Portland Area Readings

Metro Area Literary Events Fall 2006

2006-10-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

October 2006

Sunday, 1st
Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney Sunday the 1st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside.
Edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, Home Ground gathers together and defines hundreds of landscape terms by such writers as Barbara Kingsolver, Charles Frazier, and Jon Krakauer. Publishers Weekly raves, "This marvelous book enlivens readers to the rich diversity of Americans' complex relationship to the land." Lopez is an award-winning author known for his essays, short stories and fiction, often addressing issues of human culture and identity. Gwartney, an essayist and reviewer, teaches writing at Portland State University. Together they've edited "Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape," a geographical dictionary in which poets and writers from across the nation create more than 850 original definitions for terms such as cutbank, birdfoot delta, detroit riprap and swale.

Monday, 2nd
Cindy Sheehan Monday the 2nd, 7:00PM Bagdad Theater
In Cindy Sheehan's Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey through Heartache to Activism, the woman who turned grief into action and took her anti-war message to the President's doorstep tells her story in her own words — a wrenching tale of heroism that will inspire a new generation of activists. Please note: This free event takes place at the Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

Isaiah Wilner, Monday the 2nd, 7:30 PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Isaiah Wilner presents The Man Time Forgot, the story of the genius behind Time magazine. In 1923, young Briton Hadden started Time magazine with his friend Henry R. Luce. At age 31, millionaire Hadden died and Luce began to take credit for his friend's innovations, effectively erasing Hadden's legacy. The true story of their tortured friendship has never before been told.

Tuesday, 3rd
A Writer's Coach, Tuesday the 3rd, 7:00 PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
Written by one of the most acclaimed writing coaches in America — and the managing editor of the Oregonian — Jack Hart's A Writer's Coach is an innovative, step-by-step approach to the writing process that is ideal for both journalism and creative nonfiction.

The United States of Arugula ,Tuesday the 3rd, 7:30 PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside
David Kamp's The United States of Arugula is the rollicking, "engrossing" (Publishers Weekly) chronicle of how gourmet eating in America went from obscure to pervasive, thanks to the contributions of some outsized, opinionated iconoclasts who couldn't abide the status quo.

In Other Words, Oct. 3. Willa Schneberg will be reading from Storytelling in Cambodia, Calyx Books - a moving and image-rich cycle of linked poems that journeys from Cambodia’s mythic times to the killing fields to the U.N. presence during the first free elections. It bears witness to the plight of the Cambodian people and to all who have endured holocausts. It is truly a beautiful and heart-wrenching collection. Also reading: Anita Feng

Wednesday, 4th
Write Time Wednesday the 4th, 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.

Philippa Gregory Wednesday the 4th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
The Constant Princess, the enthralling new novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Virgin's Lover, answers one of history's most intriguing questions: What lay behind Katherine of Aragon's enormous history-changing lie?

Oct. 4-8 Association of Personal Historians Conference. The program for the 12th annual Association of Personal Historians conference, scheduled Oct. 4-8 in Portland, Oregon, is available online at: http://www.personalhistorians.org/coninfo.html. The regular registration deadline ends Sept. 2, so you can save money by signing up now. You can register online as well. The program features more than 32 workshops on topics such as oral history interviewing, preserving and restoring old photos, digitizing audio cassettes, marketing, creating video biographies, public speaking, partnering with nonprofits, ethical wills and spiritual legacies, narrative journaling and many other topics. Dr. Laurie Mercier, associate professor at Washington State University--Vancouver and former Oral History Association president, will teach a two-part Introduction to Oral History workshop. Speakers are: *Newspaper columnist Bob Welch, an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Oregon. *Lauren Kessler, director of Literary Nonfiction at the University of Oregon, who will talk about "Your Truth, The Truth, Whose Truth? The Personal Historian's Guide to Insight, Honesty and Storytelling—Where fact ends and fiction begins." Ursula Bacon: Leaving footsteps in the sand--Author of The Nervous Hostess Cookbook: A Comforting Guide to Worry-Free Entertaining, Shanghai Diary and the upcoming prequel Eternal Strangers, Ursula Bacon has helped bring 350 book titles to life in the past twenty years as co-owner of Bacon Bestsellers with her husband, Thorn.
Julie McDonald ZanderChapters of Lifehttp://www.chaptersoflife.com/Association of Personal HistoriansAPH 2006 Conference Program Chair

Thursday, 5th
First Thursday: Brandland Thursday the 5th, 7:00PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
What is the Wieden+Kennedy12's "Brandland"? Mint flavored crystal forests. Smooth, silky, chocolate, milky rivers. Squirrels in the park feast on nut and nugget wafers. This is "Brandland." A place built of seductive, delicious, neon light plastic, rich, creamy cement and solid, chiseled glass titanium edging.

Thom Hartmann presents Screwed. Location: Annie Bloom's Books October 5, 2006 7:30 PMDescription: In Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class, Thom Hartmann argues that the middle class is not the natural consequence of a free market based economy, but rather, the intended result of policies put into place to maximize the public good. Unfortunately, the American middle class is on its deathbed. People who put in a solid day's work can no longer afford to buy a house, send their kids to college, or even get sick. This is because a covert war, waged by conservative and corporate forces, is dismantling policies like Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, and fair labor laws. The result is the unnatural extinction of the middle class and the economy that Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower envisioned. Under the guise of "freeing" the market, conservatives have enriched themselves and their fat-cat cronies and screwed everyone else. By exposing the machinations of those whose greed and irresponsibility is destroying the middle class, Screwed empowers readers to stand up, speak out, and return America to the principles envisioned by its founders.

JAN BARROWS. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books October 5, 2006 7:00 PMDescription: Magical realism that seduces the reader from beginning to end! When Ooligan's acquisitions committee discussed this marvelous first novel by Portland photographer/painter/dramatist Baross, the superlatives and exclamations wouldn't stop. Word spread, and soon Ooligan's other student publishers were waiting in line to read this novel set in a fictional Mexican coastal village. "Jose" is the story of Tortugina, the narrator, whose happiness and hardship are tied to the sea and to the men in her life, from her demanding father and dead lover to her cruel, abusive husband and beautiful, sensitive son.

The Littlest Hitler Thursday the 5th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
In each of the fearless, hilarious, and tightly crafted stories that comprise The Littlest Hitler, Ryan Boudinot's voice rings with a clarity rarely seen in a debut collection: "[A] twisted, formidable storyteller...[a] dark and surefooted debut" (Publishers Weekly).

Friday, 6th
Marc Vassallo Friday the 6th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Home & Garden
Relaxed, open, filled with light, and intimately connected to the outdoors, the houses featured in Marc Vassallo's The Barefoot Home make living at home feel like being on vacation 365 days a year. Vassallo is co-author with Sarah Susanka of Inside the Not So Big House.

Jane Hamilton Friday the 6th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Jane Hamilton, award-winning author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World, is back in top form with When Madeline Was Young, a richly textured novel about a tragic accident and its effects on two generations of a family.

Saturday, 7th
George Noory Saturday the 7th, 1:00PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In Worker in the Light, the host of America's top late-night radio talk show, Coast to Coast AM, George Noory has woven his life's work into both an amazing memoir and a miraculous key that readers can use to unlock the secret to their own sensual transcendence and liberate their limitless potential.

Sunday, 8th
The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot Sunday the 8th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
The recent National Geographic special on the Gospel of Judas introduced to millions of viewers one of the most important biblical discoveries of modern times. Now, in The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot, Bart Ehrman, a leading historian of the early church, offers the first comprehensive account of the newly discovered Gospel.

Oct. 8 7:30
New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny Street, Portland
The Spare Room presents readings with Mary Burger & Nico Vassilakis $5.00 donation suggested. For more info please see www.flim.com/spareroom or contact spareroom@flim.com

Monday, 9th
Janet Fitch Monday the 9th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
From Janet Fitch, the bestselling author of White Oleander, comes Paint It Black, a powerful novel of passion, first love, and a young woman's search for a true world in the aftermath of loss. "A page-turning psychodrama," declares Publishers Weekly.

I Love Monday! Poetry Night: Dan Raphael introduces Jodi Varon and David Axelrod, Curtis Whitecarroll and Keith Rothschild, 7 p.m., Borders Portland, 708 SW Third Ave.

City of Readers: Portland author Gabriel Bodhmer discusses his book, 7:30 Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SW Hawthorne Blvd.

The Book Lover's Guide to Portland Monday the 9th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. In City of Readers: The Book Lover's Guide to Portland, Gabriel Boehmer helps readers navigate the rising tide of literary choices along the banks of the Willamette, including the 25 best reading spots around town.

Tuesday, 10th
Sci-Fi Book Group Tuesday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
This month we meet to discuss At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft. New members to the group are always welcome.

City of Readers: Portland author Gabriel Boehmer discusses his book, 7 pm, Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway.

Ken Jennings: The author discusses his book, Brainiac, 7 pm, Barnes & Noble, Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd Ave.

Edward Perkins discusses his book, Mr. Ambassador, 7 pm, Borders Portland, 708 SW Third Ave.

Jim Lynch presents his book The Highest Tide, 6:30 pm, Sellwood-Moreland Library, 7860 SE 13th Ave.

Cheryl Strayed and Randy Sue Coburn: Strayed reads from her book, Torch, and Coburn discusses her book, Owl Island, 7 pm, In Other Words, 8 NE Killingsworth St.

Colin Cotterill Tuesday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
Colin Cotterill's Disco for the Departed, the third book in his Dr. Siri Paiboun series, finds the spry, wry national coroner of Laos picking up a few new dance moves courtesy of a Cuban relief worker whose spirit takes up residence in the old doctor's body.

John Hodgman, Tuesday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
The Areas of My Expertise is the brilliant and uproarious #15 bestseller that is a lavish compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom — all of it completely fabricated by the illuminating, prodigious imagination of The Daily Show's John Hodgman, certifiable genius.

Oct. 10 7:30 Calvin Trillin
Calvin Trillin to Open Literary Arts’ 2006-2007 Portland Arts & Lectures Series Due to an unforeseen change in events, Joan Didion has cancelled her fall travel and will not appear in Portland Arts & Lectures on October 5, 2006. Literary Arts is pleased to announce that Ms. Didion’s friend and colleague Calvin Trillin will commence the 2006-2007 Portland Arts & Lectures series. Calvin Trillin is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker and the “deadline poet” for The Nation, where he writes a column of comic verse about contemporary politics. He is perhaps best known for his writing about food and American regional cuisine, collected in The Tummy Trilogy (1994). His forthcoming memoir, About Alice, follows his recent New Yorker article, “Alice, Off the Page.” In 1984, Trillin kicked off the inaugural Portland Arts & Lectures season. Visiting in 1989, he praised the Northwest as “everybody’s favorite region.”
Portland Arts & Lectures is a program of Literary Arts, a statewide, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the importance of language as a means to express, explore and experience the world in which we live. The programs of Literary Arts are: Oregon Book Awards, Oregon Literary Fellowships, Portland Arts & Lectures, Poetry Downtown, Poetry in Motion®, Writers in the Schools and Delve: Readers' Seminars. For more information, please call Literary Arts at 503.227.2583 or visit www.literary-arts.org.

Oct. 10 7:30, Looking Glass Bookstore, 318 SW Taylor St. Portland
Willa Schneberg will be reading from Storytelling in Cambodia, Calyx Books - a moving and image-rich cycle of linked poems that journeys from Cambodia’s mythic times to the killing fields to the U.N. presence during the first free elections. It bears witness to the plight of the Cambodian people and to all who have endured holocausts. It is truly a beautiful and heart-wrenching collection. Also reading: Angie Chuang

Wednesday, 11th
Michael Lewis in conversation with Rob Neyer Wednesday the 11th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In The Blind Side Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, delivers a multidimensional story that traces the upbringing of a young boy who will one day be among the most highly paid athletes in the National Football League, all through the lens of sports and his community of support. ESPN's Rob Neyer joins Lewis for this event.

Anna Deavere Smith: The author, playwright, and professor speaks on the book Snapshots: Glimpses of America in Change, 7:30 pm, Voices Lecture Series, First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave, $55 tickets, 243-3440.

Jefferson Davis discusses the book Weird Hauntings, 7 pm, Barnes & Noble, Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd Ave.

Carleen Cross presents her book Fleeing Fundamentalism at 7 pm, Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway.

Jude Siegel presents A Pacific Northwest Nature Sketchbook. Location: Annie Bloom's October 11, 2006 7:30 PMDescription: Keeping an illustrated nature sketchbook can be eye opening, and anyone can do it, at home or while traveling. This step-by-step guide to painting scenes of nature offers dozens of practical tips for combining watercolor and ink to create pages rich in personal meaning. Exercises include warming up, making thumbnail sketches, choosing a manageable subject, changing perspective, seeing patterns, creating depth and distance, and using color. Lavishly illustrated with more than 140 of the author's original watercolors of Oregon and Washington.

Thursday, 12th
Spider Robinson, Thursday the 12th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
A never-before-published masterpiece from science fiction grandmaster Robert A. Heinlein, completed by Hugo- and Nebula-winning author Spider Robinson, Variable Star depicts a cosmic cataclysm so devastating it would take all of humanity's strength and ingenuity just to survive.

Thursday, October 12, 2006 7:30 PM
Emily Wu and Larry Engelmann present Feather in the Storm. Location: Annie Bloom'sDescription: Feather in the Storm: A Childhood Lost in Chaos is the powerful story of a child (Emily Wu) caught up in an historical upheaval whose forces are beyond her control has a universal appeal as it sweeps you up with its profound and passionate emotions.

Susan E. Frost signs copies of her book, Portland, Oregon, 4 pm, Advance Camera, 8124 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway.

Michael Meade: The noted author and storyteller discusses his book A Poetics of Peace, 7 pm, The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave.

Deadly Diversions Mystery Book Group Thursday the 12th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton This month our group meets to discuss The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill. New members to the group are always welcome.

Jane Poynter Thursday the 12th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
In The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes inside Biosphere 2, Jane Poynter gives us the dirt on what really happened from an insider's perspective: food became scarce, oxygen levels dropped, people were hungry all the time, factions were formed, and she lost part of a finger in a threshing accident.

Spider Robinson: The author discusses his book Variable Star, a work he completed from Robert A. Heinlein's outline, 7 pm, Powell's Books Cascade Plaza, 8725 SW Cascade Plaza, Beaverton.

Oct. 12 5:30, Pacific NW Booksellers Association, Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland. Willa Schneberg will be reading from Storytelling in Cambodia, Calyx Books - a moving and image-rich cycle of linked poems that journeys from Cambodia’s mythic times to the killing fields to the U.N. presence during the first free elections. It bears witness to the plight of the Cambodian people and to all who have endured holocausts. It is truly a beautiful and heart-wrenching collection

Friday, 13th
A Very Unfortunate Event: Lemony Snicket Release Party Friday the 13th, 2:00PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. All good things must come to an end — and fortunately, so must all terrible things. Hence, Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events comes to a long-awaited close with the thirteenth volume, titled The End. To celebrate our freedom from these oppressive little books, we encourage kids to dress up in their least favorite costumes, play wretched games, and attempt to win prizes that probably ought not to be discussed in civilized company. We promise you a disastrous time. Don't come — you'll be sorry if you do.

Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, with his dog, discusses his book From Baghdad, With Love, 7 pm, Borders Gresham, 687 NW 12th St., Gresham.

Maureen McQueery reads from her book Wolfproof, 7 pm, Borders Vancouver, 811 SE 160th Ave., Vancouver.

Graham Salisbury: The Portland-area author reads from his book House of the Red Fish, 7 pm borders Bridgeport Village, 7227 SW Bridgeport Rd., Tigard.

Obert Skye: The author reads from his book Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret, 7 pm, Borders Beaverton, 2605 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.; 1 pm Saturday at Borders Portland, 708 SW Third Ave, and 4 pm, Saturday, Borders Gresham, 687 NW 12th, Gresham.

Melanie Rawn & Kate Elliott Friday the 13th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
Melanie Rawn's Spellbinder brings to vivid life a New York City that has a small, discrete population of witches and wizards who live and love and go dancing just like everyone else. Kate Elliott's Spirit Gate is a haunting fantasy adventure of people swept up by the chaos of war, from the bestselling author of The Crown of Stars.

Laila Lalami Friday the 13th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In this "unexpected and enthralling read from a promising new voice,” Lalami evokes the grit and enduring grace that is modern Morocco. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits begins as four Moroccans illegally cross the Strait of Gibraltar in an inflatable boat headed for Spain. What has driven them to risk their lives?

Oct. 13-15 Retreat, Caldera Arts Retreat, Central Oregon near Sisters
CREATIVE NONFICTION With Judith BarringtonThis workshop will focus on the ways you transform life experiences into literature, addressing the memoir and the personal essay in particular. We will divide our time between discussion of some major issues of craft and ethics that come up when writing personal stories, and writing exercises that may lead to longer pieces you can continue after the workshop. We will focus on generating new writing (which may fit into a larger project if you are already working on a story).There will be a visit from guest editor, Ruth Gundle, with a session on editing narrative prose.Judith will give a reading from her work on the Saturday at 5 pm at Caldera, open to workshop participants and to the public.Friday night dinner is provided; shared accommodation is in the residency's A-frame cabins. Judith Barrington is the author of three volumes of poetry, most recently Horses and the Human Soul (Story Line Press, 2004). Lifesaving: A Memoir, was the 2000 winner of the Lambda Book Award and finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. Recently featured on NPR in Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac", she has won many prizes for both poetry and creative nonfiction, and teaches at workshops across the U.S. and in Britain.For more information, cost, and registration: Linda Johnson: 503.937.7877 or linda.johnson@wk.com http://www.calderaarts.org/

Saturday, 14th
Tess Gallagher: The poet reads from her new collection Dear Ghosts, 2 pm, Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway.

