Metro Literary Events Sept. 26-Oct. 14

Monday, September 26

Oregon Writers Colony Presents Monday the 26th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. After twenty years and twenty unpublished manuscripts, Laura Whitcomb's first novel, A Certain Slant of Light, a romantic ghost story, will be released by Houghton Mifflin September 26. The Oregon Writers Colony is pleased to present Laura Whitcomb, who will share the confessions of a first-time novelist, including information on polishing your manuscript, hunting down the right agent, and the quantum physics of breaking in.

The Widow of the South, Monday the 26th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Robert Hicks's debut novel, The Widow of the South, is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock. During the Civil War's Battle of Franklin, a five-hour bloodbath with 9,200 casualties, McGavock's home was turned into a field hospital where four generals died. Known throughout the country as "the Widow of the South," Carrie McGavock gave her heart first to a stranger, then to a tract of hallowed ground — and became a symbol of a nation's soul.

Nanny Wisdom: Justine Walsh discusses her book, 7 p.m., Bridgeport Village Borders, 7227 S.W. Bridgeport Road, Tigard.


Tuesday, September 27

David Rakoff, Tuesday the 27th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside.
"The self-lacerating wit of David Sedaris mixed with the biting commentary of Dan Savage — only completely and utterly original," Kirkus Reviews says of David Rakoff's follow-up to the bestselling Fraud. In Don't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff journeys into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America, contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good-times-and-chicken-wings populism of Hooters Air, working as a cabana boy at a South Beach hotel, and traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core video shoot. At once a Wildean satire of our ridiculous culture of overconsumption and a plea for a little human decency, Don't Get Too Comfortable shows that far from being bobos in paradise, we're in a special circle of gilded-age hell.


Wednesday, September 28

Classics Book Group, Wednesday the 28th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton This month our classics book group meets to discuss Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. New members to the group are always welcome.

Write Time, Wednesday the 28th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
This writing critique group meets every other Wednesday to exchange and discuss their work. New members to the group are always welcome.

Writers of the Future: David Goldman, Jay Lake, and Ken Scholes sign copies of the anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, 2:30 p.m., Lewis & Clark College Bookstore, 0615 Palatine Hill Road.

"Shakespeare" by Another Name, Wednesday the 28th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In his groundbreaking new biography, "Shakespeare" by Another Name, journalist Mark Anderson weaves together evidence uncovered in more than a decade of research to offer tantalizing proof that Edward de Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford, actually created the timeless body of work attributed to William Shakespeare.


Thursday, September 29

Carl Hiaasen, Thursday the 29th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton.
The bestselling author of Skinny Dip and Hoot returns with another hilarious, madcap young adult novel — Flush. You know it's going to be a rough summer when you spend Father's Day visiting your dad in the local lockup. Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor. Now it's up to Noah to succeed where his dad failed.

Dave Pelzer presents his book Help Yourself, for Teens, 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble, Jantzen Beach, 1720 N. Jantzen Beach.

Poet Lee Peterson reads from her work, 8 p.m., Reed College, Psychology Auditorium, 3203 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.

Janet Champ discusses her book Ripe, 7 p.m., Broadway Books, 1714 N.E. Broadway.

Erik Marcus, Thursday the 29th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Meat Market elevates the debate over animal agriculture. Erik Marcus exposes and clears away the exaggerated claims and counterclaims put forth by the meat industry and its opponents. In the process, he presents a thorough examination of animal agriculture's cruelties and its far-reaching social costs. Marcus then considers the discouraging progress made by the animal protection movement. He evaluates where the movement has gone wrong, and how its shortcomings could best be remedied. This event is co-sponsored by NWVeg.

Michaelangelo’s Mountain: Author Eric Scigliano discusses his book, 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble Tanasbourne, 18300 N.W. Evergreen Parkway.

