Regional Readings, January 18 on
Regional Literary Events--January 2005
Tuesday, 18th
The Road to Martyrs' Square Tuesday the 18th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The Road to Martyrs' Square is lined with the tragic and absurd. After living for six months with a Palestinian refugee family, Portland writers Anne Marie Oliver and Paul Steinberg spent the next six years collecting graffiti, videotapes, audiocassettes, posters, and other street media in over 100 towns in the West Bank and Gaza, all culminating in an insightful portrait of the Holy Land. Amongst other discoveries, Oliver and Steinberg learned that the fantasy of the suicide bomber is shared across religious and political lines.
William Stafford readings at Lake Oswego Public Library , 706 4th St., Lake Oswego. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 7 p.m., free.
William Stafford readings at Linfield College, 900 S.E. Baker, McMinnville. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 7:30 p.m., free.
Wednesday, 19th
Write Time Wednesday the 19th, 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. Everyone's welcome to join.
Pig Boy's Wicked Bird Wednesday the 19th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. With a title as charming as Pig Boy's Wicked Bird: A Memoir, there's no apparent reason not to enjoy this book. Author Doug Crandell sets the story on his family's bankrupt farm in 1976. He's seven years old, impressionable, overweight, and derided for peculiar habits. While Jimmy Carter runs for president, Doug tries to shed his nickname, Pig Boy, and grow up to be a hog man like his dad in this truly gritty and tragicomic tale. Think: Augusten Burroughs meets Patrick McCabe.
Poets Mary Szybist and Jeremy Harp read selections from their work, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Portland State University, Smith Memorial Center, Vanport Room 338, 724 S.W. Harrison St.
William Stafford readings at Tigard Public Library, 13500 S.W. Hall Blvd., Tigard. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 7:30 p.m., free.
Terrence McNally. Wednesday, January 19, 2005 “When I’m writing I try not to think in terms of themes. But I think about the difficulty of people connecting as they’re trying to find hope, trying to find their way to real love and commitment. I’m trying to find my way to a sincerely earned hope.” — Terrence McNally. One of America’s leading playwrights, Terrence McNally has had more than 15 plays and musicals staged on Broadway since 1963. Six of them were nominated for Tony Awards and four received the celebrated accolade. Vincent Canby called Master Class, about legendary opera singer Maria Callas, “a profile in courage.” The Nation called Love! Valour! Compassion! “a remarkably Chekhovian work—which is to say vital and capacious, extremely natural yet poetic and crafted at the same time." In his Tony Award-winning musicals, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Ragtime, McNally moves from the dark interiors of a Latin American prison to a panorama of early 20th century New York. His dramatic works include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, The Lisbon Traviata and the controversial Corpus Christi, a modern, homosexual retelling of the story of Jesus’ birth. His musical collaborations include an adaptation of Sister Helen Prejean’s Dead Man Walking for the San Francisco Opera and the Broadway hit, The Full Monty. His latest work, The Stendhal Syndrome, opened in New York earlier this year.
Thursday, 20th
William Stafford readings at Clackamas Community College. Join Portland poets on January 20, 7pm in the Literary Arts Center at Clackamas Community College, to help celebrate the immense contribution of poet William Stafford to the national culture.
The Memory of Running Thursday the 20th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. As I Lay Dying meets Housekeeping in Ron McLarty's original first novel, The Memory of Running. Smithson Ide is forty-three years old, weighs 279 pounds, smokes too much, and drinks too much: a heart attack in the waiting. The supervisor at a GI Joe factory where he ensures that Joe's arms are turned in, not out, Ide is the quintessential loser. When his beautiful and tragically psychotic sister dies, he hops atop his old Raleigh bicycle and begins a trip from Rhode Island to California to claim his sister's body.
Third Thursday Poets: Poets who read from their works in 2004 return, 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Jackson’s Books, 320 Liberty St. S.E., Salem.
Baker Towers: A Coal Mining Saga Thursday the 20th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Fast on the heels of her well-received novel, Mrs. Kimble, Jennifer Haigh demonstrates a clear talent in Baker Towers, an almost mythological tale focused in a west Pennsylvania coal-mining town. Set at the end of WWII, the story focuses on one Italian/Polish family in Bakerton, Pennsylvania, following each member in episodes poignant and redeeming that all ultimately culminate back at the mines, just as they are shutting down for good.