Heather C. Flores discusses her book Food Not Lawns, 7 pm, St. Johns Booksellers, 8622 N. Lombard St.

Lawson Fusao Inada, Oregon's Poet Laureate, reads poetry with jazz accompaniment by Larry Nobori, Rick Homer, Andre St. James, and Gordon Lee, 8 pm, the Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., $20.

Kirby Larson reads from her book, Hattie Big Sky, 2 pm, Borders Beaverton, 2605 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beverton.

Jim LaMarche reads from his book, Up, 2 pm, Barnes & Noble Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd Ave.

The Plays of Pulitzer Prize Winner Wendy Wasserstein at Profile Theatre. Get Your Tickets Now (Go to www.profiletheatre.org). The complete works of American playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who died earlier this year at the age of 56, will be produced at Profile Theatre in SE Portland this season, starting with "An American Daughter" opening on October 14 and running through November 12. Four plays will be fully staged and the other three will be offered as staged readings. Wasserstein deals with such issues as striking a balance between work and family with wit and honesty. In its tenth anniversary season, Profile Theatre, under the artistic direction of Jane Unger, provides first-class acting in a very intimate setting.The first play, "An American Daughter," deals with media scrutiny of a female candidate for Surgeon General. Given the Hillary Factor, this play could not be more timely. The next, "The Heidi Chronicles," won the Pulitzer and follows art historian Heidi Holland through two decades of personal change and growth as women question their roles in society and negotiate new identities.These plays are perfect to generate discussion about women's roles in society, women and politics, Jewish women in a WASP world, strengths and weaknesses of all-women educational institutions, as well as other topics, including social class (one play is entitled "Old Money"). The Profile Theatre is the only theatre in Portland to offer the works of a single playwright each theatre season. For more information and to buy tickets, go to: www.profiletheatre.org

Sunday, 15th
Two Glimpses of Iran Sunday the 15th, 1:00PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Meghan Nuttall Sayres and Susan Fletcher present from their new young adult novels, both inspired by Persian history, culture, and landscape. In Alphabet of Dreams, Fletcher returns to ancient Persia with a spellbinding tale that re-imagines the wonder and spirit of a lost age. In Anahita's Woven Riddle, Sayres weaves a richly detailed and enchanting debut novel, set in 20th-century Persia, that explores the art of weaving, the rhythms of nomadic life, and the beauty of the Muslim faith. Sayers and Fletcher traveled to Iran to research their novels; they'll show slides, talk about their visits to Iran, and answer questions.

Conservatize Me. Sunday the 15th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In the tradition of Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky recounts how liberal John Moe submerged himself in the conservative culture, in an eye-opening look at the perilous state of American politics.

Monday, 16th
Life, Death and Bialys. Monday the 16th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
The true story of a dying father and his estranged son bonding over a baking class, Dylan Schaffer's Life, Death and Bialys is a wonderful, irreverent account of letting go of the past, learning how to forgive, and how making a decent baguette is harder than it looks.

No Plot? No Problem! Monday the 16th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
In Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! novel-writing kit, the founder of National Novel Writing Month (which is conducted each November) reveals the secrets to writing a complete novel in only 30 days. This handbook is the ultimate guide for would-be writers — or those with writer's block — to cultivate their creative selves.

Monday, Broadway Books, October 16 * 7 pm - We welcome to the store Kit Bakke, author of the new "bio-memoir" Miss Alcott's E-mail: Yours for Reforms of All Kinds. Shortly after 9/11, in an attempt to find answers to some of life's large questions, Bakke sent an e-mail to Louisa May Alcott, one of her childhood heroines. What she learns from her "correspondence" is to be persistent in the face of difficulties, and that ideas really do matter: "if you let your brain be filled with trash, you're wasting the best part of yourself Respect your own brain and use it for important things And that leads to being courageous with our ideas and being willing to think independently." Come learn more about Louisa May Alcott and her relevance in today's world.

Tuesday, 17th
Andy Stern, Tuesday the 17th, 12:00PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In A Country That Works Andy Stern, the maverick leader of the fastest-growing union in the United States, proposes a revolutionary paradigm for America and labor, in which workers and management and all Americans can thrive in the global economy.

Andy Summers. Tuesday the 17th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Andy Summers is best known as the guitar player for the Police, one of the best-loved and most enduring bands of the 1980s. But he was also part of the British rock scene of the '60s and '70s — friends, in fact, with icons like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Burdon of the Animals. In his new memoir One Train Later, Summers details growing up in 1950s England; discovering the guitar, jazz, and Zen Buddhism; rambling around the London and Hollywood drug scenes of the '70s; and playing with the Police.

The Story of American Beer, Tuesday the 17th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
In the first-ever history of American beer, Ambitious Brew, Maureen Ogle tells its epic story, from the immigrants who invented it to the upstart microbrewers who revived it.

Wednesday, 18th
Write Time, Wednesday the 18th, 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.

David Callahan, Wednesday the 18th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In The Moral Center, his forceful follow-up to The Cheating Culture, David Callahan argues that the problems for most Americans are issues that neither party is addressing: the selfishness that is careening out of control, the effect of a violent and consumerist culture on children, and the lack of a greater purpose.

Thursday, 19th
Michael Cox Thursday the 19th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night combines the atmosphere of Bleak House, the sensuous thrill of Perfume, and the mystery of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in a story of murder, deceit, love, and revenge in Victorian England.

Thursday, October 19, 2006 7:30 PM, Jon Katz presents A Good Dog. Location: Annie Bloom'sDescription: In this gripping and deeply touching book, bestselling author Jon Katz tells the story of Orson: a beautiful border collie–intense, smart, crazy, and unforgettable. A Good Dog is a book to savor. Just as Orson was the author’s lifetime dog, his story is a lifetime treasure – poignant, timeless, and powerful.

Hampton Sides, Thursday the 19th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides presents the magnificent history of how the West was really won — a sweeping tale of shame and glory that brings the history of the American conquest of the West to ringing life.

Friday 20th
Elizabeth George, Friday the 20th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In her compelling new mystery, What Came before He Shot Her, Elizabeth George explores the unforgettable events leading up to a murder.

Saturday, 21st
Oct. 21 1-2:30, Central Branch, Multnomah Co. Library 801 SW 10th, Portland OR, 97205
Multnomah County Library present Writers Talking, a monthly program of readings from northwest authors. Where imagination meets the world: writers and their research How does research fit into our narratives, enriching them with texture and authenticity? How, when and where do we begin? Which questions — architectural styles? train schedules? exchange rates? weather? — need answers and which can we safely invent? In this panel, Portland writers Robin Cody, Martha Gies and Robin Schauffler talk about the role of research in their past and current work. (http://www.multcolib.org/events/writers.html)

Sunday, 22nd
The Big Book of Girl Stuff, Sunday the 22nd, 1:00PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Bart King's The Big Book of Girl Stuff is packed with amazing facts, activities, and everything you need to know about how cool it is to be a girl, including: how to make a friendship bracelet; why boys smell so bad; how to shop; and much more!

Monday, 23rd
Oregon Writers Colony Presents Dianna Rodgers Monday the 23rd, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton Life coach and counselor Dianna Rodgers joins Oregon Writers Colony this month for a presentation for writers to help them both define and achieve their goals. She has presented at state, national, and international conferences. Rodgers fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, and she's editing a soon-to-be released anthology titled Ghosts at the Coast.

Jacob Hacker, Monday the 23rd, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
America's leaders say the economy is strong and getting stronger. But ordinary Americans aren't buying it. In The Great Risk Shift, Jacob S. Hacker lays bare this unsettling new economic climate, showing how it has come about, what it is doing to our families, and how we can fight back.

William Kittredge, Monday the 23rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Following his heralded memoir A Hole in the Sky, The Willow Field — an epic first novel that stretches over the twentieth century, from the settlers, cowboys, and gamblers who opened up this country to the landholders and politicians who ran it — ratifies William Kittredge's standing as a leading writer of the American West.

Tuesday, 24th
Richard Ford, Tuesday the 24th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
The Lay of the Land, Richard Ford's first novel in over a decade, continues the story cycle begun in his award-winning The Sportswriter. In the fall of 2000, with the presidential election still hanging in the balance, Thanksgiving looms before Frank Bascombe with all the perils of a post-nuclear family get-together.

Tuesday, Broadway Books, October 24 * 7 pm - Local author Lee Montgomery is the editorial director of Tin House Books and the executive editor of Tin House magazine. Her family, the Montgomerys of Framingham, Massachusetts, are the last of a dying breed - New England WASPs who effortlessly combine repression, flamboyant eccentricity, and alcoholism. Fragmented by drink and dysfunction, the family has avoided assembling under one roof for more than a decade. But when Big Dad, the patriarch, is diagnosed with stomach cancer, the siblings all return to their childhood home. The Things Between Us is Montgomery's alternately wrenching and riotous story of her family reuniting as one of their own is dying, evoking the often unspoken bonds between family members - bonds made of memory, love, and disappointment.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 5:00 PM, join Rob Neyer for Game 3 of the World Series! Location: O'Connor's AnnexDescription: Join Rob Neyer, espn.com analyst and author of The Big Book of Baseball Bloopers, for Game 3 of the 2006 Major League Baseball World Series. Come cheer like a kid and second guess with an expert. What better way to enjoy America’s pastime than with a room full of baseball fanatics? The event will begin just before the start of the game, so check back for the exact time. Also, thanks to O'Connors Restaurant for the use of their Annex ... and their big screen TV!

Wednesday 25th
Classics Book Group, Wednesday the 25th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
This month our group meets to discuss Edgar Allen Poe's short stories. New members to the group are always welcome.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:00 PM, GEORGE WRIGHT. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Description: Tillamook 1952 -On August 24, 1933, Verlin Victory Lundigun, 32, catches a piece of pitch-fired fl... Tillamook 1952 -On August 24, 1933, Verlin Victory Lundigun, 32, catches a piece of pitch-fired flaming tree trunk with his face. He is one warrior among thousands fighting the fiercest forest fire in U.S. history—the infamous Tillamook Burn. Verlin lives that day, but nine months later he is dead from a gunshot. Eighteen years later a nephew is driven to find out why and how his uncle died.

Ed Viesturs, Wednesday the 25th, 7:00PM Bagdad Theater
As riveting as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, Ed Viesturs's No Shortcuts to the Top is a gripping and triumphant memoir that follows a living legend of extreme mountaineering as he makes his assault on history, one 8,000-meter summit at a time. Please note: This free event takes place at the Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:30 PM, Heather Sharfeddin presents Mineral Spirits. Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: Mineral Spirits is a contemporary western, a murder mystery set in Montana's Mineral County, which stretches narrow and remote along the Idaho border. Kip Edelson is the county's new sheriff. Pine trees outnumber people one-million to one there, but, beneath the idyllic-seeming surface of this scenic paradise, Edelson encounters drug-dealing, incest, and grinding poverty, as well as murder.

Thursday, 26th
The “Last Gasp” Open Mic Reading at Noon, CCC, Literary Arts Center (RR 220).

Melissa Fay Greene, Thursday the 26th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne
There Is No Me without You is the story of Haregewoin Tefarra, a middle-aged Ethiopian woman of modest means whose home has become a refuge for hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS. Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock, gives us an astonishing portrait of a woman fighting a continent-wide epidemic.

Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:30 PM, Amy Scheibe presents What Do You Do All Day? Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: Bright, witty, and covered in homemade playdough, Jennifer Bradley has traded her fabulous job at a New York auction house for the life of a stay at home mom. For Jennifer, sanity itself is a treasure among the playground set, given the pitfalls: If it's not the nasty mother-in-law, who insists that her precious grandchildren be exposed to the dubious advantages of the Upper East Side, it's her husband, Thom, who announces he'll be on the road to Singapore for the next who-knows-how-long. What Do You Do All Day? is a sparkling story of love, lust, and the joys of modern motherhood.

Kate Atkinson, Thursday the 26th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
One Good Turn is a brilliant new thriller from Kate Atkinson, author of 2005's breakout favorite Case Histories, again featuring the irresistibly reluctant detective Jackson Brodie.

Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:00 PM, GERARD DONOVAN. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Description: Julius Winsome... From the author of "Schopenhauer's Telescope" comes a beautiful and haunting novel of vengeance, literature, love, isolation, and man's tenuous grasp on reason.

MAILE MELOY, Thursday, October 26, 8 p.m.Reed College Psychology Auditorium.
Maile Meloy was born in Helena, Montana. Her most recent novel is A Family Daughter. Her short stories have been published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, and her first story collection, Half in Love, received the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John C. Zacharis Award from Ploughshares, and the PEN/Malamud Award. Her first novel, Liars and Saints, was shortlisted for England’s 2005 Orange Prize. She has also received The Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in California.

Friday, 27th
Richard Dawkins, Friday the 27th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins (recently called "Darwin's Rottweiler" by Discover magazine for his fierce defense of evolution) turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.

Saturday, 28th
R. A. Salvatore, Saturday the 28th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton
Road of the Patriarch, the final title in the Sellswords series from New York Times bestselling author R.A. Salvatore, continues the escapades of Entreri and Jarlaxle, as they encounter the wrath of an angry paladin king in the dangerous Bloodstone Lands.

Sunday, 29th
Sunday, October 29 at Marylhurst University, 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Voices in the Wind: Poet, Composers and Performers in Collaboration. Dr. John Paul, department chair of Music, Judith Barrington, poet. Voices in the Wind features the poetry of Judith Barrington set to music by Marylhurst composers and will be performed by Marylhurst voice faculty in a unique recital/presentation. Poets, composers, and performers will be on hand to discuss the intimate collaboration between the literary and musical arts that is the essence of song.

Monday, 30th
Deepak Chopra, Monday the 30th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
Deepak Chopra has touched millions of readers by demystifying our deepest spiritual concerns while retaining their poetry and wonder. Now he turns to the most profound mystery: What happens after we die? In Life after Death: The Burden of Proof, Deepak Chopra marries science and wisdom to provide a map of the afterlife.

Monday, Broadway Books, October 30 * 7 pm - We love dogs. We also love books about dogs. On this evening, we will welcome two authors of books for young adults who have written books about young girls and dogs. Karen Karbo, whose new novel is called Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs (Minerva Clark rocks. Seriously.), will be joined by Christine Fletcher, a veterinarian whose novel, Tallulah Falls, is about a young girl in trouble and the dying dog who helps her. Please join us this evening - and bring your well-behaved, on-a-leash dog. We promise edible treats for all humans and canines in attendance!

Tuesday, 31st
Halloween with Amy Sedaris, Tuesday the 31st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside
I Like You: Hospitality under the Influence is Amy Sedaris's blisteringly funny take on entertaining. Color photos and enlightening sidebars on everything it takes to pull off a party with extraordinary flair make this volume an entertaining book from one of the country's most delightfully unconventional hostesses.

November 2006

Wednesday, 1st

Thursday, 2nd
DAVID OATES, DAVID BRAGDON (President of Metro regional council), & ANA MARIA SPAGNA. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books November 2, 2006 7:00 PMDescription: City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary, Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging, and the Crosscut Saw... Oates: Reflections on the politics and culture of place, inspired by the author's walk along the entirety of Portland, Oregon's 260+ mile Urban Growth Boundary, through neighborhoods, forests, mountain trails, vineyards, and wide-open wheat fields. Spagna: How did a quintessential California girl end up earning her living in the Pacific Northwest with a crosscut saw? In "Now Go Home, Spagna reflects on the journey that took her from a childhood in the suburbs of LA to a trail crew in Washington's North Cascades, where she falls in love with a place and, unexpectedly, with a woman.

Dr. Robert Bass of OIT on Renewable Energy, Thursday Nov. 2, CCC, 11:00, LAC (RR 220).

The Nature of Words, Central Oregon's Premier Literary Event, November 2-5, 2006. A long weekend of readings, workshops, dinner and panel discussion and an open mike session. Guest Authors: David Guterson, James Galvin, Alexandra Fuller, Craig Lesley, Robert Michael Pyle, Linda Hussa, Lawson Inada, Robert Wrigley. All events are held in Bend, Oregon. Reading, Workshop and Dinner/Panel Discussion tickets can be purchased from The Ticket Mill, Shops at The Old Mill, Phone: 541.318.5457. Reading tickets only can be purchased from the Tower Theatre, www.towertheatre.org , Phone 541.317.0700.

Friday, 3rd

Saturday, 4th

Sunday, 5th

Monday, 6th

Tuesday, 7th
Reading from the anthology Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets. Powell's Downtown, NW 10th & Burnside, Tuesday, November 7, 7:30pm.Portland readers: Judith Barrington, James Grabill, Paulann Petersen, Vern Rutsala, Carlos Reyes, Lisa M. Steinman, & Sandra Stone.

Wednesday, 8th
November 8 Readings by Oregon Book Awards Finalists 6:30 p.m., Japanese Garden (611 SW Kingston Avenue, Portland) Hosted by Portland Monthly and author Chelsea Cain Tickets: $10 at 503.222.5144 x133

Thursday, 9th
Alison Heimowitz, CCC Environmental Learning Center, on the Environment and Water, 11:00, LAC (RR 220).