Title of Event: Floyd Skloot presents A World of Light. When: Thursday, September 29, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Annie Bloom's Books. Description: In his award-winning memoir In the Shadow of Memory, Floyd Skloot told the hard story of coming to terms with a brain-ravaging virus. A World of Light, written with the same insight, passion, and humor that distinguished the earlier volume, moves Skloot's story from the reassembly of a self after neurological calamity to the reconstruction of a shattered life. More than fifteen years after a viral attack compromised his memory and cognitive powers, Skloot now must do the vital work of recreating a cohesive life for himself even as he confronts the late stages of his mother's advancing dementia. With tenderness and candor, he finds surprising connection with her where it had long been missing, transforming the end of her life into a time of unexpected renewal.


Friday, September 30

Jonathan Kozol, Friday the 30th, 7:30PM First Baptist Church.
"Today's most eloquent spokesman for America's disenfranchised," Jonathan Kozol visited nearly sixty public schools and discovered that conditions have grown worse for inner-city children in the fifteen years since federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The Shame of the Nation is a triumph of firsthand reporting that pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems by the Bush administration. In their place, Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some fifty years ago to all our youngest citizens. Please note: This free event takes place at the First Baptist Church, corner of 12th and Taylor St., downtown Portland. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

“Trust, Cab, Chiaroscuro”: Poet Ben Moorad presents a one-man show based on William Blake’s The Gates of Paradise, 7:00 p.m. on Friday (also 7 p.m. on Saturday), the Ogle Gallery, 310 N.W. Broadway, $15. 232-2246.

Time: Friday, September 30, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Multnomah Arts Center. Title of Event: Marc Acito presents Confessions of a Square Peg.
The author of How I Paid for College has put together a fabulous one-man show! A mixture of cabaret and book reading, Marc will be singing Broadway songs interspersed with readings of hilarious and bawdy stories from his novel. This is the misguided-yet-inspirational tale of how Marc Acito finally became a writer. This event will held at the Multnomah Arts Center. Tickets are $3 and can be purchased at Annie Bloom's. Tickets can be used as a coupon toward How I Paid for College.


Saturday, October 1

Writers Faire: Area authors sign copies of their books, 1 p.m., Multnomah Arts Center, 7688 S.W. Capitol Highway.

Brian Jacques signs copies of his books High Rulain and The Redwall Cookbook, 3 p.m., A children’s Place, 4807 N.E. Fremont St.

Emily Hipchen discusses her book Coming Apart Together, 3 p.m,., In Other Words, 3734 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.

“Trust, Cab, Chiaroscuro”: Poet Ben Moorad presents a one-man show based on William Blake’s The Gates of Paradise, 7 p.m. on Saturday, the Ogle Gallery, 310 N.W. Broadway, $15. 232-2246.


Sunday, October 2

Brian Jacques, Sunday the 2nd, 3:00PM First Unitarian Church.
This fall brings a double treat for Redwall fans: High Rhulain, the latest Redwall tale of adventure and heroism, and The Redwall Cookbook, with recipes for dozens of favorite dishes sure to turn young hands into seasoned chefs. Please note: this free event takes place at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave., downtown Portland. Seating is limited to first come, first served. Also, due to the large number of Redwall fans, Brian will sign (but not personalize) only two books per person.


Monday, October 3

Neil Gaiman, Monday the 3rd, 7:30PM First Congregational Church
Neil Gaiman returns to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful bestseller, American Gods, with Anansi Boys, a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment that "Neil Gaiman is a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him in any medium." Please note: this free event takes place at the First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave., downtown Portland. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

I Don't Need a Record Deal! Monday the 3rd, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. I Don't Need a Record Deal! is a comprehensive guide for empowering those who want to make a living from their musical talents. Daylle Deanna Schwartz provides tools for developing a satisfying career, with or without a record deal, and directions for finding almost every possible way to earn a musical income.