Friday 21th
How Women Transformed Int'l Development. Friday the 21st, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. By most any measure, Developing Power: How Women Transformed International Development is unparalelled. Editors Arvonne Fraser and Irene Tinker gathered the memoirs of twenty-seven women from twelve countries. Each memoir features the work of an ordinary woman who tapped into the United Nations, government and/or non-government agencies to create better lives for others. Each and every extraordinary story encapsulates a spirit of peaceful revolution.
William Stafford readings at the Mountain Writers Center, 3624 S.E. Milwaukie Ave. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 8:00 p.m., free.
Clyde Drexler: The basketball star signs copies of his book Clyde the Glide, 12:30 p.m. Friday, Vancouver Borders Books, 811 S.E. 160th Ave., Vancouver, and 7:00 Friday, Borders Gresham, 687 N.W. 12th St., Gresham.
Saturday, 22nd
Clyde Drexler: The basketball star signs copies of his book Clyde the Glide, 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Barnes and Noble, Tanasbourne, 18300 N.W. Evergreen Parkway, Beaverton.
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.
Workshops and Scholarships:
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.williamettewriters.com. Deadline: Feb. 28.
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, 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.
The Portland Edge Monday the 24th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books 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. 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 City of Books 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.
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. For eight years, Laurie Lynn Drummond worked as a police officer, but then a car crash ended her career many, many years ago — a career she admits she probably wouldn’t have continued in anyway. Having moved into teaching and creative writing, Drummond now tackles in prose the things she experienced as a law enforcement officer, first as a dispatcher while studying theater at Ithaca College, and, later, as a cop in Baton Rouge.
Wednesday 26th
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.
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.
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.
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress Wednesday the 26th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books. With much experience (and Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a Smartass Goddess) behind her, Susan Jane Gilman has turned her pen on herself in . 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.
Thursday, 27th
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 City of Books 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.
Sunday, 30th
Local 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, 31th
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
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.Sunday, 13th. Dr. Janis Amatuzio founded Midwest Forensic Pathology P.A. and is the author of Forever Ours. She is Board certified in anatomical, forensic, and clinical pathology, is a recognized authority in forensic medicine, and has developed many courses in topics such as death investigation, forensic nursing, and forensic medicine in mortuary science. Dr. Amatuzio serves as Coroner and a regional resource for multiple counties in MN and WI. The book Forever Ours explores the mysterious realm of visions, experiences, and communications experienced by families at the threshold of the deaths of loved ones. As someone whose life’s work has been speaking for the deceased, she has now also provided a voice for family and friends by allowing their stories to be heard. Forever Ours has much to teach us about healing, loving, and the deep soul connections with our loved ones. This book is for anyone seeking solace and hope at the time of loss.
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. The recipient of two fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, The Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, and the Writers at Work Fellowship, 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.
Thursday, 17th
Elizabeth Woody will read from her work Thursday, February 17th, noon to 1:00, in Clackamas Community College’s Literary Arts Center. Elizabeth Woody, Navajo / Warm Springs / Wasco / Yakama, is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon. After three years of study at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, she earned a bachelor's degree in English from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. From 1994-1996, Elizabeth was a professor of creative writing at the IAIA. In 1992, Elizabeth was an invited writer at the Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers and a featured poet at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Her poetry has been praised by James Welch and chosen by him for inclusion in the Spring 1994 issue of Ploughshares which he edited. (See below in writing available online.) She is a board member of Soapstone, Inc., an organization dedicated to providing a writing retreat for women. This organization is rebuilding and improving the retreat facilities for women to write in safety and solitude near the Oregon coast. As Crow's Shadow Institute Board Member, she hopes to help development of programs and fund raising for this valuable arts facility located on the Umatilla Reservation. CCC Literary Arts Center, noon.