Thursday, November 9, 2006 7:00 PM, JOYCE MAYNARD. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Description: Internal Combustion: The Story of a Marriage and a Murder in the Motor City... On Mother's Day night, 2004, award-winning fourth grade teacher Nancy Seaman left the Tudor home she shared with her husband of thirty two years in the gated community of Farmington Hills, near Detroit, Michigan, and drove in a driving rain storm to Home Depot, to purchase a hatchet. Three days later, police discovered the mutilated body of Bob Seaman - a successful auto industry engineer, softball coach and passionate collector of vintage Mustangs - in the back of the family's Ford Explorer. As in Joyce Maynard's previous books - including "To Die For," based on a true crime, and her best selling memoir, "At Home in the World" - Joyce Maynard's themes here involve family secrets, the deep fissures that lie below the surface of the glittering exteriors, and the deep, potentially fatal, fissures in the American Dream.

ILYA KAMINSKY, Thursday, November 9, 8 p.m.Reed College Psychology Auditorium.
Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union in 1977, and arrived to the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. Ilya is the author of Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004) which won the Whiting Writer's Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, the Dorset Prize, the Ruth Lilly Fellowship given annually by Poetry magazine. Dancing In Odessa was also named Best Poetry Book of the Year 2004 by ForeWord Magazine.

Friday, 10th

Saturday, 11th

Sunday, 12th
Nov. 12 7:30, New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny Street, Portland
The Spare Room presents readings with Elizabeth Arnold & Patrick Hartigan $5.00 donation suggested. For more info please see www.flim.com/spareroom or contact spareroom@flim.com

Monday, 13th

Tuesday, 14th

Wednesday, 15th
November 15 Readings by Oregon Book Awards Finalists 6:30 p.m., Japanese Garden (611 SW Kingston Avenue, Portland) Hosted by Portland Monthly and author Marc Acito Tickets: $10 at 503.222.5144 x133

Thursday, 16th
Thursday, November 16, 2006 7:00 PM, KELLY BRAFFET. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Description: Last Seen Leaving... Twenty-something drifter Miranda crashes her car late at night on a lonely highway and is picked up by a passing stranger who soon reveals himself to be more sinister than at first glance--he's rumored to be a serial killer stalking young women. This novel explores the often ambiguous nature of danger and the dark secrets kept to protect loved ones.

TAYARI JONES, Thursday, November 16, 8 p.m.Reed College Psychology Auditorium
Tayari Jones is the author of the novels Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling, which were awarded the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Lillian C. Smith Award (respectively). Jones was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia where she spent most of her childhood with the exception of the one year she and her family spent in Nigeria, West Africa. A graduate of Spelman College, The University of Iowa, and Arizona State University, she has recently served as the Jenny McKean Moore Writer in Residence at George Washington University. In the fall of 2007, Jones began teaching as an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Rutgers University, Newark campus.

Reading from the anthology Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets. Broadway Books, NE 17th & Broadway, Tuesday, November 16, 7pm. Portland readers: Jan Lee Ande, Michele Glazer, Kathleen Halme III, Jerry Harp, Floyd Skloot, Mary Szybist, Ursula K. Le Guin
Friday, 17th

Saturday, 18th
Nov. 18 1-2:30, Central Branch, Multnomah Co. Library 801 SW 10th, Portland OR, 97205
Multnomah Co. Library presents Writers Talking, a monthly program of readings from northwest authors. Laila Lalami is a writer, blogger and political activist. She provides commentary, book reviews and information about the literary scene on her blog Moorishgirl.com. She will read from her acclaimed novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (http://www.multcolib.org/events/writers.html)

Bart King presents The Big Book of Girl Stuff. Location: Annie Bloom's Saturday, November 18, 2006 3:00 PM. Description: The Big Book of Girl Stuff shares everything a girl needs to know - from sleepovers to diaries to makeup to boys to shopping, and everything in between! It's the ultimate guide to unlocking the delightful mysteries of being a girl. Dozens of girls, young women, teachers, and mothers collaborated on this book to make it the most comprehensive guide to being a girl that has ever existed! Perfect for pre-teen, 'tween, and teenage girls, The Big Book of Girl Stuff shares inspiration, empowerment, and some seriously silly laughs just when girls need it the most! It's filled with information, activities, quotes, and games, as well as lists for favorite books, movies, and music.

Sunday, 19th

Monday, 20th
Monday, November 20, 2006 7:30 PM, David Suzuki presents The Autobiography. Location: Multnomah Arts Center. Description: Annie Bloom's Books and the Northwest Earth Institute present an evening with David Suzuki. Tickets are $5 and are available at Annie Bloom's Books. Your ticket is redeemable towards the purchase of David Suzuki: The Autobiography. The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Multnomah Arts Center at 7688 SW Capitol Hwy (Mapquest). The first volume of David Suzuki’s autobiography, Metamorphosis, looked back at his life from 1986, when he was 50. In this eagerly awaited second installment, Suzuki, now 70, reflects on his entire life — and on his hopes for the future.

Tuesday, 21st

Wednesday, 22nd

Thursday, 23rd

Friday, 24th

Saturday, 25th

Sunday, 26th

Monday, 27th

Tuesday, 28th

Wednesday, 29th
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 7:30 PM, Susan Sokol Blosser presents At Home in the Vineyard. Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: This moving, evocative memoir, woven with lyrical descriptions of the sights and smells of vineyard life, tells the inspirational story of one woman's journey to success in an industry run mostly by men. At Home in the Vineyard, filled with colorful characters and unexpected experiences, brings a local rural community vividly alive as Oregon wine pioneer and industry icon Susan Sokol Blosser recounts how she fell in love with a vineyard, learned how to run it, and ultimately achieved her vision of producing Pinot Noirs to rival those of Burgundy.

Thursday, 30th
CCC’s “Last Gasp” Open Mic Reading, LAC (RR 220), noon Thursday the 30th.

December 1st

20th Annual Oregon Book Awards 7:30 p.m., Portland Art Museum (1119 SW Park Avenue, Portland) Tickets: $15 at www.literary-arts.org

Dec. 16 1-2:30

Central Branch, Multnomah Co. Library 801 SW 10th, Portland OR, 97205
Multnomah Co. Library presents Writers Talking, a monthly program of readings from northwest authors. Phillip Margolin A master of the thriller genre, Margolin has 11 books to his credit and every one of them has made The New York Times bestseller list. His new book, Proof Positive, promises to be equally popular with his large fan base.

Portland Literary Events Through February 2006

2006-01-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Portland Area Literary Events, November 2005

2005-10-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

November 2005

Tuesday the 1st

Alan Lee's Lord of the Rings Sketchbook. Tuesday the 1st, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. The Oscar-winning conceptual designer for the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy discusses his approach to depicting Tolkien's imaginary world. The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook presents more than 150 of Lee's celebrated illustrations, as well as twenty full-color plates and numerous examples of the conceptual art produced for Peter Jackson's film adaptation. Includes slideshow presentation.

Nonficton: Joy Castro reads from her book, The Truth Book, 7 p.m., Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 238, 724 SW Harrison St. Joy Castro will discuss and sign her unflinching memoir, The Truth Book: escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's Witnesses. Joy was 12 when her mother married a church leader, whose abuse and religious hypocrisy continued while neither her battered mother nor her church would do anything to protect her. Castro bears indelible witness to a childhood lost but a life regained by her heroic escape from enigmatic fundamentalists.

Fiction: Gina Ochsner reads from her book People I Wanted to Be, 7:30 pm, Linfield College, Nicholson Library, 900 SE Baker St., McMinnville.

Nonfiction: Jill Fredston discusses her book Snowstruck, 7 pm, Borders Books & Music, 708 SW Third Ave., Portland. Fredston, who lives with her husband in the mountains above Anchorage, Alaska, has spent the years tracking avalanches in an effort to prevent disasters. Fredston has rescued many skiers trapped by avalanches--one was so deeply entombed that he could only move one finger. She says that avalanches most often kill by suffocation, although broken necks and other forms of fatal trauma have become increasingly common as people jump into ever more ruthless terrain. "Poisoned by their own carbon dioxide emissions, most victims begin to lose consciousness within four minutes, which is a good thing, as they will use air at a slower rate," she writes. "Brain damage may set in after eight minutes." Fredston writes that avalanches are like fish; they tend to run in schools, and when one has occurred, more are likely. With black-and-white photography throughout, this book is an electrifying account of the dangers of avalanches, their causes, their victims, and--thanks to Fredston--sometimes their victims' rescue.

Nonfiction: Sara Halprin reads from her book, 7:00 p.m., Broadway Books, 1714 N.E. Broadway, Portland. The extraordinary Seema Weatherwax nee Assen, darkroom assistant to Ansel Adams, member of the Young Communist League, activist wife of Jack Weatherwax, and friend to Imogen Cunningham and Woody Guthrie, first exhibited her own photography when she was 95 years old. Portland writer Sara Halprin joins us today to show slides from Ms. Assen's life and work, and to read from her biography, Seema's Show: A Life on the Left (University of New Mexico). "Like my grandmother, Imogen Cunningham, Seema Weatherwax tells it like it is. This astonishingly candid biography vividly brings to life the great twentieth-century California art photographers." - Elizabeth Partridge. "A tonic for existential despair. We need this wonderful book." - Ronnie Gilbert, the Weavers.

Creative Nonfiction: A Left-Hand Turn around the World. Tuesday the 1st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A Left-Hand Turn around the World is a light hearted exploration into the history, psychology, science, and most of all, the culture of left-handedness. Weaving his personal experience with a blend of sharp-eyed reporting and intriguing personalities, David Wolman crafts an entertaining narrative in praise of all things southpaw.

Wednesday the 2nd

Write Time. Wednesday the 2nd, 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.

Cookbook: Chris Kimball. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. "America's Test Kitchen" host Chris Kimball presents The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, a comprehensive cookbook that delivers more than 1,200 foolproof recipes for classic American family fare in a clear, accessible style.

Poetry: Daisy Zamora reads selections from her work, 7 pm, Portland State University, Smith Memorial Union, Room 294, 724 SW Harrison St.

Wednesday, November 2, 2005 7:30 PM, William Robbins presents Oregon: This Storied Land. Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: Oregon is a landscape of brilliant waterfalls, towering volcanoes, productive river valleys. . .

Fiction: Greg Rucka reads from his new novel, Private Wars, 7 pm, Salem Borders, Village East Shopping Center, 2235 Lancaster Drive NE, Salem.

FICTION: Amy Tan. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:30PM First Baptist Church. In Saving Fish from Drowning, the powerful new novel from the bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club, eleven Americans leave their Floating Island Resort on an ill-fated art expedition into Burma — and disappear. Please note: this free event takes place at the First Baptist Church, at the corners of 12th and Taylor St., downtown Portland. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

Thursday the 3rd

FICTION: GREG BOTTOMS, Thursday, November 3, 8 p.m., Psychology Auditorium, Room 105. Greg Bottoms’s first book, the memoir Angelhead: My Brother’s Descent into Madness, was an Esquire “Book of the Year” in 2000. Sentimental, Heartbroken Rednecks: Stories, which blurs across the genres of memoir, the essay, and fiction, was published in 2001 to wide critical acclaim. His writing has appeared in Esquire, The Oxford American, Salon, Creative Nonfiction, The North American, and elsewhere, and his criticism regularly appears in Bookforum. He is currently completing The Colorful Apocalypse, a travel narrative about his visits and interviews with three Christian fundamentalist Outsider artists in the U.S. An assistant professor of English at the University of Vermont, he now lives in northwestern New England.

Poetry: Lilah Hegnauer reads from her collection, Dark Under Kiganda Stars, 7:30 pm, University of Portland, St. Mary's Student Center, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd. This book is a startling lyrical account of a young Catholic American student's time in Uganda, where she taught English to adults and assisted at a medical clinic in a remote country village. Written while the author was still in college, it is an astonishing debut, richly musical and descriptive, confident, unpretentious, and bursting with new experience: love, identity, religious faith, and the complex collisions of culture and language.

Nonfiction: Craig Lesley reads from his book Burning Fence, 7:30 pm, Portland State University, Smith Memorial Union, 1825 SW Broadway, donations to Literary Alliance accepted.

Memoir: Judy Collins reads from her book Morning, Noon, and Night, 7 pm, Borders Books & Music, 708 SW Third Ave. Collins draws upon a deep reservoir of experience as a painter, writer, and singer/songwriter that greatly enhances her suggestions on tapping into creativity. She includes a rich array of anecdotes from the entire spectrum of her life.from her earliest teachers and her childhood in Seattle, through her sometimes turbulent years as a young performer, to the steady creative life she has built for herself maintaining a rigorous concert schedule of about 50-60 concerts annually. Collins includes her own song lyrics as examples, discussing what inspired them and how she wrote them, allowing readers a vivid glimpse into her creative process. She shares the many things that spark her imagination.

Sixth Annual Reading by Jewish Writers and Poets: Authors and poets read selections from their works, 7:30 pm, Oregon Jewish Museum, 310 NW Davis St.; $3 donation suggested.

Humor: Margaret Cho, Thursday the 3rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A survival guide to making it through to 2008 and a hilarious, kick-ass call to arms from "comedy's most fearless superhero" (Entertainment Weekly), I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight chronicles Margaret Cho's adventures and misadventures in political activism and lays out what's right in no uncertain terms. Please note: this free event is limited to the first 250 in attendance. No reserve seating. A booksigning will follow for all interested in attending.

Friday the 4th

NONFICTION: Jung Change and Jon Halliday. Friday the 4th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before, Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang (bestselling author of Wild Swans) and Jon Halliday, is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written.

Saturday the 5th

Poetry: Saturday, November 5, 2005 6:30 PM, Matt Yurdana presents Public Gestures, Location: Annie Bloom's. Matt Yurdana's first book, Public Gestures, explores the stories, recollections, and half-truths we stand by and rely upon. These poems give us our varied lives one glimpse at a time - a tattoed man's check-up, a hatchery worker killing salmon, someone dying in a petting zoo - revealing moments at once commonplace and extraordinary. Multilayered and as convincing as memories, Yurdana's poems present the complex nature of emotions in tight and finely crafted language.

Monday the 7th

FICTION: Stacey Levine and Matt Briggs. Monday the 7th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Two new novels from Clear Cut Press. Not since Ken Kesey has a long-form literary work subjected the utopian outsider traditions of the west coast to such intimate and clear-eyed scrutiny as Matt Briggs's Shoot the Buffalo. Stacey Levine's Frances Johnson is a comedy of manners in the tradition of Jane Bowles.

FICTION: Monday, November 7, 2005 7:30 PM. Seth Kantner presents Ordinary Wolves, Location: Annie Bloom's Books. Description: In the tradition of Jack London, Seth Kantner presents an Alaska far removed from majestic clichés.

NONFICTION: Rock and Roll Archaeologist. Monday the 7th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Dubbed the "Indiana Jones of Rock 'n' Roll" by Seattle's The Rocket, Peter Blecha's story is a unique celebration of fandom taken to obsessive lengths. From haggling with Courtney Love for Kurt Cobain mementos to helping build the Experience Music Project, Rock and Roll Archaeologist reads like a music lover's dream come true.

Tuesday the 8th

NONFICTION: Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die. Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. Chris Santella's Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die presents the world's greatest golf venues, the personal favorites of renowned players, course architects, and other experts in the sport. With breathtaking color photographs of each site, this gorgeous, full-color book is a great gift for avid golfers and armchair travelers alike.

Greg Rucka reads from his book, Private Wars, 7 pm, Borders Books, 708 SW Third Ave, Portland.

Science Fiction Book Group. Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our book group meets to discuss Robert Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars. New members to our group are always welcome.

FICTION: Peter Donahue. Tuesday the 8th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. If E. L. Doctorow and Charles Dickens met on the streets of Seattle, they might have written something similar to Peter Donahue's debut novel, Madison House, which chronicles turn-of-the-century Seattle's explosive transformation from frontier outpost to major metropolis.

Wednesday the 9th

NONFICTION: Michael Brophy. Wednesday the 9th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In his extraordinary work, Oregon painter Michael Brophy explores the intersections of history, forest ecology, and the rich tradition of landscape painting. Edited by Rock Hushka, The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy examines Brophy's art, exploring how it reassesses the historical events and decisions that shaped the American West.

NONFICTION: Craig Lesley discusses his new book, Burning Fence, 7 pm, Barnes and Noble, 18300 NW Evergreen Parkway, Beaverton.

NONFICTION: Kristin Kaye reads from her book, Iron Maidens, 7 pm, Portland State University, Smith Memorial Union, 338, 724 SW Harrison St.

Thursday the 10th

Mystery Book Group. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. At this month's book group, author M. J. Zellnik leads us in a discussion of her new book Murder at the Portland Variety.

NONFICTION: Kristin Kaye reads from Iron Maidens, 7:30 pm, Thursday, Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave.

NONFICTION: Craig Lesley presents his new book, Burning Fence, 7 pm, Barnes & Noble Vancouver, 7700 NE Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver, WA.

POETRY: DAVID BIESPIEL, Thursday, November 10, 8 p.m., Psychology Auditorium, Room 105. Reed College. David Biespiel is the author of the poetry collections Wild Civility and Shattering Air. His work has appeared widely, in journals such as American Poetry Review, Parnassus, Poetry and The New Republic, and in the anthologies The New American Poets and American Poetry: The Next Generation. Biespiel, awarded a Stegner Fellowship in poetry at Stanford and a NEA Fellowship in Literature, has taught at Stanford, the University of Maryland, George Washington University, Portland State and Oregon State University. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is Director and Writer in Residence at The Attic, a literary studio and haven for writers.