Tuesday, October 4

Audrey Niffenegger, Tuesday the 4th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. From the bestselling author of The Time Traveler's Wife comes The Three Incestuous Sisters, an evocative book about sibling rivalry involving three very different sisters, illustrated in a style reminiscent of Edward Gorey. An "eerily beautiful" (Booklist) tour de force, showcasing Audrey Niffenegger's incredible talent as an artist and a writer.

Time: Tuesday, October 4, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Title of Event: Lily King Reading. A passionate tale of a mother and son's vital bond and a provocative look at our notions of intimacy, honesty and loyalty.


Wednesday, October 5

Laila Lalami, Wednesday the 5th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Marking the debut of an exciting new voice in fiction, Laila Lalami's Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits evokes the grit and enduring grace that is modern Morocco. Sensitively written with beauty and boldness, this is a gripping novel that "could well be the preamble to an important body of work" (Kirkus Reviews).

Time: Wednesday, October 5, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Annie Bloom's Books. Title of Event: Readings from Ellen Meloy's Eating Stone. Ellen Meloy died suddenly in November of last year, just after finishing Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild. Reading sections from her book this evening will be Elizabeth Grossman and Robert Michael Pyle. Grossman is the author of Adventuring along the Lewis & Clark Trail. Robert Michael Pyle's nature writings include Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land and Walking the High Ridge: Life as Field Trip. For four seasons, Ellen Meloy kept company with a group of desert bighorn sheep she called the Blue Door Band; this book is a record of that year, written in Meloy’s characteristically graceful and good-natured prose, as “spirited and intelligent, as vivid and vibrant as the land itself is dry and spare” (Boston Globe).

Time: Wednesday, October 5, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Title of Event: Gary Pak Reading. The troubled characters in these stories search vainly for happy endings, forcing readers to confront a very different Hawaii--paradise only to some.


Thursday, October 6

Mary Engelbreit, Booksigning, Thursday the 6th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. From the vast and colorful imagination of Mary Engelbreit springs Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose, a masterful collection of the adorable, the zany, and the beautiful that will be cherished for generations. Please note: due to the large number of Engelbreit fans, we must limit this booksigning to 150. To obtain a ticket to the booksigning, purchase a copy of Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose at Powell's in Beaverton. Customers admitted to the event are limited to two books signed per person.

Time: Thursday, October 6, 2005 5:00 PM. Location: Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Title of Event: Brian Jacques presents High Rhulain
We are proud to be hosting Brian Jacques, the author of the wildly popular Redwall series, a huge hit with young adult readers from 10 on up. The event will be held in the auditorium at Mittleman Jewish Community Center, at 6651 SW Capitol Hwy, between Multnomah Village and Hillsdale. [Please call 503-244-0111 for further information about the MJCC] This is not a ticketed event, so please show up early to be assured of getting a good seat. Now here's the low-down on the new book: Following a dream, the young ottermaid Tiria travels from Redwall to the Green Isle, where otters have long been enslaved by feral cats but fight back as they await the High Rhulain, a savior whose coming was foretold.

Zadie Smith, Thursday the 6th, 7:30PM First Unitarian Church
In On Beauty, a novel that Booklist calls "boisterous, funny, poignant, and erudite," the bestselling author of White Teeth offers a brilliant analysis of family life, the institution of marriage, intersections of the personal and political, and an honest look at people's deceptions. It is also, as you might expect, very funny indeed. Please note: this free event takes place at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave., downtown Portland. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

Yiyun Li, Thursday the 6th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
In her breathtaking debut, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Yiyun Li — winner of the Paris Review Plimpton Prize in 2003 — reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and beautiful prose.


Friday, October 7

Julie Powell, Friday the 7th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners
With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie and Julia recounts how Julie Powell conquered every recipe in Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking — and saved her soul.