March
Friday, 4th
MWS Event Honors Vern Rutsala, Lisa Steinman & Maxine Scates. Three of Oregon's finest prize-winning poets are teaming up for a special evening of poetry at the Mountain Writers Center. Lisa Steinman, Maxine Scates and Vern Rutsala will read Friday, March 4, at 7:00 P.M. A book-signing reception will follow. Join us for an evening of poetry with this remarkable trio, and see why Portland is one of the writing capitals of America. Vern Rutsala received his BA from Reed College and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Nine books of his poetry have been published, as well as four chapbooks and over 700 poems in various literary reviews and anthologies. His work has garnered many prizes, including the Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize (twice), a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Oregon Masters, and two from the National Endowment for the Arts. He received the Juniper Prize for his book, Little Known Sports, and his Selected Poems won the Oregon Book Award in 1992. For many years, he was a professor of English at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR. Maxine Scates is the author of Black Loam which received the Lyre Prize and will be published in the February of 2005 by Cherry Grove Collections and Toluca Street, which received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, and subsequently the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. She is co-editor, with David Trinidad, of Holding Our Own: The Selected Poems of Ann Stanford published by Copper Canyon Press. Her poems have appeared widely or are forthcoming in such journals as Agni, American Poetry Review, Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, Ironwood, Luna, Massachusetts Review, Ninth Letter, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, The Women's Review of Books and ZYZZYVA . She has taught as Writer-in-Residence at Lewis and Clark College and Reed College. Currently, she teaches privately. Originally from Los Angeles, she has lived in Eugene, Oregon since 1973. Lisa Steinman is Kenan Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of Masters of Repetition: Poetry, Culture, and Work in Thomson, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Emerson (St. Martin's, 1998), Made In America: Science, Technology, and American Modernist Poets (Yale, 1987), and five volumes of poetry, most recently Carslaw's Sequences (University of Tampa Press, 2003). She has also published numerous poems and articles about nineteenth through twenty-first English and American poetry. Who: Lisa Steinman, Maxine Scates, and Vern Rutsala. What: Poetry Reading. Date: Friday, March 4, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cost: $8/$5 MWS members, students & seniors.
Tuesday, 18th
The Road to Martyrs' Square Tuesday the 18th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The Road to Martyrs' Square is lined with the tragic and absurd. After living for six months with a Palestinian refugee family, Portland writers Anne Marie Oliver and Paul Steinberg spent the next six years collecting graffiti, videotapes, audiocassettes, posters, and other street media in over 100 towns in the West Bank and Gaza, all culminating in an insightful portrait of the Holy Land. Amongst other discoveries, Oliver and Steinberg learned that the fantasy of the suicide bomber is shared across religious and political lines.
William Stafford readings at Lake Oswego Public Library , 706 4th St., Lake Oswego. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 7 p.m., free.
William Stafford readings at Linfield College, 900 S.E. Baker, McMinnville. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 7:30 p.m., free.
Wednesday, 19th
Write Time Wednesday the 19th, 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. Everyone's welcome to join.
Pig Boy's Wicked Bird Wednesday the 19th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. With a title as charming as Pig Boy's Wicked Bird: A Memoir, there's no apparent reason not to enjoy this book. Author Doug Crandell sets the story on his family's bankrupt farm in 1976. He's seven years old, impressionable, overweight, and derided for peculiar habits. While Jimmy Carter runs for president, Doug tries to shed his nickname, Pig Boy, and grow up to be a hog man like his dad in this truly gritty and tragicomic tale. Think: Augusten Burroughs meets Patrick McCabe.
Poets Mary Szybist and Jeremy Harp read selections from their work, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Portland State University, Smith Memorial Center, Vanport Room 338, 724 S.W. Harrison St.
William Stafford readings at Tigard Public Library, 13500 S.W. Hall Blvd., Tigard. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 7:30 p.m., free.