Giuliano Hazan. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. From the bestselling author of Every Night Italian comes How to Cook Italian, a new bible of Italian cooking — consistently America's favorite cuisine — for the way we cook today.

FICTION: Steven Erikson. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Marking the return of many characters from Gardens of the Moon and introducing a host of remarkable new players, Memories of Ice is both a momentous new chapter in Steven Erikson's magnificent epic fantasy and a triumph of storytelling.

FICTION: Daniel Quinn. Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Ishmael author Daniel Quinn returns with seven profound but delightfully simple tales that illuminate the world in which humans became humans. Tales of Adam, superbly illustrated by Michael McCurdy, is a book that will come to be shelved alongside The Prophet, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and The Alchemist.

FICTION: Craig Clevenger and Will Christopher Baer, Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. From Craig Clevenger, the author of The Contortionist's Handbook, comes Dermaphoria, an atmospheric second novel set in the underworld of L.A. Will Christopher Baer's gritty style has been described as "Chuck Palahniuk rewriting Jim Thompson." His collected novels, Phineas Poe: Books I, II, III — are thrillers that "keep readers hooked" (Publishers Weekly).

Friday the 11th

Dan Austin. Friday the 11th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside.
Based on the nationally touring film of the same name, Dan Austin's hilarious and thoughtful True Fans details the journey Dan, his brother Jared, and best friend Clint Ewell started when they hopped aboard their bicycles and headed east from the pickup court at Venice Beach, handlebars pointed toward the NBA Hall of Fame.

Oregon Book Awards. Author Pam Houston hosts. 7:30 pm, Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St. Literary Arts, Inc., honors Oregon writers in poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers literature. $25. Tickets: 503-227-2583. Only cash or checks accepted at the door.

Monday the 14th

Matt Skinner. Monday the 14th, 6:30PM Square Deal Wine Company.
A new wine book by the sommelier at Jamie Oliver's London restaurant, Fifteen! Packed with user-friendly information and all the tricks one could ever want, Thirsty Work celebrates wine, all that goes into making it and all who are involved in sharing it. Please note: this free event takes place at Square Deal Wine Company, 2321 NW Thurman St. Complimentary wine-tasting starts at 6:30pm, with Matt's presentation at 7pm.

Mark Crispin Miller. Monday the 14th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne.
In Fooled Again, Mark Crispin Miller exposes the thousands of little frauds that allowed the Republicans to win in 2004. This incendiary new book presents massive documentation that the election was stolen and describes the mind set, among both the major parties and the media, that could permit it to happen again.

Daniel Wilson. How to Survive a Robot Uprising. Monday the 14th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. An inspired and hilarious look at how humans can defeat the inevitable robot rebellion — as revealed by a robotics expert. From treating laser wounds to fooling face and speech recognition, besting robot logic to engaging in hand-to-pincer combat, Daniel Wilson's How to Survive a Robot Uprising covers every possible doomsday scenario facing the newest endangered species: humans.

Tuesday the 15th

COOKING: Jerry Traunfeld. Tuesday the 15th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. The secret to transforming easy dishes into extraordinary meals? Fresh herbs. In The Herbal Kitchen, IACP award-winning cookbook author and acclaimed Herbfarm Restaurant chef Jerry Traunfeld presents simple dishes using herbs straight from the market, windowsill, or garden.

FICTION: David Allan Cates. Tuesday the 15th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. X Out of Wonderland is a farce, modeled after Candide, that takes on the global free market and just about every other aspect of contemporary life. Outrageous and poignant by turns, David Allan Cates's novel is a satire with heart, and an intense and funny reading experience.

Wednesday the 16th

Book Collecting Workshop. Wednesday the 16th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. From neutrons to botanicals, join us for a discussion on the printed world of science and technology as we continue our classes on book collecting. A variety of topics will be discussed, so bring your hypotheses and your questions for a lively experiment in rare book lectures.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005 7:30 PM, Ron Lansing presents Nimrod: Courts, Claims, and Killing on the Oregon Frontier, Location: Annie Bloom'sDescription: At the remarkable age of 65, Nimrod O'Kelly - loner, former blacksmith - made the arduous trek . . .
Write Time Writing Group. Wednesday the 16th, 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.

FICTION: Jonathan Harr. Wednesday the 16th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In The Lost Painting, Jonathan Harr, author of the national bestseller A Civil Action, embarks on a spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ. The fascinating details of the artist Caravaggio's strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages.

Thursday the 17th

Harmon Leon. Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. When the red states trumped the blue states in the 2004 presidential election, many Democrats were left wondering just what makes the conservative mind tick. In Republican Like Me, comedian and journalist Harmon Leon infiltrates a Christian wrestling extravaganza, a machine-gun shoot, an "Arnold for Governor" rally, and more, to find out how the other half lives in ways that are outrageous and hilarious, yet always illuminating.

FICTION: Thursday, November 17, 2005 7:30 PM, David Sarasohn presents Waiting for Lewis and Clark: The Bicentennial and a Changing West, Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: Across thousands of miles, Indian tribes, environmental activists, tourism promoters, and keelboat...

NONFICTION: Wilma Mankiller: Native American Women in the 21st Century, Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. With opening thoughts and stories from Wilma Mankiller, Every Day is a Good Day features nineteen prominent Native American artists, educators, and activists sharing their candid and often profound thoughts on what it means to be a Native American woman in the early 21st century. Ms. Mankiller will preside over a panel including such Native American scholars and writers as Liz Woody, Kathryn Harrison, Janice Gould and more.

Friday the 18th

HISTORICAL FICTION: Michelangelo's Mountain. Friday the 18th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. With vivid writing and characterizations, Eric Scigliano dramatizes Michelangelo's life and times through his obsession with the legendary marble of Carrara and his creation of three incomparable masterpieces: the Pieta, David, and Moses. Michelangelo's Mountain is a "lively blend of art history and travelogue" (Kirkus Reviews). Slideshow presentation.

Saturday the 19th

Christina Baldwin. Saturday the 19th, 3:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. Storycatcher reveals the powerful role stories play in life, and empowers readers to examine their own to bring greater awareness and positive change. Christina Baldwin draws on examples from history and mythology to show how stories change events.

Sunday the 20th

NONFICTION: An Unreasonable Woman. Sunday the 20th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Diane Wilson's An Unreasonable Woman "will stand as one of this nation's greatest works of nonfiction," says Rick Bass. When Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, learns that she lives in the most polluted county in the United States, she launches a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that has been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast. This event is co-sponsored by the Sierra Club Adam Alabarca Speaker Series.

Monday the 21st

NONFICTION: Jack Klugman. Monday the 21st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The close professional relationship between The Odd Couple's Jack Klugman and Tony Randall has long been famous, but the details of their friendship have never been revealed until now. Tony and Me is a touching portrait of a legendary professional relationship that, in the end, became deeply personal.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: Faith Adiele. Monday the 21st, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Faith Adiele's funny and observant memoir, Meeting Faith: An Inward Odyssey presents the wry account of Adiele's journey from Harvard scholarship student to her ordination as northern Thailand's first black Buddhist nun.

Wednesday the 23rd

Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us. Wednesday the 23rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Looking to add a little bitterness to your holiday season? Then Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us is the book you cannot do without! The event celebrated by Frank Costanza on Seinfeld has transcended television to become a worldwide phenomenon. In this side-splitting romp through the Festivus landscape, author Allen Salkin meets Miss Festivus, tastes Festivus beer, and ponders the Festivus snail, showing how anyone with a little creativity — and a dash of Costanza — can celebrate a Happy Festivus!

Monday the 28th

FICTION: Oregon Writers Colony Presents Jennie Shortridge. Monday the 28th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. Novelist Jennie Shortridge leads a discussion entitled "If I'd Known Then..." at this month's OWC event. Now a two-time novelist with a bestseller and film option under her belt, Jennie Shortridge will share tips and tricks she learned the hard way on the publishing path. OWC Presents happens the fourth Monday of every month at Powell's Books in Beaverton.

Book Collecting Workshop. Monday the 28th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Our classes on book collecting continue when Dan Haneckow dons his engineer's cap and takes the reading railroad to Powell's on Hawthorne to give a presentation on collecting train books.

Tuesday the 29th

FICTION: Brom. Tuesday the 29th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In The Plucker, an illustrated novel, world-renowned dark fantasy artist Brom combines dramatic storytelling with his uniquely arresting images to create a work of striking imagination, set in a world where fairy-tale tradition collides with vileness and depravity, love and heroism, suffering and sacrifice.

Wednesday the 30th

Write Time Writing Group. Wednesday the 30th, 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.

COOKING: Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. Wednesday the 30th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. For Mangoes and Curry Leaves, a companion volume to their award-winning cookbook Hot Sour Salty Sweet, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid travel west from Southeast Asia to that vast landmass the colonial British called the Indian subcontinent. It was just twenty years ago that cooks began to understand the relationships between the multifaceted cuisines of the Mediterranean; now we can begin to do the same with the foods of the Subcontinent.

Classics Book Group. Wednesday the 30th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our group discusses Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. New members to the group are always welcome.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: J. R. Moehringer. Wednesday the 30th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. J. R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar is a moving, vividly told memoir full of heart, drama, and exquisite comic timing, about a boy striving to become a man, and his romance with a bar. Booklist calls it "Funny, honest, and insightful."

Portland Metro Area Literary Events, October 23 – November 30, 2005

2005-10-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

October 2005

Sunday the 23rd

FICTION: Adam Gopnik. Sunday the 23rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Following his beloved memoir, Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik turns his talents to a fantasy novel for children and grownups that is part Madeline, part Matrix. With wonderful characters, high comedy, and a thrilling narrative, The King in the Window is an intelligent fantasy adventure embodying the battle between good and evil.

POETRY: Paul Naylor and Endi Hartigan: The poets read from their work, 7:30 p.m., Spare Room Reading event, New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny St., $5 suggested donation.

Monday the 24th

FICTION: First Fiction Fall Tour. Monday the 24th, 5:30PM XV. The First Fiction Fall Tour returns with three new and unforgettable debut novels: Karen Olsson's Waterloo, a bittersweet, biting portrait of a generation in search of itself; Lisa Selin Davis's Belly, a brilliantly funny novel about the masculine path and the chance for reconciliation and redemption in even the hardest-lived life; and Victoria Vinton's The Jungle Law, which tracks Rudyard Kipling's ultimately doomed attempt to establish a home in Vermont even as he begins to write his classic, The Jungle Book. Please note: this free event takes place at XV, 15 SW 2nd Ave., downtown Portland. Happy hour cocktails: 5:30pm. Readings begin at 6:30pm.

NONFICTION: Arlene Blum. 7 p.m., Bridgeport Village Borders, 7227 SW Bridgeport Road, Tigard. Defying the climbing establishment of the 1970s, Arlene Blum was the first American woman to attempt Mt. Everest. Complemented with breathtaking personal photos and detailed maps, Breaking Trail is a deeply moving account of how one woman overcame adversity to become one of the world's most famous climbers. (This reading includes a PowerPoint presentation by the author.)

FICTION: Oregon Writers Colony Presents. Monday the 24th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. C. Lill Ahrens, Oregon Writers Colony (OWC) contest director, presents the 2005 winners of the OWC Contest "Short Stories... Both True and Imagined." Hear some of the best new voices in the Oregon literary scene as winners read from their works.

FICTION: San Francisco Noir. Monday the 24th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. In San Francisco Noir, edited by Peter Maravelis, virtuosos of the genre meet up with the best of the Bay Area's literary fiction community to chart a unique psycho-geography for a dark landscape. Editor Maravelis appears with contributors Robert Mailer Anderson, Kate Braverman, and Peter Plate.

Tuesday the 25th

NONFICTION: Arlene Blum. Tuesday the 25th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Defying the climbing establishment of the 1970s, Arlene Blum was the first American woman to attempt Mt. Everest. Complemented with breathtaking personal photos and detailed maps, Breaking Trail is a deeply moving account of how one woman overcame adversity to become one of the world's most famous climbers. (This reading includes a Powerpoint presentation by the author.)

POETRY: Willa Schneberg, Biff Russ, Vern Rutsala, Penelope Schott, and Donna Prinzmetal read from their work, 7 p.m., Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway.
FICTION: Chris Elliott. Tuesday the 25th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. The Shroud of the Thwacker is the raucous debut novel from Chris Elliott, star of Get a Life! and Cabin Boy. Set in New York City in 1882, this hilarious story chronicles the adventures of Police Chief Caleb Spencer and his cohorts, Evening Post reporter Liz Smith and Mayor Teddy Roosevelt, as they unravel the mystery of the world's first serial killer, Jack the Jolly Thwacker.

Wednesday the 26th

Write Time. Wednesday the 26th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This writing critique group meets every other Wednesday to exchange and discuss their work. New members are always welcome.

Classics Book Group. Wednesday the 26th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our classics book group meets to discuss Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoevsky. New members to the group are always welcome.

Edith Mirante discusses her book Down the Rat Hole, 7 p.m., In Other Words, 3734 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Paul Collins. Wednesday the 26th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A typical book about an American founding father doesn't start at a gay piano bar and end in a sewage ditch. But then, Thomas Paine wasn't your typical founding father. In The Trouble with Tom, Paul Collins combines wry, present-day travelogue with an odyssey down the forgotten paths of history.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: Sarah Vowell Benefit Event for Write Around Portland. Wednesday the 26th, 7:30PM First Congregational Church. Join Sarah Vowell for an evening of witty entertainment in a benefit reading and booksigning for Write Around Portland (WRAP). Vowell is probably best known for her monologues and documentaries for public radio's This American Life. She is author of the books Assassination Vacation, Partly Cloudy Patriot, and Radio On. She is also the voice of teenage superhero Violet Parr in the The Incredibles. WRAP provides free creative writing workshops, published anthologies and community readings to those who would otherwise not have access to the power of writing in community. WRAP works with women fleeing domestic violence, incarcerated adults, people suffering from AIDS, those experiencing homelessness and others facing untold obstacles. Please note: this ticketed event takes place at the First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park, downtown Portland. Tickets available at writearound.org or any TicketWest location.

Thursday the 27th

NONFICTION: Buffalo Bill's America by Louis S. Warren. Thursday the 27th, 7:30 PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. The most comprehensive critical biography of William Cody in more than forty years, Buffalo Bill's America is a rich and revealing biography and social history of an American icon that "manages to both entertain and instruct" (Publishers Weekly).

FICTION: Lalia Lalami. The author discusses Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, 7:30 pm, Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway.

NONFICTION: H. W. Brands. Thursday the 27th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The first single-volume, full-length biography of Jackson in decades, Andrew Jackson is a magisterial portrait of one of our greatest leaders that promises to reshape our understanding of both the man and his era.

FICTION: Davy Rothbart of Found magazine. Thursday the 27th, 8:00PM Wonder Ballroom. Davy Rothbart talks about his Found magazine empire and the Do-It-Yourself movement that he champions. Davy will also read a story from his impressive new collection of short fiction, The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas. Joining Davy is his brother, musician Peter Rothbart. This Powell's sponsored event is a benefit for the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Please note: this ticketed event takes place at the Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St. Tickets are $9.95 and available through Ticketmaster or at the IPRC.

Friday the 28th

CREATIVE NONFICTION: Dava Sobel . Friday the 28th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In The Planets, the bestselling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter explores the origins of the planets in our solar system, and studies their oddities through the lens of popular culture, from astrology, mythology, and science fiction to art, music, poetry, biography, and history. (Dava Sobel's reading will include a Powerpoint show.)

Saturday the 29th

Celebration of Chocolate. Saturday the 29th, 11:00AM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. Some folks believe fine chocolate is better than sex. If you would like to test that theory, come to the Celebration of Chocolate hosted by Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners and Pastaworks, featuring tastings and demonstrations with local chocolate makers Pix Patisserie, Bakery Bar, Sahagun Chocolate, and Cherry Country, as well as a 1pm visit with famed San Francisco chocolatier Micheal Recchiuti. In Chocolate Obsession Recchiuti, the "Picasso of chocolatiers," divulges his professional secrets and techniques, allowing home cooks to reproduce his exquisite confections in their own kitchens. With more than sixty recipes in all, this book will satisfy even the most obsessive chocolate lovers among us. All chocolate making books and supplies will be 30% off at this event.

POETRY: Dominic Albanese, Joan Maiers, John Morrison, Joseph A. Soldati, and Leah Stenson read selections from their work, 7 pm, Let’s Do Coffee, 19373 SW Willamette Drive, West Linn; donations benefit Mercy Corps.

FICTION: R. A. Salvatore. Saturday the 29th, 1:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. New York Times bestselling author R. A. Salvatore returns with the long-awaited sequel to Servant of the Shard. Promise of the Witch-King brings together a dark elf and a human assassin in an unlikely journey to the demon-haunted wastelands of the frozen north.

Sunday the 30th

CREATIVE NONFICTION: Al Franken. Sunday the 30th, 7:00PM First Congregational Church. Armed with an arsenal of facts and research (and comedy!), Al Franken is ready to take the fight to the Bush administration and their right-wing cronies. Intelligent, insightful, inspiring, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Truth (with Jokes) is poised to become the most talked about book of the year. Please note: this ticketed event takes place at the First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave., downtown Portland. Purchase a copy of Franken's new book, The Truth (with Jokes) (available October 25), at any Powell's store to get a free ticket to this special event.

