Portland Literary Events Through February 2006

Metro Literary Events and Information—
February 2006


Sunday, 12th

William G. Robbins and Lauren Kessler: Robbins discusses his book Oregon and Kessler presents her book Stubborn Twig, 11 a.m., Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave. Free with regular museum admission.

Margareta Waterman: The author celebrates the release of her book Iteration, 7:30 pm, Spare Room Event, New American Art Union, 922 S.E. Ankeny St. $5 donation suggested.

On-Going Open Mikes/Mics. See Mountain Writers’ Center listing for this area: http://www.mountainwriters.org/commcal.html#monkey.

Monday, 13th

Souled American, Monday the 13th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. From Jim Crow to Eminem, white culture has been transformed by black music. Tracing a direct line from plantation field hollers to gangsta rap, Kevin Phinney's Souled American explains how blacks and whites exist in a constant tug-of-war as they create, re-create, and claim each phase of popular music.

I Love Monday! Poetry Night: Poets Mary Szybist, Sean Patrick Hill, and Richard Donin read selections from their works, 7:00 p.m., Borders Books and Music, 708 SW Third.

Julian Barnes, Monday the 13th, 7:30PM. Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Intriguing, relentless and, most of all, moving, Arthur and George richly extends the reach and achievement of Julian Barnes, a novelist described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "a dazzling mind in mercurial flight."

Tuesday, 14th

Jumptown: Portlander Robert Dietsche reads from his book, 7 p.m., Broadway Books, 1714 N.E. Broadway.

Science Fiction Book Group, Tuesday the 14th, 7:00PM. Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our science fiction book group will discuss The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. New members to the group are always welcome.

Wednesday, 15th

The Travel Mom's Book of Ultimate Family Travel: Emily Kaufman discusses her book, 7 p.m., Borders Beaverton, 2605 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton.

Matt Klam: The author of Sam the Cat signs copies of and discusses his book, 6:30 p.m., Portland State University, Smith Memorial Union, Room 338, 1825 S.W. Broadway. Donation accepted.

Write Time, Wednesday the 15th, 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.

The Areas of My Expertise, Wednesday the 15th, 7:30PM. Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In the great tradition of the American almanac, The Areas of My Expertise is a brilliant and hilarious compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom on all topics large and small. "[O]ne of the funniest and most entertaining books to play on readers' imaginations in recent memory." —Library Journal

Thursday, 16th

Smashed, Thursday the 16th, 7:30PM. Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In Smashed, 24-year-old Koren Zailckas leads readers through her experience of binge drinking, from earliest experimentation to full-blown abuse. This vivid cautionary tale is a crucial book for anyone ready to face the more subtle repercussions of their own chronic over-drinking or of someone they love.

Mary Guterson presents We Are All Fine Here, Thursday, February 16, 2006, 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. This thoroughly irresistible and slyly intelligent debut novel is about a discontented woman (married, with a teenage son, and fast approaching middle age) who dallies in her past - with startling, humorous, and bitter-sweet consequences. Julia has been married to Jim for fifteen years, and admittedly, the thrill is mostly gone. So it's no big surprise that she finds herself thinking a bit too much about the one who got away. In Julia's case, the one in question is Ray, the rugged, impulsive lover of her college years. Now pushing forty, trapped in a job she doesn't care about, growing ever more distant from her son, and fed up with her husband's flirtatiousness with a much younger co-worker, Julia agrees to accompany Ray to a wedding of friends. The day ends with a quick tryst in the guest bathroom. Several weeks later, Julia learns she's pregnant, and because she's also recently slept with Jim (a rare event of late) she can't be quite certain of the baby's paternity. How she attempts to cope with this knotty problem, not to mention how to break the news to her prickly mother, her childless sister, her best friend, her therapist, her husband's family, and the men in her life, is the core of this wholly unforgettable, poignant, profane, and wise story, which also delivers unexpected heart.

The Best People in the World, Thursday the 16th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. With its singular blend of harrowing mystery and subtle humor, The Best People in the World introduces an unusual and compelling new voice. Justin Tussing has written an unforgettable novel about love, redemption, and coming-of-age that masterfully illuminates a moment when everything was perfect — and then, when it wasn't.

Friday, 17th

Chiasmus Press Reading, Friday the 17th, 7:30PM. Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Chiasmus Press is a Portland-based literary collective intent on printing the most innovative emerging authors. Several Chiasmus writers will read from their work: Lance Olsen (10:01), Doug Nufer (On the Roast), Jeanne Heuving (Incapacity), and R. M. Berry (Frank).

Saturday, 18th

The Hidden Gifts of the Introverted Child: Marti Olsen Laney discusses her book, 3:00 p.m., Barnes & Noble Vancouver, 7700 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver.

On-Going Open Mikes/Mics. See Mountain Writers’ Center listing for this area: http://www.mountainwriters.org/commcal.html#monkey.