Michael Connelly, Friday the 7th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly delivers his first legal thriller, The Lincoln Lawyer, an incendiary tale about a cynical defense attorney whose one remaining spark of integrity may cost him his life. "Contains everything readers have come to expect from powerhouse Connelly." — Kirkus Reviews


Saturday, October 8

Patti Smith, Saturday the 8th, 3:00PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside.
Patti Smith is a poet, artist, and musician. Her band, the Patti Smith Group, helped to open up a restricted music scene, which centered around iconic rock venue CBGBs in New York City in the early '70s. Auguries of Innocence, Smith's new collection of poetry, is her first book of verse since 1979. It marks a major accomplishment from a poet and performer who has inscribed her vision of our world in powerful anthems, ballads, and lyrics. This new collection of poetry from one of "rock's original poets" (New York Times) effectively transmits the effect and aura, as well as the innocence, that make Smith a rock star.


Sunday, October 9

Dan Savage, Sunday the 9th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Dan Savage, one of America's most outspoken and beloved columnists, takes on the gay-marriage issue and makes it personal in The Commitment. What he discovers will make readers — gay or straight, right or left, single or married — howl with laughter as well as rethink their notions of marriage and all that it entails.


Monday, October 10

Time: Monday, October 10, 7:00 p.m. Location: The Literary Arts Center, RR 220, Clackamas Community College. Title of Event: William Kittredge—Live! Nonfiction writer William Kittredge is the author of The Nature of Generosity (2001), which his Random House editors consider a “masterwork from one of the finest writers of the American West.” Taking as his topic the "ordinary yearning to take physical and emotional care," William Kittredge embarks upon a literary and philosophical grand tour that explores the very core of who we are. Whether he's recalling a childhood in Oregon, touring Europe, or studying photographs of Japanese gardens in a bookstore in New York City, Kittredge's connections are as unexpected as they are inspiring. Shattering the myth that survival of the fittest means "survival of the violent, or the cruelest, or the selfish," Kittredge imagines a world in which altruism dominates--and offers ample evidence that this is not an unreachable utopian ideal. Kittredge was born in Portland, Oregon, on August 14, 1932, and has taught at the University of Montana for over a quarter century. His writing has appeared in Harper's, Outside, and other nationally known magazines and journals. Besides having written many books, articles, essays, books, memoirs, and meditations, he has co-authored and edited perhaps a couple dozen anthologies of Western Literature, including The Last Best Place (1990), The Portable Western Reader (1997), as well as Montana Spaces: Essays in Celebration of Montana.

Time: Monday, October 10, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Annie Bloom's Books. Title of Event: Daniel Wolff presents 4th of July, Asbury Park. To a generation of rock 'n' roll fans, Bruce Springsteen made Asbury Park into a symbol of the "runaway American dream." But Springsteen didn't invent the darkness at the edge of this fallen seaside town. 4th of July, Asbury Park reveals the rich and fascinating past behind Asbury Park's archetypal landscape. "This is the history of a place that never existed," music journalist and poet Daniel Wolff begins. "This is a history of the promised land." Starting with the town's paradoxical founding as a religious amusement park, Wolff plots a course through 130 years of entwined social and musical history. John Philip Sousa, Stephen Crane, Count Basie, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are just a few of the legendary figures who passed through the town Springsteen was born to run from. From the sensational details of murder trials, Mob control, and "race riots" emerges a universal story of small-town America. Told with the grace and pull of a rock 'n' roll anthem, Daniel Wolff's tour of Asbury Park captures all the allure and heartbreak of that long ride from glory days to gentrification.

Alex Sanchez, Monday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
In Rainbow Road, 2004 Lambda Literary Award-winner Alex Sanchez concludes the story of three very different gay teens begun in his critically acclaimed novels Rainbow Boys and Rainbow High.

Shawn Levy, Monday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Written by Oregonian film critic Shawn Levy (Rat Pack Confidential), The Last Playboy is a sparkling biography of the Ultimate Latin Lover and King of the Gigolos, Porfirio Rubirosa, who married four of the wealthiest women in the world and had affairs with some of the world's most desirable women.