Monday the 31st

NONFICTION: General Janis Karpinski. Monday the 31st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In One Woman's Army, General Janis Karpinski forcefully argues that the bulk of the blame for the Abu Ghraib scandal goes to the very top of the chain of command and tells why she has been made a scapegoat. Hers is a story of military leaders run amok, and a moving portrait of a woman who spent her life defying the odds in pursuit of her dream.

November 2005

Tuesday the 1st

Alan Lee's Lord of the Rings Sketchbook. Tuesday the 1st, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. The Oscar-winning conceptual designer for the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy discusses his approach to depicting Tolkien's imaginary world. The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook presents more than 150 of Lee's celebrated illustrations, as well as twenty full-color plates and numerous examples of the conceptual art produced for Peter Jackson's film adaptation. Includes slideshow presentation.

A Left-Hand Turn around the World. Tuesday the 1st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A Left-Hand Turn around the World is a light hearted exploration into the history, psychology, science, and most of all, the culture of left-handedness. Weaving his personal experience with a blend of sharp-eyed reporting and intriguing personalities, David Wolman crafts an entertaining narrative in praise of all things southpaw.

Wednesday the 2nd

Write Time. Wednesday the 2nd, 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.

Chris Kimball. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. "America's Test Kitchen" host Chris Kimball presents The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, a comprehensive cookbook that delivers more than 1,200 foolproof recipes for classic American family fare in a clear, accessible style.
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 7:30 PM, Wlliam Robbins presents Oregon: This Storied Land. Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: Oregon is a landscape of brilliant waterfalls, towering volcanoes, productive river valleys. . .
FICTION: Amy Tan. Wednesday the 2nd, 7:30PM First Baptist Church. In Saving Fish from Drowning, the powerful new novel from the bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club, eleven Americans leave their Floating Island Resort on an ill-fated art expedition into Burma — and disappear. Please note: this free event takes place at the First Baptist Church, at the corners of 12th and Taylor St., downtown Portland. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

Thursday the 3rd

FICTION: GREG BOTTOMS, Thursday, November 3, 8 p.m., Psychology Auditorium, Room 105. Greg Bottoms’s first book, the memoir Angelhead: My Brother’s Descent into Madness, was an Esquire “Book of the Year” in 2000. Sentimental, Heartbroken Rednecks: Stories, which blurs across the genres of memoir, the essay, and fiction, was published in 2001 to wide critical acclaim. His writing has appeared in Esquire, The Oxford American, Salon, Creative Nonfiction, The North American, and elsewhere, and his criticism regularly appears in Bookforum. He is currently completing The Colorful Apocalypse, a travel narrative about his visits and interviews with three Christian fundamentalist Outsider artists in the U.S. An assistant professor of English at the University of Vermont, he now lives in northwestern New England.

Margaret Cho, Thursday the 3rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A survival guide to making it through to 2008 and a hilarious, kick-ass call to arms from "comedy's most fearless superhero" (Entertainment Weekly), I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight chronicles Margaret Cho's adventures and misadventures in political activism and lays out what's right in no uncertain terms. Please note: this free event is limited to the first 250 in attendance. No reserve seating. A booksigning will follow for all interested in attending.

Friday the 4th

NONFICTION: Jung Change and Jon Halliday. Friday the 4th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before, Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang (bestselling author of Wild Swans) and Jon Halliday, is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written.

Saturday the 5th

Saturday, November 5, 2005 6:30 PM, Matt Yurdana presents Public Gestures, Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: Matt Yurdana's first book, Public Gestures, explores the stories, recollections, and half-truths we ...

Monday the 7th

FICTION: Stacey Levine and Matt Briggs. Monday the 7th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Two new novels from Clear Cut Press. Not since Ken Kesey has a long-form literary work subjected the utopian outsider traditions of the west coast to such intimate and clear-eyed scrutiny as Matt Briggs's Shoot the Buffalo. Stacey Levine's Frances Johnson is a comedy of manners in the tradition of Jane Bowles.

FICTION: Monday, November 7, 2005 7:30 PM. Seth Kantner presents Ordinary Wolves, Location: Annie Bloom's Books. Description: In the tradition of Jack London, Seth Kantner presents an Alaska far removed from majestic clichés.
NONFICTION: Rock and Roll Archaeologist. Monday the 7th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Dubbed the "Indiana Jones of Rock 'n' Roll" by Seattle's The Rocket, Peter Blecha's story is a unique celebration of fandom taken to obsessive lengths. From haggling with Courtney Love for Kurt Cobain mementos to helping build the Experience Music Project, Rock and Roll Archaeologist reads like a music lover's dream come true.

Tuesday the 8th

NONFICTION: Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die. Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. Chris Santella's Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die presents the world's greatest golf venues, the personal favorites of renowned players, course architects, and other experts in the sport. With breathtaking color photographs of each site, this gorgeous, full-color book is a great gift for avid golfers and armchair travelers alike.

Science Fiction Book Group. Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our book group meets to discuss Robert Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars. New members to our group are always welcome.

FICTION: Peter Donahue. Tuesday the 8th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. If E. L. Doctorow and Charles Dickens met on the streets of Seattle, they might have written something similar to Peter Donahue's debut novel, Madison House, which chronicles turn-of-the-century Seattle's explosive transformation from frontier outpost to major metropolis.

Wednesday the 9th

NONFICTION: Michael Brophy. Wednesday the 9th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In his extraordinary work, Oregon painter Michael Brophy explores the intersections of history, forest ecology, and the rich tradition of landscape painting. Edited by Rock Hushka, The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy examines Brophy's art, exploring how it reassesses the historical events and decisions that shaped the American West.

Thursday the 10th

Mystery Book Group. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. At this month's book group, author M. J. Zellnik leads us in a discussion of her new book Murder at the Portland Variety.

POETRY: DAVID BIESPIEL, Thursday, November 10, 8 p.m., Psychology Auditorium, Room 105. David Biespiel is the author of the poetry collections Wild Civility and Shattering Air. His work has appeared widely, in journals such as American Poetry Review, Parnassus, Poetry and The New Republic, and in the anthologies The New American Poets and American Poetry: The Next Generation. Biespiel, awarded a Stegner Fellowship in poetry at Stanford and a NEA Fellowship in Literature, has taught at Stanford, the University of Maryland, George Washington University, Portland State and Oregon State University. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is Director and Writer in Residence at The Attic, a literary studio and haven for writers.

Giuliano Hazan. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. From the bestselling author of Every Night Italian comes How to Cook Italian, a new bible of Italian cooking — consistently America's favorite cuisine — for the way we cook today.

FICTION: Steven Erikson. Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Marking the return of many characters from Gardens of the Moon and introducing a host of remarkable new players, Memories of Ice is both a momentous new chapter in Steven Erikson's magnificent epic fantasy and a triumph of storytelling.

FICTION: Daniel Quinn. Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Ishmael author Daniel Quinn returns with seven profound but delightfully simple tales that illuminate the world in which humans became humans. Tales of Adam, superbly illustrated by Michael McCurdy, is a book that will come to be shelved alongside The Prophet, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and The Alchemist.

FICTION: Craig Clevenger and Will Christopher Baer, Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. From Craig Clevenger, the author of The Contortionist's Handbook, comes Dermaphoria, an atmospheric second novel set in the underworld of L.A. Will Christopher Baer's gritty style has been described as "Chuck Palahniuk rewriting Jim Thompson." His collected novels, Phineas Poe: Books I, II, III — are thrillers that "keep readers hooked" (Publishers Weekly).

Friday the 11th

Dan Austin. Friday the 11th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside.
Based on the nationally touring film of the same name, Dan Austin's hilarious and thoughtful True Fans details the journey Dan, his brother Jared, and best friend Clint Ewell started when they hopped aboard their bicycles and headed east from the pickup court at Venice Beach, handlebars pointed toward the NBA Hall of Fame.

Monday the 14th

Matt Skinner. Monday the 14th, 6:30PM Square Deal Wine Company.
A new wine book by the sommelier at Jamie Oliver's London restaurant, Fifteen! Packed with user-friendly information and all the tricks one could ever want, Thirsty Work celebrates wine, all that goes into making it and all who are involved in sharing it. Please note: this free event takes place at Square Deal Wine Company, 2321 NW Thurman St. Complimentary wine-tasting starts at 6:30pm, with Matt's presentation at 7pm.

Mark Crispin Miller. Monday the 14th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne.
In Fooled Again, Mark Crispin Miller exposes the thousands of little frauds that allowed the Republicans to win in 2004. This incendiary new book presents massive documentation that the election was stolen and describes the mind set, among both the major parties and the media, that could permit it to happen again.

How to Survive a Robot Uprising. Monday the 14th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. An inspired and hilarious look at how humans can defeat the inevitable robot rebellion — as revealed by a robotics expert. From treating laser wounds to fooling face and speech recognition, besting robot logic to engaging in hand-to-pincer combat, Daniel Wilson's How to Survive a Robot Uprising covers every possible doomsday scenario facing the newest endangered species: humans.

Tuesday the 15th

COOKING: Jerry Traunfeld. Tuesday the 15th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. The secret to transforming easy dishes into extraordinary meals? Fresh herbs. In The Herbal Kitchen, IACP award-winning cookbook author and acclaimed Herbfarm Restaurant chef Jerry Traunfeld presents simple dishes using herbs straight from the market, windowsill, or garden.

FICTION: David Allan Cates. Tuesday the 15th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. X Out of Wonderland is a farce, modeled after Candide, that takes on the global free market and just about every other aspect of contemporary life. Outrageous and poignant by turns, David Allan Cates's novel is a satire with heart, and an intense and funny reading experience.

Wednesday the 16th

Book Collecting Workshop. Wednesday the 16th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. From neutrons to botanicals, join us for a discussion on the printed world of science and technology as we continue our classes on book collecting. A variety of topics will be discussed, so bring your hypotheses and your questions for a lively experiment in rare book lectures.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005 7:30 PM, Ron Lansing presents Nimrod: Courts, Claims, and Killing on the Oregon Frontier, Location: Annie Bloom'sDescription: At the remarkable age of 65, Nimrod O'Kelly - loner, former blacksmith - made the arduous trek . . .
Write Time Writing Group. Wednesday the 16th, 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.

FICTION: Jonathan Harr. Wednesday the 16th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In The Lost Painting, Jonathan Harr, author of the national bestseller A Civil Action, embarks on a spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ. The fascinating details of the artist Caravaggio's strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages.

Thursday the 17th

Harmon Leon. Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. When the red states trumped the blue states in the 2004 presidential election, many Democrats were left wondering just what makes the conservative mind tick. In Republican Like Me, comedian and journalist Harmon Leon infiltrates a Christian wrestling extravaganza, a machine-gun shoot, an "Arnold for Governor" rally, and more, to find out how the other half lives in ways that are outrageous and hilarious, yet always illuminating.

FICTION: Thursday, November 17, 2005 7:30 PM, David Sarasohn presents Waiting for Lewis and Clark: The Bicentennial and a Changing West, Location: Annie Bloom's. Description: Across thousands of miles, Indian tribes, environmental activists, tourism promoters, and keelboat...
NONFICTION: Wilma Mankiller: Native American Women in the 21st Century, Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. With opening thoughts and stories from Wilma Mankiller, Every Day is a Good Day features nineteen prominent Native American artists, educators, and activists sharing their candid and often profound thoughts on what it means to be a Native American woman in the early 21st century. Ms. Mankiller will preside over a panel including such Native American scholars and writers as Liz Woody, Kathryn Harrison, Janice Gould and more.

Friday the 18th

HISTORICAL FICTION: Michelangelo's Mountain. Friday the 18th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. With vivid writing and characterizations, Eric Scigliano dramatizes Michelangelo's life and times through his obsession with the legendary marble of Carrara and his creation of three incomparable masterpieces: the Pieta, David, and Moses. Michelangelo's Mountain is a "lively blend of art history and travelogue" (Kirkus Reviews). Slideshow presentation.

Saturday the 19th

Christina Baldwin. Saturday the 19th, 3:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. Storycatcher reveals the powerful role stories play in life, and empowers readers to examine their own to bring greater awareness and positive change. Christina Baldwin draws on examples from history and mythology to show how stories change events.

Sunday the 20th

NONFICTION: An Unreasonable Woman. Sunday the 20th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Diane Wilson's An Unreasonable Woman "will stand as one of this nation's greatest works of nonfiction," says Rick Bass. When Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, learns that she lives in the most polluted county in the United States, she launches a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that has been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast. This event is co-sponsored by the Sierra Club Adam Alabarca Speaker Series.

Monday the 21st

NONFICTION: Jack Klugman. Monday the 21st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The close professional relationship between The Odd Couple's Jack Klugman and Tony Randall has long been famous, but the details of their friendship have never been revealed until now. Tony and Me is a touching portrait of a legendary professional relationship that, in the end, became deeply personal.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: Faith Adiele. Monday the 21st, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Faith Adiele's funny and observant memoir, Meeting Faith: An Inward Odyssey presents the wry account of Adiele's journey from Harvard scholarship student to her ordination as northern Thailand's first black Buddhist nun.

Wednesday the 23rd

Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us. Wednesday the 23rd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Looking to add a little bitterness to your holiday season? Then Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us is the book you cannot do without! The event celebrated by Frank Costanza on Seinfeld has transcended television to become a worldwide phenomenon. In this side-splitting romp through the Festivus landscape, author Allen Salkin meets Miss Festivus, tastes Festivus beer, and ponders the Festivus snail, showing how anyone with a little creativity — and a dash of Costanza — can celebrate a Happy Festivus!

Monday the 28th

FICTION: Oregon Writers Colony Presents Jennie Shortridge. Monday the 28th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. Novelist Jennie Shortridge leads a discussion entitled "If I'd Known Then..." at this month's OWC event. Now a two-time novelist with a bestseller and film option under her belt, Jennie Shortridge will share tips and tricks she learned the hard way on the publishing path. OWC Presents happens the fourth Monday of every month at Powell's Books in Beaverton.

Book Collecting Workshop. Monday the 28th, 7:30PM Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Our classes on book collecting continue when Dan Haneckow dons his engineer's cap and takes the reading railroad to Powell's on Hawthorne to give a presentation on collecting train books.

Tuesday the 29th

FICTION: Brom. Tuesday the 29th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In The Plucker, an illustrated novel, world-renowned dark fantasy artist Brom combines dramatic storytelling with his uniquely arresting images to create a work of striking imagination, set in a world where fairy-tale tradition collides with vileness and depravity, love and heroism, suffering and sacrifice.

Wednesday the 30th

Write Time Writing Group. Wednesday the 30th, 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.

COOKING: Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. Wednesday the 30th, 7:00PM Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners. For Mangoes and Curry Leaves, a companion volume to their award-winning cookbook Hot Sour Salty Sweet, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid travel west from Southeast Asia to that vast landmass the colonial British called the Indian subcontinent. It was just twenty years ago that cooks began to understand the relationships between the multifaceted cuisines of the Mediterranean; now we can begin to do the same with the foods of the Subcontinent.

Classics Book Group. Wednesday the 30th, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month our group discusses Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. New members to the group are always welcome.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: J. R. Moehringer. Wednesday the 30th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. J. R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar is a moving, vividly told memoir full of heart, drama, and exquisite comic timing, about a boy striving to become a man, and his romance with a bar. Booklist calls it "Funny, honest, and insightful."

Portland Metro Literary Events Oct. 12 - 31, 2005

2005-10-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Oct. 12

Poetry. Penelope Scambly Schott and Karen Braucher read from their work, 7:30 p.m., Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 N.W. 23rd Ave.

Nonfiction. Craig Lesley reads from his book "Burning Fence," 5:30, Jackson's Books, 320 Liberty St., SE, Salem.

Thursday, Oct. 13

Loggernaut Reading Series: Rick Barot, Matt Love and Vinnie Wilhelm read from their works, 7:30 pm, Gravy, 3927 N. Mississippi Ave., $2.

Nonfiction. Josiah Bunting III discusses his book Ulysses S. Grant, 7:30 pm, Oregon Historical Society, First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave., $35 general, $10 student. 306-5214.

Fiction. The author Ha Jin discusses his book War Trash, 7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St.

Travel Writing. Holly Morris discusses her book Adventure Divas, 7:30 Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Friday, Oct. 14

Nonfiction. Edward B. Burger discusses his book Coincidences, Chaos and All That Math Jazz, 7 pm, Powell's Technical Books, 33 NW Park Ave.

Fiction. Jennifer Vandever discusses her book The Bronte Project, 7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St.

Saturday, Oct. 15

Fiction. Jim Lynch discusses his novel The Highest Tide, 3 pm, Barnes & Noble, Vancouver, 7700 NE Fourth Plain Blvd.

Sunday, Oct. 16

Monday, Oct. 17

Creative Nonfiction. Mary Roach, best-selling author of Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, presents her new book Spook, which looks at views of what happens after we die.

Open Mics. For a list of Metro area open mic venues and monthly reading series, go to the Mountain Writers Series website, www.mountainwriters.org/commcal.html

Tuesday, Oct. 18

Creative Nonfiction. John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, presents his new book, The City of Falling Angels, 7:30 pm, First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th, Portland.

Wednesday, Oct. 19

Fiction. Nina Marie Martinez reads from her novel Caramba!, 7:30 pm at Annie Bloom's Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, Portland.

