don’t worry about those after-work hunger pangs. Come see the beautiful artwork of Janice Griffin and bask in the company and words of Brian Doyle and your fellow literature fanatics. Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon – twice named the best university magazine in America. He is the author of four essay collections, most recently Leaping: Revelations & Epiphanies, and editor of God Is Love, a collection of the best spiritual essays from Portland Magazine. Doyle’s own essays have appeared in The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion, Commonweal, and The Georgia Review, among other periodicals, and in the Best American Essays anthologies of 1998, 1999, and 2003. He is also a columnist for The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. Who: Brian Doyle. What: Reading. Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Janice Griffin Gallery, 1301 NW 12. Cost: FREE.
Thursday, 27th
William Stafford reading at West Linn Library, 1595 Burns St., West Linn, 7 p.m.
Jared Diamond, Thursday the 27th, 7:30PM, First Congregational Church. Jared Diamond, celebrated author of Guns, Germs and Steel, which catalogued why certain civilizations succeed and others not, turns to why societies have crashed. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed traces the fundamental pattern of cultural collapse using as examples the Polynesian culture of Easter Island, the native American Anasazi and Maya, and the doomed Viking colony of Greenland. Ecological and political suicide can be avoided. It's our choice. This event is co-sponsored with Illahee. Please note: This free event will be held at the First Congregational Church, 1126 S.W. Park Avenue: Seating is first come, first served.
Friday, 28th
Susan Vreeland. Friday the 28th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. Susan Vreeland did the Dutch masters in Girl in Hyacinth Blue and the Italian Renaissance in The Passion of Artemsia. With Life Studies, Vreeland broadens her stroke. Though mainly concerned with the Impressionists, Life Studies takes in Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Picasso in a rich, multi-layered series of vignettes about great painters and the people who have been moved by them.
Saturday, 29th
William Stafford reading at Oregon City Library, 362 Warner Milne Road, Oregon City, 2 p.m.
Sunday, 30th
Poets D.H Bleything & Frank Vehafric read at Mountain Writers Center. D.H. Bleything, a native Oregonian, lives in Portland with his wife and daughter. His earlier poems were published in Dog River Review, Artifact, Mud, Quarto and The Portland Review. His more recent work has appeared in, or is scheduled for, Windfall, PoetSpeak Anthology, ByLine, The Penwood Review and Radix. Frank Vehafric has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1979, having moved from central Pennsylvania where he attended Penn State. The sight of Mt. Shasta, snowcapped, at sunset, seen from I-5 on his way north in March of 1979, was his initiation to Sacred Geography. This epiphany drives his belief that “our identity begins with our sense of place and is formed by the commitments we make to the living beings we share that place with.” Vehafric works as a union business agent and is blessed with wife, Emily, and two children, Brad and Cory. Who: D.H. Bleything & Frank Vehafric. What: Poetry Reading. Date: Sunday, January 30, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cost: $3 Suggested Donation.
Monday, 31st
Douglas Coupland. Monday the 31st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Liz Dunn is overweight, crabby, and plain with nothing on the horizon except oral surgery and an armful of schmaltzy videos to get her through an oral convalescence. Tuh-duh: Enter Jeremy with all the tools necessary to upend Liz's rather pathetic existence. A real chance for happiness dangles before Liz's heart as Jeremy takes her from one end of the globe to the next, and puts her in undesired danger. Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby is a haunting tale on the trail of loneliness.
An End to Suffering. Monday the 31st, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. To end suffering, end desire, Lord Buddha said more than 2,500 years ago. Springing from a deep religious heritage, Gautama, who later became known as the Buddha, traversed southern Asia, wrestling, as he went, with problems of personal identity, alienation, and suffering in the bewildering times in which he lived. More than 2,500 years later, Pankaj Mishra retraced the steps of Lord Buddha to search for relevance to Buddhist teachings in a world that still suffers under class oppression, poverty, terrorism, and cultural strife. The original and provocative result of Mishra's journeys is An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World.
February
Tuesday, 1st
Sam Lipsyte. Tuesday the 1st, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. What if somebody finally wrote to his high school alumni bulletin and told... the truth? From the author of The Subject Steve ("I laughed out loud — and I never laugh out loud," said Chuck Palahniuk) comes Home Land, an update from hell, and the most brilliant work to date by Sam Lipsyte. The Eastern Valley High School Alumni newsletter, Catamount Notes, is bursting with tales of success: former students include a bankable politician and a famous baseball star, not to mention a major-label recording artist. Then there is the appalling, yet utterly lovable, Lewis Miner — a.k.a Teabag — who did not pan out. This is his confession in all its bitter, lovelorn glory.