Sunday, 19th

Maile Meloy presents A Family Daughter, Sunday, February 19, 2006 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. When Maile Meloy published her debut novel, Liars and Saints, in 2003, critics heralded the story as "spectacular" and an "elegant portrayal of a family's spiritual and emotional crises." Tackling the issues of faith, the bonds of family and the extent one would go to protect the appearance of happiness, Liars and Saints challenged conventional ideas and forced her readers, as well as her characters, to examine the snowballing repercussions of a family tradition of deceit. Telling the story of the Santerres, a devout Catholic family, who are faced with teenage pregnancy, incest, homosexuality, and the death of a young member of the family, Meloy illustrates how a family is pulled together and pushed apart by lies told, even if told to protect; taking the liberties with emotions and situations that only a novelist can do with a fictional family ... but what if this family actually existed? A Family Daughter reimagines the story of the Santerre family and creates a world in which the seminal lie at the heart of Liars and Saints is fiction created by one of the characters - Abby. Meloy upends our notion of American fiction with A Family Daughter by writing a novel within a novel, as Abby writes a novel entitled Liars and Saints creating a world in which she can bring people back to life, right the wrongs of her life, and ask the questions of her family that she wouldn’t dare ask directly. As powerful and moving as its fictional sister, A Family Daughter once again rivets us with the loves, longings, and elaborate secrets of the Santerre family, while also exploring the relationship between fiction and "real life."

Monday, 20th

And She Was. Monday the 20th, 7:30PM. Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In a tense interplay between past and present, Cindy Dyson's debut novel, And She Was, explores taboos, survival, the history of the Alaskan Aleutian islands, and the seamy side of the 1980s in a fishing boomtown at the edge of the world. "An unforgettable first novel." —Library Journal

Tuesday, 21st

Tiffany Lee Brown, Fiction Reading, Clackamas Community College, Roger Rook 220 (Winklesky Literary Arts Center), Tuesday, February 21, 7:30 PM, 19600 S. Molalla Ave., Oregon City.

Melissa Bank, Tuesday the 21st, 7:30 PM,Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The bestselling author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing returns with The Wonder Spot, a novel about the life cycle of a family that Publishers Weekly calls "Engrossing, engaging...a wonderful return for Bank."

Penelope Schott presents Baiting the Void, Tuesday, February 21, 2006, 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. Penelope Schott will be joined by fellow local poet Clemens Starck [see separate listing] this evening. In ,i>Baiting the Void, Penelope Schott attempts to make sense of time, change, and loss. "What courage it takes us / to make anything of nothing / when only this nothing / clangs with importance."

Clemens Starck presents new and selected poems, February 21, 2006, 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. Clemens Starck will be joined by Penelope Schott [see separate listing] this evening. The winner of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry, Starck will be reading selections from his previously published works, as well as some new, unpublished poems. Clemens Starck writes clearly about his experiences, creating narrative and invoking process. The following poem is from his most recent collection, Traveling Incognito: THE PAN-OCEANIC FAITH. The night the Pan-Oceanic Faith went down in a storm in the North Pacific, we were a hundred miles south of her, another freighter plowing through stormy seas. As it turned out, she was a sister ship—SIU, like us. Two of our crew had boarded her in Seattle, months earlier. But something about her spooked them, and before she sailed they signed off. The sea that night was wild—with waves breaking over our bow. I had just been relieved at the wheel when Sparks stepped into the wheelhouse to report to the mate that he’d picked up an SOS . . . When Conrad wrote, “The sea came at us like a madman with an axe,” he had it right. Ten thousand tons of welded steel plate—buckled and smashed, by water. Three survivors, out of a crew of forty-two— a messman, the chief engineer, and one AB . . . “Why those three?” we wondered all the rest of the way in to Newport, Oregon, and looked around uneasily, weighing our chances, sizing each other up.

Wednesday, 22nd

Craig Lesley Reading: Authors’ Night, Clackamas Community College, RR 220, 7 pm, free.

Classics Book Group, Wednesday the 22nd, 7:00PM.Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our group meets to discuss The Little Foxes and Another Part of the Forest by Lillian Hellman. New members to the group are always welcome.

Better Houses, Better Living, Wednesday the 22nd, 7:00PM.Powell's Technical Books. Myron Ferguson's Better Houses, Better Living helps home owners and home buyers by explaining the basics of home design and building from a user's perspective. The book includes nearly 500 photographs that clearly show each element that is explained.

Bruce Benderson, Wednesday the 22nd, 7:30PM.Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The first American to win the Prix de Flore — one of France's most distinguished literary prizes — presents The Romanian, a wildly romantic, true-life love story sustained by little white codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, and an unwavering belief in the perfect romance.

Adam Hochschild, Wednesday the 22nd, 7:30PM.Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In his "wonderful, vivid" (Washington Post) Bury the Chains, the acclaimed author of King Leopold's Ghost offers a taut, thrilling account of the first grass-roots human rights campaign, which freed hundreds of thousands of slaves around the world.

Thursday, 23rd

On-Going Open Mikes/Mics. See Mountain Writers’ Center listing for this area: http://www.mountainwriters.org/commcal.html#monkey.

Friday, 24th

Kristine Olson & Kathryn Jones Harrison, Friday the 24th, 7:30PM.Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Standing Tall, Kristine Olson's biography of Oregon tribal leader Kathryn Jones Harrison, recounts the Grand Rondes' resurgence from the ashes of disastrous federal policies designed to terminate their very existence, and will be an inspiration to readers of women's and Native studies.