Nonfiction. Laura M. MacDonald presents her book on naval disaster, Curse of the Narrows, at Powell's in Beaverton, 7:30 pm.

Thursday, Oct. 20

Creative Nonfiction. Judith Barrington presents her work at Clackamas Community College, noon, in Roger Rook 220 (Literary Arts Center), free.

Fiction. Heather Sharfeddin presents Blackbelly, 7:30 pm, at Annie Bloom's Books.

Fiction. Karl Soehnlein, novelist, shares his new book on fathers and sons, You Can Say You Knew Me When, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Hawthorne.

Nonfiction. Simon Winchester, Literary Arts, Inc., purchase tickets through their website.

Fiction. Myla Goldberg discusses her novel Wickett's Remedy, 7:30 pm, at Powell's on Burnside.

Friday, Oct. 21

Poetry. Linda Bolton shares the poetry of Joy Harjo at Clackamas Community College, noon, Roger Rook 220, free.

Fiction. Gregory Maguire, novelist, will share his Son of a Witch, 7:30 pm, First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th, Portland.

Saturday, Oct. 22

Nonfiction. Lennon Revealed, a book on John Lennon by Larry Kane. 7:30 pm, Powell's on Hawthorne.

Sunday, Oct. 23

Fiction. Adam Gopnik shares his fantasy novel for children, the King in the Window, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Burnside.

Monday, Oct. 24

Fiction. Peter Maravelis shares San Francisco Noir, his book of literary fiction, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Hawthorne.

Fiction. First Fiction Fall Tour at XV, 15 SW 2nd Ave, Portland. Three debut novels. Readings begin at 6:30 pm.

Open Mics. For a comprehensive list of open mic venues and monthly reading series in the area, go to the Mountain Writers website, www.mountainwriters.org/commcal.html

Tuesday, Oct. 25

Fiction. Peter Donahue reads from Madison House, 7:30 pm, Annie Bloom's Books.

Nonfiction. Arlene Blum presents Breaking Trail, an account of how she became a master mountain climber, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Burnside. This includes a Powerpoint presentation.

Fiction. Chris Elliott presents The Shroud of the Thwacker, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Hawthorne.

Wednesday, Oct. 26

Nonfiction. William Bryant Logan presents Oak: The Frame of Civilization, 7:30 pm, Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd, Portland.

Fiction. Kevin Sampsell discusses his fiction, 7:00 pm, Clackamas Community College, Roger Rook 220 (the Literary Arts Center), free.

Nonfiction. Paul Collins presents The Trouble with Tom, 7:30, Powell's on Burnside.

Nonfiction. Sarah Vowell Benefit Event for Write Around Portland, First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park, Portland, 7:30 pm.

Thursday, Oct. 27

Fiction. Laila Lalami presents Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, 7:30, Annie Bloom's Books, 7834 SW Capitol, Portland.

Biography. Buffalo Bill's America at Powell's on Hawthorne, 7:30 pm.

Nonfiction. H.W. Brands reads from Andrew Jackson, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Burnside.

Fiction. Davy Rothbart of Found magazine reads from his new collection of short stories, The Lone Surfer of Montana, 8:00 pm, Wonder Ballroom.

Fiction. George Byron Wright reads from his work, 7:30 pm, Twenty-Third Avenue Books, Portland.

Friday, Oct. 28

Nonfiction. Dava Sobel discusses the book The Planets, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Burnside. This reading will include a Powerpoint show.

Saturday, Oct. 29

Fiction. R.A. Salvatore reads from Promise of the Witch-King at Powell's in Beaverton, 1:00 pm.

Sunday, Oct. 30

Nonfiction. Al Franken presents The Truth (with Jokes) at the First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park, Portland. 7:00 pm.

Monday, Oct. 31

Nonfiction. General Janis Karpinski discusses her book One Woman's Army, 7:30 pm, Powell's on Burnside.

Metro Literary Events Sept. 26-Oct. 14

2005-09-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Regional Literary Events: May 8 to May 23, 2005

2005-04-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

May

Sunday, 8th

Paulann Petersen and Maxine Scates. Bird & Hat Inn, 717 N. 3rd Ave., 3-5 p.m., Sunday, May 8.

Monday, 9th

Poetry—I Love Mondays Readings, with genius Dan Raphael hosting three guest poets. Borders Downtown, Portland, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, 10th

Science Fiction Book Group. Tuesday the 10th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we meet to discuss Triplanetary by E. E. "Doc" Smith.

Dan Chaon. Tuesday the 10th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. New in paperback — National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon's eagerly awaited first novel "pulses with the emotional intensity [Chaon's] fans have come to expect" (Christian Science Monitor). Why do we become who we become? Through the intertwined threads of the characters' lives, this is the question explored in You Remind Me of Me, using language that is unflinching and exquisite.

Robin Cody presents Ricochet River, Tuesday, May 10, 2005, 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. Set in a fictional Oregon town in the late 1960s, this superlative coming-of-age novel is the story of Wade, Lorna and Jesse--teenagers preparing to break out of their small-town lives. Wade is the local sports hero. Jesse is his friend, a mythical athlete and the Indian kid who applies his own rules to sports and life. And Lorna is Wade's sweetheart who knows there's no hope in Calamus for a bright, independent girl. The river rushes past the town, linking the three friends with their pasts, their plans and the world beyond. This new edition from the author addresses issues of graphic language and sex that thwarted the book's use in high schools. Set in a fictional Oregon town in the late 1960s, Cody's superlative coming-of-age novel is the story of Wade, Lorna and Jesse--teenagers preparing to break out of their small-town lives. Wade is the local sports hero. Jesse is his friend, a mythical athlete and the Indian kid who applies his own rules to sports and life. And Lorna is Wade's sweetheart who knows there's no hope in Calamus for a bright, independent girl. The river rushes past the town, linking the three friends with their pasts, their plans and the world beyond. This new edition from the author addresses issues of graphic language and sex that thwarted the book's use in high schools.

Wednesday, 11th

Write Time Writing Group. Wednesday the 11th, 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.

Anosh Irani Reading. May 11, 2005, 7:30 PM, Twenty-Third Avenue Books. A funny, absurd, violent and tender journey through Bombay--and the 21st century.

Elinor Langer Reading, May 11, 2005, 7:00 PM, Portland State University, Portland, OR. Sponsored by PSU and Mountain Writers, Inc., this reading features award-winning journalist Langer, writer for publications such as The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, Mother Jones, and The Nation. Langer’s recent work of nonfiction, A Hundred Little Hitlers, was chosen as one of five finalists for the Book of the Month Club’s Best Non-Fiction Book of 2003.

Dan Millman. Wednesday the 11th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Internationally bestselling author Dan Millman returns with The Journeys of Socrates, a page-turning odyssey of the origins of the peaceful warrior Sergei Ivanov. From the heights of love to the depths of despair, from the threat of a mortal enemy to the search for a child he has never met, his odyssey unlocks hidden wisdom at the heart of life.

Jon Turk presents In the Wake of the Jomon, Wednesday, May 11, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. In a story that echoes the classic expedition of Thor Heyerdahl, In the Wake of the Jomon: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage across the Pacific is an anthropological adventure that addresses Stone Age migration, skeletal remains, archaeological mysteries, the eternal battle of man versus nature, and our most profound questions about humanity and the wellspring of the spirit. Launching from the shores of Hokkaido Island, Turk and his partners retrace the perilous journey of these ancient people, a singular quest for insight into the exodus of primitive man from Africa to every corner of the globe.

Thursday, 12th

Lynnell Edwards poetry reading, Thursday, May 12th, noon-1:00, Clackamas Community College, Rook 220 (Literary Arts Center). Edwards will read from her excellent book The Farmer's Daughter: poems (Red Hen Press: Los Angeles, 2003). Free.

C. J. Box. Thursday the 12th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. C. J. Box's new novel, Out of Range, brings back game warden Joe Pickett, in a twisting, action-packed tale of greed, power, and murder. Cast against the harshly beautiful Teton mountains, Out of Range is an exceptional thriller that once again proves C. J. Box is one of the most original and entertaining voices in mystery fiction today.

Garth Stein presents How Evan Broke His Head, Thursday, May 12, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. 31 year old Evan had a hit single a decade ago. He now plays in a band and teaches guys to coax music from electric guitars. Evan has kept his epilepsy secret, as well as the news that he is a father. Now 14 years on, he experiences unplanned parenthood when he undertakes to raise the son he's never known.

Deadly Diversions Book Group. Thursday the 12th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we our mystery book group meets to discuss Open Season by C. J. Box. Box will be present reading from his new novel Out of Range.

Jim Fergus. Thursday the 12th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Jim Fergus's first novel, One Thousand White Women, was a bestseller worldwide. His new novel, The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932, combines all the elements that made One Thousand White Women so beloved: it utilizes good, old-fashioned storytelling full of drama, peril, and romance, and displays incredible knowledge of Apache culture. With prose so vivid that the road dust practically rises off the page, this epic adventure transports readers back in time.

Paul VanDevelder--Coyote Warrior. VanDevelder and Raymond Cross discuss Coyote Warrior, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Portland State University, Native American Students and Community Center, 710 S.W. Jackson Ave. $10.

Laura O. Foster - Portland Hill Walks. Thursday the 12th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Portland Hill Walks is no ordinary guidebook: no restaurant ratings, no rehashed explanations of how the city got its name. Instead, in twenty meandering, view-studded strolls from forested canyons to cityscape peaks, this lively travelogue answers questions you may never have thought to ask about Portland, Oregon. Join Laura O. Foster as she explores the city's streets, stairs, trails, and hidden passageways to discover the stories and spirit of a town rated among the country's most livable places.

Friday, 13th

Gina Ochsner. Friday the 13th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In her eagerly anticipated second collection, Flannery O'Connor Award-winner Gina Ochsner deftly examines the harrowing moments after a life or a love slips away and discovers that the human heart can be large enough for anything. Emotionally resonant and witty, the stories in People I Wanted to Be are rendered with depth and a strong understanding of human forgiveness, as well as an unerring belief in small, daily miracles.

Kuhaku & Other Accounts from Japan. Editor Bruce Rutledge reads selections from his book, 7 p.m., Friday, Reading Frenzy, 921 S.W. Oak St.

Saturday, 14th

Stephanie Barron. The author discusses her books, noon Saturday, Jane Austen Society event, Mallory Hotel, 729 S.W. 15th Ave. Send $17. for reservation to Schwartz, 1511 S.W. Park Ave., Suite 1130, Portland, OR 97201.

Sell Your Books to Powell's -- Warehouse Event. Saturday the 14th, 09:00AM, Powell's Warehouse in Industrial NW. Sell your used books to Powell's at our special warehouse event! For two days only, Powell's is opening our warehouse to buy your books. We buy books every day at our area stores, but we're making it easy for you to unload your boxes, and bookcases, at our convenient warehouse location: 2720 NW 29th (down from Montgomery Park) in the NW Industrial area from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free parking and easy access.

Sunday, 15th

Sell Your Books to Powell's -- Warehouse Event. Sunday the 15th, 09:00AM, Powell's Warehouse in Industrial NW. Sell your used books to Powell's at our special warehouse event! For two days only, Powell's is opening our warehouse to buy your books. We buy books every day at our area stores, but we're making it easy for you to unload your boxes, and bookcases, at our convenient warehouse location: 2720 NW 29th (down from Montgomery Park) in the NW Industrial area from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free parking and easy access.

Barry Yourgrau. Sunday the 15th, 3:00PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Writer/performer Barry Yourgrau has been making young people laugh their heads off — or gasp in astonishment — with such books as Wearing Dad's Head. With NASTYbook, Yourgrau sets out to prove that nice is overrated, in forty-three stories that feature such characters as guardian angels who run away from their charges, witches who use the Internet to stalk their victims, and pandas who work as assassins. "The perfect book for the budding Count Olaf or Sauron in your family...or for you," proclaims Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline.

Monday, 16th

Poets Respond to Shakespeare. Monday the 16th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Showcasing poems by more than ninety contemporary American poets, In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare reveals what Shakespeare's poetic children have made of their inheritance. Editors David Starkey and Paul Willis set out to corroborate Ben Jonson's assertion that Shakespeare is "not of an age, but for all time." Those who cherish Shakespeare's mercurial wit will delight in the rapid shifts, from grief to hilarity, so characteristic of the bard himself.

Amitav Ghosh. Monday the 16th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Internationally bestselling author Amitav Ghosh (The Glass Palace) offers a contemporary story of adventure and romance, identity and history. The Hungry Tide brings two outsiders deep into one of the most fascinating regions on Earth — tiny islands known as the Sundarbans off the coast of India — where the treacherous forces of nature and human folly threaten to destroy a way of life.

Tuesday, 17th

Chuck Palahniuk. Tuesday the 17th, 7:30PM, First Unitarian Church. From the acclaimed bestselling author of Fight Club and Lullaby comes twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales readers will ever encounter, told by people who have answered an ad for a writers' retreat — "Abandon Your Life for Three Months" — unaware they're headed to a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world. Appallingly entertaining, Haunted is Chuck Palahniuk at his finest — which means his most extreme and his most provocative. This free event takes place at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th St., downtown Portland. Seating is limited to first come, first served.

Wednesday, 18th

John Vaillant - The Golden Spruce. Wednesday the 18th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. As vividly as Jon Krakauer put readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest, where trees grow to eighteen feet in diameter, sunlight never touches the ground, and the chainsaws are always at work. In The Golden Spruce, Vaillant recounts the bloody history of the Haida (a fierce seafaring tribe based in the Queen Charlottes) and the early fur trade, and provides harrowing details of the logging industry, whose omnivorous violence would claim both logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin and a unique Sitka spruce, 165 feet tall and covered with luminous golden needles.

Gary Snyder and Jerry Franklin. May 18, 7 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland. Legendary poet Gary Snyder and forest ecologist Jerry Franklin, will be speaking together on "Destruction and Renewal: Lessons from Mount St. Tickets for this lecture were quickly sold out, so the show has been moved to the Schnitzer, a larger venue. But the additional tickets won't last long. If you wish to hear these two renowned Northwest speakers, you may reserve tickets at the Illahee website http://www.illahee.org/lectures, or call them at 503 222-2719.

Thursday, 19th

Andy Mingo and Lydia Yuknavitch. Fiction reading by Yuknavitch and screening of Mingo’s indie film Bravo America, Thursday, May 19, noon-1:00, in the Gregory Forum, Clackamas Community College. Free.

Donald Hall. Thursday the 19th, 1:00PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Donald Hall's celebrated book of poems Without was written for his wife, Jane Kenyon, who died in 1995. Hall returns to this powerful territory in The Best Day the Worst Day, a work of prose that is equally "a work of art, love, and generous genius" (Boston Globe). Jane Kenyon was nineteen years younger than Donald Hall and a student poet at the University of Michigan when they met. Hall was her teacher. The Best Day the Worst Day is an intimate record of their twenty-three-year marriage that stands alongside Elegy for Iris as a powerful testimony to both loss and love. This afternoon reading and reception takes place at 1 pm.

Stop the Next War Now. Thursday the 19th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Over seventy of the world's most visionary thinkers and activists — including Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues), Naomi Klein (No Logo), and radio host Amy Goodman — have contributed to a new book aimed at uniting a global peace movement to stop the next war. Edited by CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, Stop the Next War Now offers a crucial and timely response to an ever increasing threat of war and violence, and provides the tools to rally the millions around the world who oppose the war in Iraq into action.

Daniel Alarcón - War by Candlelight. Thursday the 19th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In this exquisite collection, Daniel Alarcón takes the reader from Third World urban centers to the fault lines that divide nations and people. War by Candlelight is a devastating portrait of a world in flux, and Alarcón is an extraordinary new voice in literary fiction, one you will not soon forget. "A rare combination of technical accomplishment and generous heart." — Kirkus Reviews.

Friday, 20th

Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar Reading, Friday, May 20, 7:00 PM, Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA. Laux is the author of three collections of poetry, including the most recent Smoke (BOA Editions). Her fourth volume of poems, Facts about the Moon, is forthcoming from Norton in fall 2005. Millar is the author of Overtime (Eastern Washington University Press, 2001) and has published widely in periodicals such as Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Shenendoah, TriQuarterly, Manoa, New Letters, and DoubleTake.

Robert MacIver - Rules for Old Men Waiting. Friday the 20th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A brief, lyrical novel with a powerful emotional charge, Rules for Old Men Waiting is about three wars of the twentieth century and an ever-deepening marriage. Robert MacIver, a historian who long ago played rugby for Scotland, creates a list of rules by which to live out his last days. The most important rule — to "tell a story to its end" — spurs the old Scot to invent a strange and gripping tale of men in the trenches of the First World War. Frank McCourt calls Peter Pouncey's debut novel "[a] deeply sensual, moving, thrilling novel that calls for a second and third reading — it is that rich."

Saturday, 21st

Sunday, 22nd

Monday, 23rd

Oregon Writers Colony Presents Barbara Verchot and Kristy Athens. Monday the 23rd, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Literary Arts is a statewide, nonprofit arts organization dedicated to promoting the importance of language as a means to express, explore, and experience the world in which we live. Barbara Verchot, Literary Arts marketing director, and Kristy Athens will describe the six programs of Literary Arts — the Oregon Book Awards, Oregon Literary Fellowships, Poetry Downtown, Poetry In Motion, Portland Arts & Lectures, and Writers in the Schools — and answer questions about the Oregon Book Awards and Oregon Literary Fellowships programs.