Flights of Fantasy. Tuesday, February 1, 2005 from 7 to 8 p.m. Please join Willamette Writers for an evening with Fantasy and Science Fiction writers Irene Radford, Mike Moscoe and Mary Rosenblum on Tuesday, February 1st, 7 - 8 p.m. Radford is the author of the popular Dragon Nimbus, Merlin Descendents and Stargods series. When Guardian of the Freedom: Merlin's Descendents #5, is published in April of this year she will have 13 books in print. Moscoe, who also writes under the name Mike Shepherd, has published nine novels and numerous short stories. His book series include Kris Longknife, Lost Millinenium, and Mechwarrior. More than sixty pieces of Rosenblum's short fiction have appeared in Asimov's Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as well as a host of anthologies. She has also published mainstream and magic realism short stories. Charges: The Adult meeting is free for members, guest of members pay $5 and nonmembers $10. The YWW meeting is free. YWW escorts may attend either the adult or YWW meeting at no charge. Location: The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th (at the corner of SW 11th and Clay) in downtown Portland. Socializing begins at 6:30. More detailed information is available at www.willamettewriters.com.
Wednesday, 2nd
Janis Amatuzio (a forensic pathologist) presents Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality & Living (including “real stories told to her by patients”) at Annie Bloom's Books, Wednesday, February 2, 2005 7:30 PM. Forensic pathologist Janis Amatuzio first began recording the stories told to her by patients, police officers, and other doctors because she felt that no one spoke for the dead. She believed the real experience of death - namely, the spiritual and otherworldly experiences of those near death and their loved ones - was ignored by the medical professionals, who thought of death as simply the cessation of breath. She knew there was more. From the first experience of a patient in her care dying to the miraculous "appearances" of loved ones after death, she began recording these experiences. Dr. Amatuzio found that by telling the story of their death to a loved one, she could help bring some sense of completion to the grieving family and friends. Written by a scientist in approachable, nonjudgmental language for anyone who has lost someone they love, this book offers stories that can't be explained in purely physical terms.
Write Time Writing Group. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:00PM, Powell’s Books in Beaverton. Character development, narrative flow, and finding an agent are amongst the topics we discuss. Bring a few copies of your current project to exchange and critique with other members of this group. New members are always welcome to join.
Peter DeLeo. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:30PM, Powell’s Books on Burnside. In November 1994, a single-engine plane carrying Peter DeLeo and two friends to a sightseeing and photography trip crashed in the Sierra Nevadas. DeLeo miraculously weathered the sub-freezing conditions with sixteen broken bones and no emergency supplies, water, or food, to reach civilization and bring help to his injured friends. In Survive!: My Fight for Life in the High Sierras, DeLeo relates his own remarkable story in gripping detail — a must-read for fans of Into Thin Air and Touching the Void.
Thursday, 3rd
The Private Life of Rocket Science. Thursday the 3rd, 7:30PM, Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science describes a daughter's journey to rediscover her father and understand the culture of space engineers. During the late 1960s, while M. G. Lord was becoming a teenager in Southern California and her mother was dying of cancer, Lord's father disappeared into his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, building the space probes of the Mariner Mars 69 mission. Thirty years later, Lord found herself reporting on the JPL, triggering childhood memories and a desire to revisit her past as a way of understanding the ethos of rocket science. Astro Turf is the brilliant result of her journey of discovery.
Friday, 4th
Pam Houston. Friday the 4th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. The long-awaited first novel from the bestselling author of Cowboys Are My Weakness, Sight Hound is a very special (and unique) love story between a woman, Rae, and her dog, Dante, a wolfhound who teaches "his human" that love is stronger than fear. With the wit and dead-on candor we've come to expect from Houston, Sight Hound unfolds a story that illuminates the intangible convenant between loved ones — be they canine or primate. In its starred review Publishers Weekly writes, "Houston's gift for capturing the dynamic of unorthodox webs of relationships is on pleasing display in this gruffly warmhearted novel."
Saturday, 5th
Gala in the Grove. Celebrate the birth of The Grove Review. The event will be held on Saturday, February 5, 2005 at the Lawrence Gallery (903 NW Davis St.) in the Pearl district in downtown Portland. The festivities will commence at 7pm and are expected to last until about 10pm. Delicious appetizers from Fife Restaurant will be provided - along with wine, beer, and musical entertainment -all within the inviting atmosphere of the gallery. There will be readings by Ursula K. Le Guin, David Biespiel, Willa Schneberg, and David Filer and an opportunity to view art on display by the journal's contributors. In addition, the authors and artists will stay after the readings to meet with the public and to sign books. There will be a suggested donation of $15 per person to help support the journal. Donations will be accepted the night of the event. All members of the public are invited to attend.