Saturday, 25th

Sunday, 26th

On-Going Open Mikes/Mics. See Mountain Writers’ Center listing for this area: http://www.mountainwriters.org/commcal.html#monkey.

Monday, 27th

The “Last Gasp” Open Mic Reading. Clackamas Community College, RR 220 (Literary Arts Center), noon to 1 pm, all genres welcome. 503-657-6958, x2824.

Oregon Writers Colony Presents, Monday the 27th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. In keeping with February's theme of love, OWC Presents a discussion for writers on romance writing with sisters and authors Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush. Jackson is a bestselling author of romance/suspense novels with more than 70 titles to her credit. Bush has written in a variety of genres, from Harlequin historical novels to Nancy Drew mysteries for young adults.

War Reporter Jackie Spinner, Monday the 27th, 7:30PM.Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Washington Post reporter Jackie Spinner covered the war in Iraq from May 2004 to March 2005 and rose from the most junior reporter to the Post's Baghdad Bureau Chief. In Tell Them I Didn't Cry: A Young Journalist's Story of Joy, Loss, and Survival in Iraq she chronicles the nine months she spent living and reporting in Iraq.

Tuesday, 28th

The Threat to Press Freedom, Tuesday the 28th, 7:30PM. Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Although prosecutors and journalists have long battled over confidential sources, there has been a large increase in the number of subpoenas issued to reporters in recent years. New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail for 85 days before her source, I. Lewis Libby, released her from a confidentiality agreement. "From Watergate and the Pentagon Papers to Iran-Contra and Abu Ghraib, journalists have used information from confidential sources to reveal illegal conduct," says Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. "It is vital to our democracy that we protect the people who are the sources for the exposés that are reported in newspapers, magazines, and books." Join attorney Duane Bosworth and an Oregonian investigative reporter in a discussion about the threat to press freedom as well as the threat to First Amendment rights.

Upcoming Events and Contests:

Wordstock: Portland’s Annual Festival of the Book, taking place over three days April 21-23, 2006. This year's festival will include featured readings by bestselling authors, poets and NW writing legends, panels on every conceivable subject, workshops for teachers of writing, dinners with your favorite authors, a free two day book fair with hundreds of exhibitors, two days of children's readings and activities, food, music, cooking demonstrations and more. Book Fair: Over 200 national and regional authors from every genre will read on 10 stages. Over 100 exhibitors will be on hand with the latest books. It's Portland second annual world-class book fair. Children's Festival: The Wordstock Children's Festival will take place inside the book fair 9am-5pm, April 22-23 at the Oregon Convention Center. There will be nationally known children's authors, local favorites, music, celebrity storytellers and many hands on activities for children of all ages. The Night of Literary Feasts: 25 prominent authors, national and local, are invited to attend private dinners hosted by individuals or groups. This event is a benefit for writing education in Oregon's K-12 schools through the non-profit organization Community of Writers.

Kate Herzog Writing Scholarship: Applications are being accepted for this scholarship offered by Willamette Writers and Barnes & Noble to student writers in grades 12-14. Details: 503-452-1592 or http://www.willamettewriters.com/. Deadline: February 28, 2006.

Seventh Annual Northwest Perspectives Essay Contest, Featuring Open and Student Categories. Deadline: January 31, 2006 postmark, no entry fee. Oregon Quarterly invites entries to the 2006 Northwest Perspectives Essay Contest in both student and open categories. Entries should address ideas that affect the Northwest. The Oregon Quarterly staff will select finalists to be judged by Oregon author Craig Lesley, a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and winner of the Oregon Book Award. Past judges have been Kim Stafford, Barry Lopez, John Daniel, Karen Karbo, Brian Doyle, and Lauren Kessler. Prizes: Open (non-student) Category--First place: $750; Second place: $300; Third place: $100. Student Category--First place: $500; Second place: $200; Third place: $75. First-place essays will appear in Oregon Quarterly. Details: http://www.oregonquartelry.com/. Send entries to: Oregon Quarterly Essay Contest, 5228 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-5228.

Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature: The University of Portland, Saturday, April 22, 2006, Keynote Speaker: John Carlos Rowe, "Reading Reading Lolita in Tehran in Idaho." Kenneth Burke once described the process of doing literary criticism by comparing the work to attending a cocktail party. You arrive late, he noted, and find that a conversation is occurring. After standing on the fringes of the group long enough to apprehend the nature of the conversation, you decide to enter it and offer your opinion. Our conference theme seeks to employ both elements of Burke’s metaphor: the context in which a critical conversation has taken place and the current discussions about the issue in question. By becoming aware of what has been said can we as critics hope to enter the conversation and have an impact on its direction. Thus, while submission of purely analytical and interpretive papers is welcome, we especially invite relatively short, critical/scholarly papers by students that present their own ideas about literature while taking into account recent criticism about the texts they are exploring. Details: http://college.up.edu/english/asarnow@up.edu or (503) 943-7244.