Eric Bogosian. Monday the 23rd, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Performance artist and playwright Eric Bogosian follows his acclaimed first novel, Mall, with a powerful and emotionally wrenching tale of two lovers who form a mesmerizing and destructive bond while trying to evade the looming failure of their respective lives. Wasted Beauty is Bogosian's enthralling journey through the high life of drugs and fashion celebrity, middle-class guilt, and sexual obsession.

Nicole Krauss - The History of Love. Monday the 23rd, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. The author of Man Walks into a Room, Nicole Krauss, returns with a haunting novel brimming with laughter, irony, passion, and soaring imaginative power. With Krauss's consummate and spellbinding skill, The History of Love gradually draws together the stories of an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.

Metro Literary Events--March 28 to April 24, 2005

2005-03-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

March

Monday, 28th

Oregon Writers Colony: Cara Black. Monday the 28th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Cara Black, author of five murder mysteries set in Paris, continues the Oregon Writers Colony Presents series by leading a discussion on how research can lead to compelling settings. Black's new novel is Murder in Clichy.

Richard Greenfield and Joshua Corey, poetry reading. The authors read selections from their work, 7:30, Monday, Portland State University. Smith Memorial Center, Room 236, 724 S.W. Harrison St.

Stanley Crawford—reading from Petroleum Man. Monday the 28th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Stanley Crawford's first novel since Some Instructions to My Wife, Petroleum Man is a hilarious and scathing satire that takes on both sides of some of the raging debates of our times — between Democrats and Republicans, haves and have-nots, trickle-down conservatives and bleeding-heart liberals, environmentalists and industrialists. This relentlessly comic and insightful novel takes Swiftian delight in exposing the vanity and frailty of the most popularly held prejudices of our times.

Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man. Monday the 28th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. There are those of us whose idea of the ultimate physical challenge is the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon. And then there is Dean Karnazes. Karnazes has run 226.2 miles nonstop; he has completed the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon across Death Valley National Park — considered the world's toughest footrace — in 130-degree weather; and he is the only person to complete a marathon to the South Pole in running shoes. Ultramarathon Man is Dean Karnazes's story: the mind-boggling adventures of his amazing treks. With an insight and candor rarely seen in sports memoirs, he reveals how he merges the solitary, manic, self-absorbed life of hard-core ultrarunning with a full-time job, a wife, and two children.

Tuesday, 29th

W.S. Merwin—Poetry Downtown. The bard reads selections from his work, 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Widen-Kennedy Atrium, 224 N.W. 13th Ave. Tickets: $18, $12 seniors and college, $5 high school. 503-227-2583.

Phillip Margolin. Tuesday the 29th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Phillip Margolin, bestselling author of Sleeping Beauty, Wild Justice, and Ties That Bind, returns with Lost Lake, an explosive thriller about how a young tabloid reporter's "paranoid" theories about a military cover-up involving a presidential hopeful just might be true. Margolin is a longtime criminal defense attorney who lives in Portland.

Pamela Sackett reads from her book Saving the World Solo, 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, Looking Glass Bookstore, 318 S.W. Taylor St.

Wednesday, 30th

Classics Book Discussion Group. Wednesday the 30th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we discuss Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers. New members are always welcome to join.

William Dietrich, The Scourge of God, Wednesday, March 30, 2005 7:30 PM, Twenty-Third Avenue Books. After decades of assault by barbarian tribes, Rome is weakening and in danger of being overrun. By a.d. 449, Attila, ruler of the Huns, has become Europe's most powerful monarch, his ferocity earning him the title "the Scourge of God." Now he is poised to assault the West. It begins with an illicit affair. Honoria, sister of Valentinian III, emperor of the Western Roman Empire, creates a scandal when she is discovered in bed with her steward. Imprisoned for her indiscretion, Honoria sees the instrument of her deliverance in the form of the most feared warrior in the known world -- Attila. Desperate, she dispatches a messenger to the leader of the Huns, asking for his aid. Taking the entreaty as a marriage proposal, Attila begins to mass his forces to claim the half of the Roman Empire he feels should be his dowry, thus setting in motion the engines of war. To save the empire and Ilana, Jonas must bring warning and an ancient sword to prepare Rome for the biggest battle in history, in which two vast armies will clash to determine the future of Western civilization.

The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine. Wednesday the 30th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. For nearly a century, Kellogg, Idaho, was home to America's richest silver mine, Sunshine Mine. On May 2, 1972, 174 miners entered the mine. The men and the company swore the mine was unburnable; unlike dangerously combustible coal mines, Sunshine was a fireproof hardrock mine, nothing but cold, dripping wet stone. That day, less than half of the dayshift would return to the surface when fire broke out. The others were trapped underground, too deep in the mine to escape. Scores of miners died. In The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine, Gregg Olsen looks at the intensely suspenseful story of the fire and rescue. A vivid and haunting chapter in the history of working-class America, this is one of the great rescue stories of the twentieth century.

Jane Holtz Kay. The author discusses her forthcoming book Last Chance Landscape, 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, First Congregational Church, 1126 S.W. Park Ave. Tickets: www.illahee.org or 503-222-2719. $15.

William Ferrell, Robert Davies, and Barbara LaMorticella read selections of their poetry, 7 p.m., Wednesday, Northwest Library, 2300 N.W. Thurman St.

Thursday, 31st

Tara Harper. Thursday the 31st, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Raised on a foreign world where telepathic wolves hunt in the mountains and mysterious aliens guard against the encroachment of humanity, Nori has grown up scouting in the wilderness. Like her mother before her, she searches for dangers that could devastate the isolated towns scattered across the countryside. But the wolves have already encountered those forces. Now, disturbed by the sense of death, they reach out to one who can help them. Tara Harper, author of Silver Moons, Black Steel, and Wolf's Bane, presents Wolf in Night, the first of a new Wolfwalker series.
Ellen Sussman presents On a Night like This,Thursday, March 31, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. In Sussman's heart-wrenching debut, two former high school classmates take a second chance at love, despite one partner's terminal cancer. Resisting the impulse to descend into bathos, Sussman shows remarkable restraint in her depiction of a love affair that transforms a dying woman's last days into a celebration of life. When Luke Bellingham, an acclaimed screenwriter in his 40s, agrees to become "Finder of Lost Souls" for his 25th high school reunion, the only lost classmate he really wants to find is the enigmatic Blair Clemens, whose gang rape at 17 inspired his Oscar-winning screenplay, Pescadero. Suffering from writer's block and his wife's sudden desertion, Luke is thrilled to discover that Blair lives near him in San Francisco. Bohemian Blair is now a single mom as well as chef of a chic restaurant, but beginning a relationship is definitely not on her agenda when she agrees to reconnect with Luke after first meeting his cute dog, Sweetpea. All she wants to do is work, have no-strings sex with her ever-randy ex-hippie landlord and enjoy what's left of her life with her teenage daughter, Amanda.

April (National Poetry Month)

Friday, 1st

Poetry in Motion. Friday the 1st, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Literary Arts kicks off National Poetry Month with a reading of works from the Poetry in Motion program. The celebration will include the unveiling of this year's poetry selections and a reading by authors whose work will be displayed on TriMet buses and trains in Portland.

Barbara Bond signs copies of her book 75 Scrambles in Oregon, 5:30 p.m., Friday, Mazamas, 909 N.W. 19th Ave.

Terry Bain discusses his book You Are a Dog, 7 p.m., Friday, Borders Books & Music. 708 SW Third Ave.

Saturday, 2nd

Amy Goodman. Saturday the 2nd, 1:00PM, Bagdad Theater. The acclaimed host of Pacifica Network's Democracy Now! challenges the corporate and political hypocrisy that has silenced America. Written with her brother, David, Amy Goodman's The Exception to the Rulers chronicles the tireless efforts of an unembedded journalist and her colleagues to get to the truth and expose the lies, corruption, and crimes of the power elite. Goodman offers her no-holds-barred perspective on world events and the hidden motives behind those in power. ("This book puts the pedal to the metal of all the lies we're told, day in and day out." —Michael Moore) Please note: This free event takes place at the Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Sunday, 3rd

William Benedetto presents Sailing into the Abyss, Sunday, April 3, 2005 1:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. Sailing into the Abyss: A True Story Of Extreme Heroism on the High Seas is a thoroughly gripping story of disaster at sea, revealing aspects of modern seafaring not always brought to light. The WWII freighter Badger State was bound for Vietnam in December 1969 with 5,000 tons of bombs in her hold. Heavy weather and faulty cargo stowage by the Bangor Munitions Depot caused bombs to start breaking loose-first one, then many, including the 2,000 pounders. Capt. Charles Wilson and a crew inspired by his leadership worked heroically but unsuccessfully to fight the weather and their own cargo. Most of the casualties came when a loose bomb overturned an already-launched lifeboat, throwing most of the crew into 48-degree water. The 14 survivors (out of 40 crewmembers) owed their lives to the presence of the Greek freighter Khian Star and her Captain Nikos. Benedetto, an attorney and former shipping commissioner, interviewed survivors and combed news reports and court documents to construct this compelling account.

Monday, 4th

Nancy Zafris. Monday the 4th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Just as she did in her notable debut novel, The Metal Shredders, Flannery O'Connor Award-winner Nancy Zafris follows a colorful cast of characters into uncharted fictional territory, this time landing in the canyon country of the desert Southwest in 1954. By turns meditative and funny, frightening, witty, and refreshingly wise, Lucky Strike explores the ways that language, simply put, can mine the inexpressible, in a story that will touch your heart.

Elizabeth George. Monday the 4th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In With No One as Witness, Elizabeth George has crafted an intricate, meticulously researched, and absorbing story sure to enthrall her readers. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley; his longtime partner, the fiery Barbara Havers; and newly promoted Detective Sergeant Winston Nkata are on the hunt for a sinister psychopath who refuses to be stopped. In its starred review, Booklist called With No One as Witness "a riveting installment in a superb series."

Tuesday, 5th

Angry Black White Boy. Tuesday the 5th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Adam Mansbach's second novel, Angry Black White Boy, is an incendiary and ruthlessly funny satire that just may be the first great race novel of the twenty-first century. A wildly creative and darkly comic meditation on the meaning of identity — racial and otherwise — Angry Black White Boy is a stunning breakout book from a writer whose edgy sense of humor, keen ear for contemporary language, and skewed take on American pop culture will appeal to readers of Colson Whitehead, Chuck Palahniuk, and Jonathan Lethem.

Lost on Purpose fiction reading. April 5, 7pm, at In Other Words, Women's Books and Resources, 3734 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214, 503-232-6003, www.inotherwords.org. Lost on Purpose is a vibrant new collection of short fiction by young women whose characters are captivated by an urban experience. Readers will be taken on a global journey, encountering tales of the virtual connections between disparate Londoners, the painful magic of first love in a squatter's Beijing, and the tender border that keeps San Diego from Mexico, separating a life lived from what's to come. The voices in Lost on Purpose represent those of metropolitan women and the cities in which they live, which are not only the backdrop, but often central characters. This reading features Portland's own, Ariel Gore, editor, Amy Prior and Janice Harper.

Maxine Scates and Lisa M. Steinman, April 5, 7 p.m., Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, Portland will be with us on this evening to read from their recently published work. Maxine is the author of Black Loam (Cherry Grove Collections). Her poems have appeared in many journals, including American Poetry Review, Antioch Review, North American Review, The Women's Review of Books, and ZYZZYVA. She is the winner of an Oregon Book Award for her previous book, Toluca Street. She currently lives in Eugene where she teaches privately. Lisa, whose fifth volume of poetry, Carslaw's Sequences (University of Tampa Press), was a finalist for last year's Oregon Book Award, teaches at Reed College and co-edits Hubbub, the poetry magazine. She is the recipient of NEA, OAC, and Rockefeller fellowships and her work has also been published in The Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, Notre Dame Review, and elsewhere.

Lance Olsen Reading. Clackamas Community College, Literary Arts Center (Rook 220), noon to 1:00. Free. Olsen is the author of six novels, four critical studies, four short-story collections, a poetry chapbook, and a textbook about fiction writing. He is the editor of two collations of essays about innovative contemporary fiction. His work has been published widely in places such as Fiction International, Iowa Review, Village Voice, BOMB, Gulf Coast, and many other periodicals. He also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at Fiction Collective Two, one of America’s best-known ongoing literary experiments and progressive art communities.

Wednesday, 6th

Gert Boyle. Wednesday the 6th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. When a heart attack claimed Gert Boyle's husband in 1970, the forty-six-year-old housewife and mother of three found herself at the helm of Columbia Sportswear, a small and financially struggling outerwear manufacturer in Portland, Oregon. Though many expected Boyle to fail, she and her son Tim persevered; today the company has more than two thousand employees, annual sales approaching one billion dollars, and is the leading seller of skiwear in the United States. In One Tough Mother, Boyle presents an honest, open, and often irreverent account of her truly remarkable journey from a childhood in Nazi Germany to fame and fortune in America. Boyle will be interviewed onstage by her co-author, Kerry Tymchuk.

Thursday, 7th

Collaborative Reading: music of David Mount and poems by James Grabill, Clackamas Community College, Roger Rook Hall 220 (Literary Arts Center), noon to 1:00. Mount will play fretless banjo, guitar, mountain fiddle, and other instruments while Grabill reads collaboratively from his work (recent books: An Indigo Scent after the Rain and October Wind). Free.

First Thursday. Thursday the 7th, 7:00PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. From inspiration to sketch to mockup to finished art to film to final poster, the process of creating and producing the concert poster will be examined through its various stages. The legendary artist Mike King and his co-hort Guy Burwell headline the collection of designers. There will be a panel discussion following the artist's reception during which cubed-cheese will be served.

A Blistered Kind of Love. Thursday the 7th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Which came first — falling in love with each other, or falling in love with the idea of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (2,655 miles from Mexico to the Canadian border)? They're not sure, but Angela and Duffy Ballard planned the adventure of a lifetime. Winner of the 2003 Barbara Savage "Miles from Nowhere Award," A Blistered Kind of Love blends humor, romance, and adventure with regional lore written in an engaging "he said/she said" style.

Friday, 8th

Jefferson's Western Explorations. Friday the 8th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Thomas Jefferson's Message serves as a cornerstone in the foundation of the early "information age" in America. The rare Natchez reprint is being reissued in a finely crafted volume with folding maps, appendices, and an introduction by editors Doug Erickson, Jeremy Skinner, and Paul Merchant, co-bilbiographers of The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Laura E. J. Moran. April 8, 2005, 7 pm, In Other Words, Women's Books and Resources, 3734 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214, 503-232-6003, http://www.inotherwords.org/. Laura Moran, award winning performance artist, is a rarity. Her intense stage performance is imagistic, writerly, compressed and modulated. Her CD, Live Bait, is the perfect vehicle for her voice carrying loon, hawk, Kali, Penelope, Leda straight to your heart. Proceeds from CD sales benefit IOW.

Saturday, 9th

Sunday, 10th

Jodi Picoult presents Vanishing Acts, Sunday, April 10, 2005 5:00 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. Following the phenomenal success of My Sister's Keeper and Second Glance, beloved bestselling author Jodi Picoult is back with another page-turning novel that explores what happens when a past we have been running from catches up with us--and what happens when the memory we thought had vanished returns as a threat.

Amy Minato and Ce Rosenow to Read at Art Gone Wild Gallery on Sunday, April 10. The Second Sundays Series of Poetry Readings will celebrate its third anniversary at Art Gone Wild Gallery with a reading and book-signing by poets Amy Minato and Ce Rosenow on Sunday, April 10th. The reading will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. in the gallery, 279 N. 3rd Ave., Stayton. Admission will be free; donations are appreciated. Audience members are invited to bring one or two poems to share during an open portion of the reading.

Monday, 11th

The Crystal Desert. Monday the 11th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica is the story of life's tenacity on the coldest of Earth's continents. It tells of the explorers who discovered Antarctica, of the whalers and sealers who despoiled it, and of the scientists who are deciphering its mysteries. In beautiful, lucid prose, biology professor David G. Campbell presents a fascinating portrait of the evolution of life in Antarctica and also of the evolution of the continent itself.

Ed Conlon. Monday the 11th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Blue Blood is a bona fide literary masterpiece, an important book about what it means to protect, to serve, and to defend among the ranks of New York's finest. Based on his "Cop Diary" pieces published in the New Yorker, NYPD detective Edward Conlon gives us a firsthand tour of the life of a New York City police officer, from the ground level. "There is a long and colorful history of New York police books," writes the Chicago Tribune, "but this is the Moby Dick of them all."

Tuesday, 12th

Science Fiction Book Group. Tuesday the 12th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we discuss Autumn Castle by Kim Wilkins. New members are always welcome to join our group.

Philip Beard. Tuesday the 12th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Not since The Lovely Bones has there been a study of grief, adolescence, and healing that rings as true as Dear Zoe. Philip Beard's stunning debut is an epistolary novel written from fifteen-year-old Tess DeNunzio to her little sister, Zoe, who died on September 11, 2001. Already acutely aware of her odd place in a home where her mother and stepfather now have children of their own, Tess begins her letter as a means of figuring out her own life — from her two-hour-a-day hair and make-up ritual to her complicity in Zoe's death.