Tuesday, October 11

Science Fiction Book Group, Tuesday the 11th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our group meets to discuss The Family Trade by Charles Stross. New members are always welcome.

An Evening with Garry Wills. Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2005. Location: First Congregational Church, 1126 S.W. Park AvenueTickets: $12 General; $8 College/Seniors; $5 Youth (Literary Arts, Inc.)A renowned historian and cultural critic, Garry Wills received the Pulitzer Prize for his stellar analysis, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America (1992). Whether writing about American history in such works as Nixon Agonistes (1970), Reagan’s America (1987) and "Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power (2003) or probing the depths of Catholicism in Saint Augustine (1999), Papal Sin (2000) and Why I am a Catholic (2003), Wills’ keen observations are a constant source of illumination. Winner of two National Book Critics Circle Awards and the 1998 National Medal for the Humanities, Wills discusses his latest work, Henry Adams and the Making of America (2005), about the great nineteenth-century historian whose perceptions of American politics still reverberate today. A Q&A session and book signing follows the event. Event begins at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m. All seats are general admission. To buy tickets call 503.227.2583.

Time: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Annie Bloom's Books. Title of Event: Masha Hamilton presents The Distance Between Us. Caddie Blair is a war correspondent in the Middle East whose life is tragically changed in a single second. En route to a high-level interview, she and her lover, Marcus, are caught in an ambush; he catches a bullet and dies beside her. With prose both beguiling and elegant, the story will strike a chord in readers following current events in the Middle East.


Wednesday, October 12

Time: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Annie Bloom's Books. Title of Event: Barbara Scot presents The Violet Shyness of Their Eyes.
In this moving account of a Western woman's transformative sojourn in Nepal, Barbara Scot demonstrates insight into cultural difference while confronting the complex issues of development work and the status of women in Nepal. In vivid descriptions of mountain climbs, moving stories of the Nepalese and the retelling of her personal memories, Scot challenges readers with women's global struggles while nurturing a deep empathy and respect for the Nepali people.

Karen Karbo, Wednesday the 12th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
Karen Karbo's first book for children, Minerva Clark Gets a Clue, introduces an unforgettable protagonist: a freak-show freak turned detective! When a fateful encounter with a lightning storm rewires her sense of self, Minerva Clark finds herself drawn inexplicably to the scene of a murder and determined to track down the killer.

Tim Winton, Wednesday the 12th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside From the author of Dirt Music comes a stunning collection of connected stories. The Turning proves Tim Winton is a master at capturing the urgency of memory, the way an entire life can be shaped by one event deep in the past.

Write Time, Wednesday the 12th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
This writing critique group meets every other Wednesday to exchange and discuss their work. New members to the group are always welcome.


Thursday, October 13

Deadly Diversions Book Group Thursday the 13th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our mystery book group meets to discuss Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs. New members to the group are always welcome.

Adventure Divas, Thursday the 13th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
After years of working behind a desk, Holly Morris traveled the globe, tracking down women of action who are changing the rules and sometimes the world around them. Intelligent, phenomenally funny, and chock-full of rich and telling details of place, Adventure Divas is a pro-woman chronicle for the twenty-first century.

Ha Jin, Thursday the 13th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside.
National Book Award-winner Ha Jin offers a masterful new novel, casting a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history: the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War. Winner of the 2005 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, War Trash is "a powerful work of the imagination" (Washington Post).


Friday, October 14

Edward Burger, Friday the 14th, 7:00PM Powell's Technical Books
Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird sneak up on weighty mathematical ideas in familiar mysteries that are explained with great humor and clarity in Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz. If you never thought you would read about mathematics, this book is for you.

The Brontë Project, Friday the 14th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Jennifer Vandever's The Brontë Project is an irreverent and comic look at love, loss, literature, pop culture, Hollywood, and the mysterious biographical similarities between Charlotte Brontë and Princess Diana.