Terrence McNally. Wednesday, January 19, 2005 “When I’m writing I try not to think in terms of themes. But I think about the difficulty of people connecting as they’re trying to find hope, trying to find their way to real love and commitment. I’m trying to find my way to a sincerely earned hope.” — Terrence McNally. One of America’s leading playwrights, Terrence McNally has had more than 15 plays and musicals staged on Broadway since 1963. Six of them were nominated for Tony Awards and four received the celebrated accolade. Vincent Canby called Master Class, about legendary opera singer Maria Callas, “a profile in courage.” The Nation called Love! Valour! Compassion! “a remarkably Chekhovian work—which is to say vital and capacious, extremely natural yet poetic and crafted at the same time." In his Tony Award-winning musicals, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Ragtime, McNally moves from the dark interiors of a Latin American prison to a panorama of early 20th century New York. His dramatic works include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, The Lisbon Traviata and the controversial Corpus Christi, a modern, homosexual retelling of the story of Jesus’ birth. His musical collaborations include an adaptation of Sister Helen Prejean’s Dead Man Walking for the San Francisco Opera and the Broadway hit, The Full Monty. His latest work, The Stendhal Syndrome, opened in New York earlier this year.
Thursday, 20th
William Stafford readings at Clackamas Community College. Join Portland poets on January 20, 7pm in the Literary Arts Center at Clackamas Community College, to help celebrate the immense contribution of poet William Stafford to the national culture.
The Memory of Running Thursday the 20th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. As I Lay Dying meets Housekeeping in Ron McLarty's original first novel, The Memory of Running. Smithson Ide is forty-three years old, weighs 279 pounds, smokes too much, and drinks too much: a heart attack in the waiting. The supervisor at a GI Joe factory where he ensures that Joe's arms are turned in, not out, Ide is the quintessential loser. When his beautiful and tragically psychotic sister dies, he hops atop his old Raleigh bicycle and begins a trip from Rhode Island to California to claim his sister's body.
Third Thursday Poets: Poets who read from their works in 2004 return, 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Jackson’s Books, 320 Liberty St. S.E., Salem.
Baker Towers: A Coal Mining Saga Thursday the 20th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Fast on the heels of her well-received novel, Mrs. Kimble, Jennifer Haigh demonstrates a clear talent in Baker Towers, an almost mythological tale focused in a west Pennsylvania coal-mining town. Set at the end of WWII, the story focuses on one Italian/Polish family in Bakerton, Pennsylvania, following each member in episodes poignant and redeeming that all ultimately culminate back at the mines, just as they are shutting down for good.
Friday 21th
How Women Transformed Int'l Development. Friday the 21st, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. By most any measure, Developing Power: How Women Transformed International Development is unparalelled. Editors Arvonne Fraser and Irene Tinker gathered the memoirs of twenty-seven women from twelve countries. Each memoir features the work of an ordinary woman who tapped into the United Nations, government and/or non-government agencies to create better lives for others. Each and every extraordinary story encapsulates a spirit of peaceful revolution.
William Stafford readings at the Mountain Writers Center, 3624 S.E. Milwaukie Ave. Local authors read selections from the works of William Stafford, 8:00 p.m., free.
Clyde Drexler: The basketball star signs copies of his book Clyde the Glide, 12:30 p.m. Friday, Vancouver Borders Books, 811 S.E. 160th Ave., Vancouver, and 7:00 Friday, Borders Gresham, 687 N.W. 12th St., Gresham.
Saturday, 22nd
Clyde Drexler: The basketball star signs copies of his book Clyde the Glide, 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Barnes and Noble, Tanasbourne, 18300 N.W. Evergreen Parkway, Beaverton.
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.
Workshops and Scholarships:
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.williamettewriters.com. Deadline: Feb. 28.
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, 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.
The Portland Edge Monday the 24th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books 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. 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 City of Books 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.
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. For eight years, Laurie Lynn Drummond worked as a police officer, but then a car crash ended her career many, many years ago — a career she admits she probably wouldn’t have continued in anyway. Having moved into teaching and creative writing, Drummond now tackles in prose the things she experienced as a law enforcement officer, first as a dispatcher while studying theater at Ithaca College, and, later, as a cop in Baton Rouge.
Wednesday 26th
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.
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.
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.
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress Wednesday the 26th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books. With much experience (and Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a Smartass Goddess) behind her, Susan Jane Gilman has turned her pen on herself in . 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.
Thursday, 27th
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 City of Books 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.