Monday, 7th
The Effects of Light Monday, the 7th, 7:30PM, Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. Miranda Beverly-Whittemore's The Effects of Light is an evocative debut that features two sisters whose lives are forever altered by a series of photos. Throughout their childhood, Myla and Pru Wolfe pose for a haunting series of photographs. Young, beautiful, and motherless, the sisters bond fiercely in their shared sense of loss and unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Thirteen years later, the older sister receives a mysterious communication that calls her back to her past, forcing her to relive — and come to terms with — the event that changed her family forever. Blending themes of lost innocence, sexual awakening, and triumph over loss, The Effects of Light follows in the tradition of such bestselling first novels as Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Lovely Bones with "passionate writing, skillful plotting, and intriguing characters" (Booklist).
Stalking the Divine. Monday the 7th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. In Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith with the Poor Clares, a stirring work in the tradition of The Cloister Walk, Kristin Ohlson — a longtime skeptic — opens up to the Poor Clares, cloistered nuns who maintain a rigorous, round-the-clock schedule of prayer. The result is an inspiring personal journey as well as a poignant reflection on the power of church and faith, no matter what your religion may be. Booklist calls it "a quietly moving, surprisingly humorous testament of faith."
Tuesday, 8th
Science Fiction Book Group Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM, Powell’s Books in Beaverton. This month we discuss Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. New members are always welcome to join.
Wrap Reading Tuesday the 8th, 7:30PM Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. Come hear provocative and powerful new works read by the authors featured in Everyday Revolutions. This anthology is a collection of poems, stories, and essays of low-income writers from the Portland area, written in Write Around Portland's free creative writing workshops this past fall. A panel discussion about writing and social justice will immediately follow the reading.
Wednesday, 9th
The Quince Seed Potion Wednesday the 9th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. Set against the backdrop of Iran's turbulent modern history, Morteza Baharloo's The Quince Seed Potion is the saga of an indentured servant's devotion and love for his masters during the years 1928 to 1981. Booklist calls this timely debut novel "a humanizing perspective on a history too many Americans know only through authoritarian stereotypes."
Thursday, 10th
Deadly Diversions Book Group. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell’s Books in Beaverton. This month David Farris will join our group to discuss his mystery Lie Still. New members are always welcome to join.
Kevin Sampsell and Monica Drake. Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. Powell's own Kevin Sampsell, author of the new story collection, Beautiful Blemish, has edited The Insomniac Reader, an anthology of short stories and essays that explore the dark sides (literally and figuratively) of people and the strange details of what some of them do at night while most of us sleep. With contributions from such stellar authors as Jonathan Lethem, Aimee Bender, Jonathan Ames, Rick Moody, and more, The Insomniac Reader promises to keep you up until the wee hours. Sampsell will be reading with Monica Drake, a Portland-based writer and journalist who will present her own story from the anthology, "Gymkhana."
Mark Epstein. Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM, Powell’s on Burnside. It is common in both Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis to treat desire as the root of all suffering and problems, but psychiatrist Mark Epstein believes this to be a grave misunderstanding. In his defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, one another, and our world. Full of practical advice, Open to Desire is a lasting guide for finding peace both in ourselves and in our most highly charged interactions.
Friday, 11th
Ingrid Newkirk. Friday the 11th, 7:30PM Powell’s on Burnside. In Making Kind Choices, PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk presents fabulous ideas for cruelty-free living that will not only enhance your life, but those of your neighbors, your community, animals, and the earth itself. Choosing a compassionate lifestyle that makes you feel good and positively impacts the environment and animals has never been easier; this practical and accessible handbook tells you how to do it.
Sunday, 13th
Graywolf Press and Mountain Writers Series Present Poet Mark Wunderlich. Mark Wunderlich follows the success of his debut collection, The Anchorage, with Voluntary Servitude (Graywolf Press, 2004). These poems ask of the beloved, “You say, Don’t wreck me, and I say I won’t, but how can I know that?” Here the poet is both servant and master to memory, sex, family, and the will of the lover, and the resulting poems describe the physical and psychological constraints and releases of relationships at the breaking point. Wunderlich is the author of The Anchorage (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), which won the Lambda Literary Award. He has published individual poems, essays, reviews and interviews in the Paris Review, Yale Review, Boston Review, Chicago Review, Fence and elsewhere. Wunderlich has taught at Stanford, San Francisco State University, Barnard College, and Ohio University. Mark Wunderlich is professor of literature at Bennington College in Vermont and lives in New York’s Hudson River Valley. Who: Mark Wunderlich. What: Poetry Reading. Date: Sunday, February 13, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cost: $3 Suggested Donation.
posted by J. Grabill at 1:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home