Sunday, 30th
Local 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, 31th
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
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.Sunday, 13th. Dr. Janis Amatuzio founded Midwest Forensic Pathology P.A. and is the author of Forever Ours. She is Board certified in anatomical, forensic, and clinical pathology, is a recognized authority in forensic medicine, and has developed many courses in topics such as death investigation, forensic nursing, and forensic medicine in mortuary science. Dr. Amatuzio serves as Coroner and a regional resource for multiple counties in MN and WI. The book Forever Ours explores the mysterious realm of visions, experiences, and communications experienced by families at the threshold of the deaths of loved ones. As someone whose life’s work has been speaking for the deceased, she has now also provided a voice for family and friends by allowing their stories to be heard. Forever Ours has much to teach us about healing, loving, and the deep soul connections with our loved ones. This book is for anyone seeking solace and hope at the time of loss.
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. The recipient of two fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, The Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, and the Writers at Work Fellowship, 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.
Thursday, 17th
Elizabeth Woody will read from her work Thursday, February 17th, noon to 1:00, in Clackamas Community College’s Literary Arts Center. Elizabeth Woody, Navajo / Warm Springs / Wasco / Yakama, is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon. After three years of study at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, she earned a bachelor's degree in English from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. From 1994-1996, Elizabeth was a professor of creative writing at the IAIA. In 1992, Elizabeth was an invited writer at the Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers and a featured poet at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Her poetry has been praised by James Welch and chosen by him for inclusion in the Spring 1994 issue of Ploughshares which he edited. (See below in writing available online.) She is a board member of Soapstone, Inc., an organization dedicated to providing a writing retreat for women. This organization is rebuilding and improving the retreat facilities for women to write in safety and solitude near the Oregon coast. As Crow's Shadow Institute Board Member, she hopes to help development of programs and fund raising for this valuable arts facility located on the Umatilla Reservation. CCC Literary Arts Center, noon.
March
Friday, 4th
MWS Event Honors Vern Rutsala, Lisa Steinman & Maxine Scates. Three of Oregon's finest prize-winning poets are teaming up for a special evening of poetry at the Mountain Writers Center. Lisa Steinman, Maxine Scates and Vern Rutsala will read Friday, March 4, at 7:00 P.M. A book-signing reception will follow. Join us for an evening of poetry with this remarkable trio, and see why Portland is one of the writing capitals of America. Vern Rutsala received his BA from Reed College and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Nine books of his poetry have been published, as well as four chapbooks and over 700 poems in various literary reviews and anthologies. His work has garnered many prizes, including the Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize (twice), a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Oregon Masters, and two from the National Endowment for the Arts. He received the Juniper Prize for his book, Little Known Sports, and his Selected Poems won the Oregon Book Award in 1992. For many years, he was a professor of English at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR. Maxine Scates is the author of Black Loam which received the Lyre Prize and will be published in the February of 2005 by Cherry Grove Collections and Toluca Street, which received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, and subsequently the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. She is co-editor, with David Trinidad, of Holding Our Own: The Selected Poems of Ann Stanford published by Copper Canyon Press. Her poems have appeared widely or are forthcoming in such journals as Agni, American Poetry Review, Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, Ironwood, Luna, Massachusetts Review, Ninth Letter, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, The Women's Review of Books and ZYZZYVA . She has taught as Writer-in-Residence at Lewis and Clark College and Reed College. Currently, she teaches privately. Originally from Los Angeles, she has lived in Eugene, Oregon since 1973. Lisa Steinman is Kenan Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of Masters of Repetition: Poetry, Culture, and Work in Thomson, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Emerson (St. Martin's, 1998), Made In America: Science, Technology, and American Modernist Poets (Yale, 1987), and five volumes of poetry, most recently Carslaw's Sequences (University of Tampa Press, 2003). She has also published numerous poems and articles about nineteenth through twenty-first English and American poetry. Who: Lisa Steinman, Maxine Scates, and Vern Rutsala. What: Poetry Reading. Date: Friday, March 4, 2005. Time: 7 p.m. Where: Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cost: $8/$5 MWS members, students & seniors.
posted by J. Grabill at 6:08 PM
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