Financial writer Paul Petillo, April 12, 7 p.m., Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, Portland. Petillo, a Sullivan's Gulch neighbor, will give a presentation of his new book, Building Wealth in a Paycheck to Paycheck World (McGraw-Hill). Petillo is Managing Editor of BlueCollarDollar.com and its sister website blue-money.com. Both of these sites offer down-to-earth advice for average-income people regarding all matters of personal finance, including taxes, investing, retirement planning, insurance and more. He appears regularly on AM Northwest to discuss financial issues. We encourage you to bring your money questions to this presentation.

Wednesday, 13th

Up & Coming Queer Writers. Wednesday the 13th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Tennessee Jones's Deliver Me from Nowhere is a collection of short stories based on Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska ("[A]s big, bleak, and beautiful as the American landscape" —Michelle Tea, author of Valencia). A fantastical coming-of-age story, Charlie Anders's Choir Boy combines off-kilter humor and its own brand of modern-day magic in a rollicking, bittersweet story about growing up different ("[D]aring, strange, emotionally complex, and completely engrossing" —Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin). Carolyn Connelly is a New York City-based performance poet and sex educator who writes the 'zine A Brooklyn Diary and was the keynote speaker at this year's Transfeminism Conference.

Thursday, 14th

Deadly Diversions Book Group. Thursday the 14th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we discuss Sympathy for the Devil by Jerrilyn Farmer.

Andrea Peters Reading, Thursday, April 14, 2005, 7:30 PM, Twenty-Third Avenue Books. If someone offered you the deal of a lifetime in exchange for going on a two week adventure--would you take it? In Peters’s book Four Crows, when five strangers are chosen to become contestants on a hot new reality show they are promised the fulfillment of their wildest dreams in exchange for going on a once in a lifetime adventure. Little do they realize that they are about to become pawns in a deadly game of high stakes manipulation. Andrew, a successful businessman, Kristen, an artist, Sarah, a focused student, Ralph, a family man and John a hedonist begin their quest in an unknown country. Without any supplies or help they discover that the game is deadly, their rivals are ruthless, and their very humanity will be tested beyond what they could have ever imagined. As their lives unravel, the mysterious meaning of the four crows and the depths of the machinations of their tormentor, The DreamMaker, become readily apparent and each individual must determine what price he is willing to pay to survive and at what cost to the others. Some will not be returning home.

The Ethics of Gay Rights. Thursday the 14th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Engaging the whole spectrum of public-policy issues affecting gays and lesbians from a humanistic and philosophical approach, Professor of Philosophy Richard Mohr uses the tools of his trade to assess the logic and ethics of gay rights. In The Long Arc of Justice, Mohr forcefully counters moralistic and religious arguments regularly invoked to keep gay men and women from achieving the same rights as heterosexuals. By drawing on cultural-, legal-, and ethical-based arguments, Mohr moves away from tired political rhetoric and reveals the important ways in which the struggle for gay rights and acceptance relates to mainstream American society, history, and political life.

Jim Wallis. Thursday the 14th, 7:30PM First Baptist Church. Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside? God's Politics offers a clarion call to make both our religious communities and our government pro-justice, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-equality, pro-consistent ethic of life (beyond single-issue voting), and pro-family (without making scapegoats of single mothers or gays and lesbians). Jim Wallis inspires us to hold our political leaders and policies accountable by integrating our deepest moral convictions into our nation's public life. Please note: This free event takes place at the First Baptist Church, corners of 12th and Taylor St., downtown Portland.

Jeffrey Goldsmith of Caffeine Society, Café Haiku Slams, La Palabra Café-Press, 2921 NE Alberta, Portland, Thursday, April 14th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Free event. What can you say in 17 syllables? Find out by joining Caffeine Society for an evening of haiku improvised by you and all who turn out. Make yours funny or sad, fiction or truth, it's all very good. Do check out the book, Cafe Haiku, at http://webmail.highstream.net/mail/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2FCaffeineSociety.com&Mail=8e1623dcf9722975e46721cf8210cdef. Jeffrey Goldsmith, publisher at San Francisco-based Caffeine Society, will introduce the events, read a haiku or two from the book, Cafe Haiku, and then all comers are welcome.

Friday, 15th

Ruth Reichl. Friday the 15th, 7:30PM, First Baptist Church. When she became the food critic for the New York Times, Ruth Reichl's picture went up in every four-star, low-star, and no-star kitchen in New York. What's a critic in search of the truth to do? Lie, of course. Donning a variety of wigs and personas, Reichl became a master of disguise, resulting in her famous double review of Le Cirque, first as she ate there (and was ignored and condescended to) as Molly Hollis, and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, the critic. Complete with recipes and her original Times reviews, Garlic and Sapphires is another sumptuous feast from the bestselling author of Comfort Me with Apples. Please note: This free event takes place at the First Baptist Church, corners of 12th and Taylor St., downtown Portland.

Saturday, 16th

Greg Kroah-Hartman. Saturday the 16th, 1:00PM, Powell's Technical Books. Device drivers literally drive everything you're interested in — disks, monitors, keyboards, modems — everything outside the computer chip and memory. And writing device drivers is one of the few areas of programming for the Linux operating system that calls for unique, Linux-specific knowledge. For years now, programmers have relied on the classic Linux Device Drivers, now in its third edition, to master this critical subject. Co-author Greg Kroah-Hartman has been writing Linux kernel drivers since 1999, is a contributing editor to Linux Journal magazine, and works for IBM's Linux Technology Center.

Sunday, 17th

Bishop John Selby Spong. Sunday the 17th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In the history of the Western World, the Bible has been a perpetual source of inspiration and guidance for Christians — but it has also left a trail of pain. In The Sins of Scripture, Bishop John Shelby Spong boldly approaches texts that have been used through history to justify the denigration or persecution of others while carrying with them the claim that they were the "Word of God." Spong looks specifically at texts used to justify homophobia, anti-Semitism, treating women as second-class humans, corporal punishment, and environmental degradation, but he also delivers a new picture of how Christians can use the Bible today.

Monday, 18th

Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Monday the 18th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Internationally beloved author and teacher Oriah Mountain Dreamer is known for challenging readers to live with passion and honesty. Following in the footsteps of Writing Down the Bones and The Artist's Way, What We Ache For uses practical and proven techniques that will inspire readers to fully embrace their artistic selves as a way of forging a new spiritual path. A moving and eloquent call to delve deeply into our creative selves, to do our creative work, and offer it to the world, What We Ache For encourages readers to capture their creative yearnings, whatever their medium.

Greil Marcus, Monday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Northwest College of Art - 1241 NW Johnson. Greil Marcus is one of the preeminent pop-culture critics of our time, a writer whose works find common threads between rock music, history, politics and contemporary society. Marcus will talk about his new book, Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan at the Crossroads (April 2005). Jonathan Lethem writes, "Marcus has placed Dylan deep in his American context, the same swamp of indigenous voices that gave rise to alchemists like Walt Whitman, John Ford, and Chuck Berry."

Ridley Pearson. Monday the 18th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In the most harrowing and deeply emotional thriller to date from bestselling author Ridley Pearson, a U.S. federal marshal finds himself pitted against the mob's most resourceful killer, in a race to save the woman he loves. Taut and edge-of-your-seat compelling, Cut and Run is a unique thriller that skillfully blends romance and suspense — Ridley Pearson at his heart-pounding best.

Tuesday, 19th

Wordstock Festival, Oregon Convention Center, over 200 writers on 11 stages. Official website with complete schedule: http://www.wordstockfestival.com/.

Jess Walter. Tuesday the 19th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. From the acclaimed crime novelist and author of Over Tumbled Graves and Land of the Blind comes a story of witness protection, petty thievery, local politics, and murder — set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1980 presidential election. Jess Walter is swiftly making a name for himself as a writer of extraordinarily literate thrillers, combining an uncanny eye for character and action with a keen feel for the moody atmosphere of Spokane, Washington — a once-thriving small city long on the wane — and Citizen Vince will only enhance that reputation. "It's been a long time since I've read a book as compulsively, indeed greedily, as I read Citizen Vince," proclaims Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls.

William T. Vollmann. Tuesday the 19th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In his magnificent new work of fiction, William T. Vollmann turns his trenchant eye to the warring authoritarian cultures of Germany and the USSR in the twentieth century. Comparing and contrasting the moral decisions made by various figures of this period — some famous, some infamous, some unknown — Europe Central is another high-wire act of fiction by a writer of prodigious talent. ("[T]his startling fever dream is another accomplishment from one of the world's maddest, most commanding and necessary writers." —Kirkus Reviews).

Celebrating Jewish Women Writers, Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, Tuesday April 19th, 7pm. This will be our 9th annual celebration. This year's readers are: Jonathan Arlook, Jackie Dingfelder, David Greenberg, Craig Lesley, Paulann Petersen, Emily Powell, Debby Rankin, Anna Rockhill, and Mike Zusman. Writers whose work will be read this year include Grace Paley, Natalia Ginzburg and Nadine Gordimer.

Wednesday, 20th

Wordstock Festival, Oregon Convention Center, over 200 writers on 11 stages. Official website with complete schedule: http://www.wordstockfestival.com/.

Camille Paglia. Wednesday the 20th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. America's premier intellectual provocateur and cultural critic celebrates what she deems to be the great poems of Western tradition. In Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems, the always-controversial Paglia brings her thirty-four years of teaching experience to bear on fourty-three poems by twenty-eight poets, from Shakespeare and Donne to Langston Hughes and Sylvia Plath, to the song lyrics of Joni Mitchell. Paglia's sometimes surprising choices amount to a mini-canon of Western poetry over 400 years and will entice readers to begin or renew a passionate engagement with poetry.

Laurie Notaro presents We Thought You Would Be Prettier, Wednesday, April 20, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. She thought she’d have more time. Laurie Notaro figured she had at least a few good years left. But no–it’s happened. She has officially lost her marbles. From the kid at the pet-food store checkout line whose coif is so bizarre it makes her seethe “I’m going to kick his hair’s ass!” to the hapless Sears customer-service rep on the receiving end of her Campaign of Terror, no one is safe from Laurie’s wrath. Her cranky side seems to have eaten the rest of her–inner-thigh Chub Rub and all. And the results are breathtaking. Her riffs on e-mail spam, eBay (“There should be an eBay wading pool, where you can only bid on Precious Moments figurines and Avon products, that you have to make it through before jumping into the deep end”), and the perils of St. Patrick’s Day (“When I’m driving, the last thing I need is a herd of inebriates darting in and out of traffic like loaded chickens”) are the stuff of legend. And for Laurie, it’s all true.

GRASSROOTS: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism, a handbook for social justice, April 20, 7pm, at In Other Words, Women's Books and Resources, 3734 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214, 503-232-6003, www.inotherwords.org. This book is aimed at everyone from students to professionals, stay-at-home moms to artists, the book offers answers to the question most often asked: What can I do? Whether you are concerned about the war in Iraq, terrorism, the environment, human rights violations, campus sexual assault policies, sweatshop labor, or gay marriage, Baumgardner and Richards believe that we all have something to offer in the fight against injustice. Based on the authors' own experiences, and the stories of both the large number of activists they work with as well as the countless everyday people they have encountered over the years, "GRASSROOTS" encourages people to move beyond the "generic three" (check writing, calling congress people, and volunteering) and make a difference with practical guidelines and models applicable to a diverse range of issues. Comprised of useful, effective advice written in a lively accessible style and based on the actual, current experiences of grassroots organizers across the country, the book will inspire readers to recognize the tools right in front of them-be it the office copier or the family living room-in order to make change.

Thursday, 21st

Wordstock Festival, Oregon Convention Center, over 200 writers on 11 stages. Official website with complete schedule: http://www.wordstockfestival.com/.

Lynda Barry. Sponsored by Clackamas Community College and Marylhurst College. Author of Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel, The Good Times Are Killing Me, The Freddie Stories, The Fun House, and more, Lynda Barry grew up in a working-class Seattle neighborhood. After a tumultuous childhood she attended Evergreen State University where she met her friend Matt Groening ("The Simpsons"). The story goes that he printed her work in the school paper without her knowledge and the rest is history. Barry is the creator of Ernie Pook's Comeek, and the wonderful characters Marlys, Maybonne, and Freddie Mullen. Her most recent work is the illustrated novel Cruddy, which has received critical acclaim from such papers as the New York Times Book Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal. The subject matter like much of Barry's work contains dark uncomfortable topics, events, and behaviors with some occasional humor. To view examples of her comics and characters online visit: http://www.salon.com/directory/topics/lynda_barry/.

Nance Van Winckel, poet and fiction writer. Clackamas Community College, Rook Hall LAC (RR 220), noon to 1:00. Free. Nance Van Winckel is the author of three collections of short fiction: Limited Lifetime Warranty, Quake, and most recently Curtain Creek Farm (Persea Books, 2000). Quake received the 1998 Patterson Fiction Prize. Nance has also published four collections of poems, including After a Spell, which won the 1998 Washington Governor’s Award for Literature, and the newly released Beside Ourselves (Miami University Press 2003). She has new stories in Agni, Georgia Review, and Colorado Review, and new poems in Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Field, New Letters, and Doubletake. She teaches in EWU’s MFA program and is the founder of its Writers in the Community program and a former editor of Willow Springs.

Laurie Notaro. Thursday the 21st, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Ask the readers of Laurie Notaro's books (including The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club and Autobiography of a Fat Bride) and you'll get the same challenge: We dare you to read this book in public. In We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive, her most hilarious collection to date, Notaro presents more of her true-to-the-bone stories in the way that only a girl who used up all of her patience in the first week of her life could. An everywoman with a twist of dork, she proves that even being a girl who isn't as pretty as strangers hoped can be a full-lung capacity, back-of-the-throat laugh exercise.

Joseph Kanon. Thursday the 21st, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. From the bestselling author of Los Alamos and The Good German, comes a riveting tale of love, revenge, and murder set in post-WWII Venice. Captivating readers once again with his compelling blend of gripping plot lines, arresting settings, and "evocative historical detail" (Washington Post), Alibi is a murder mystery, a love story, and a novel about revenge, justice, and the shifting nature of truth. Using the piazzas and canals of Venice as an enthralling but sinister backdrop, this is Joseph Kanon at his most thrilling.

Friday, 22nd

Wordstock Festival, Oregon Convention Center, over 200 writers on 11 stages. Official website with complete schedule: http://www.wordstockfestival.com/.

Saturday, 23rd

Wordstock Festival, Oregon Convention Center, over 200 writers on 11 stages. Official website with complete schedule: http://www.wordstockfestival.com/.

Wordstock Book Fair. Saturday the 23rd, 09:00AM, Oregon Convention Center. Powell's Books is proud to be a sponsor of the first-ever Wordstock Book Fair, happening at the Oregon Convention Center from 9am-5pm. Speaking on the Powell's Stage on Saturday the 23rd are Richard Ben Cramer (How Israel Lost: The Four Questions); Kent Haruf and legendary editor Gary Fisketjon; Meg Wolitzer (The Wife and The Position); Phil Lesh (Searching for the Sound: My Life in the Grateful Dead); Elizbeth Gaffney (Metropolis); Wesley Stace, a.k.a. John Wesley Harding (Misfortune); and Mark Obmascik (The Big Year).

Sunday, 24th

Wordstock Festival, Oregon Convention Center, over 200 writers on 11 stages. Official website with complete schedule: http://www.wordstockfestival.com/.

Wordstock Book Fair. Sunday the 24th, 09:00AM, Oregon Convention Center. Powell's Books is proud to be a sponsor of the first-ever Wordstock Book Fair, happening at the Oregon Convention Center from 9am-5pm. Sunday's events feature This American Life commentator Sarah Vowell (The Partly Cloudy Patriot and Assassination Vacation); Michelle Feynman (Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman); Judith Ryan Hendricks (The Baker's Apprentice); Glen David Gold (Carter Beats the Devil); Nancy Pearl (More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason); Chelsea Cain (Confessions of a Teen Sleuth); and Lolly Winston (Good Grief).

Regional Literary Events: Feb. 21 to March 18, 2005

2005-02-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

General Announcements:

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.

February

Monday, 21st

Kevin Canty, Monday the 21st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The award-winning author of Into the Great Wide Open and Honeymoon and Other Stories returns with a stunning new novel. Winslow in Love breathtakingly captures both the beauty and the complexity of a relationship between a creatively stagnant, overweight, alcoholic poet and a damaged young woman half his age bent on her own brand of self-destruction. The piercing prose of Winslow in Love reaffirms Kevin Canty's status as one of America's finest writers.

Lewton Jones: The Portland poet and readers Graham Conroy and Dianne Austin read selections from Jones’ book 100 Poems/4 Poets, 7:00 p.m., Monday, Broadway Books, 1714 Broadway.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Xenos House of Culture, Host: Phread, Mondays @ 8-9:30pm, poetry open-mics every Monday. Poetry Slams follow open-mics on the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month. 8527 Lombard St., St. Johns, 503-735-9125, 503-283-8860.

Tuesday, 22nd

Emily Raboteau, Tuesday the 22nd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A daughter's future and her father's past converge in Emily Raboteau's The Professor's Daughter, an explosive first novel exploring identity, assimilation, and the legacy of race. When Emma Boudreaux's older brother, Bernie, winds up in a coma after a freak accident, it's as if she loses a part of herself. The key to Emma's self-discovery lies in her father's tortured history. In exhilarating, magical prose, The Professor's Daughter traces the borderlands of race and family, the contested territory that gives birth to rage, confusion, madness, and invisibility. This striking debut marks the arrival of an astonishingly original voice that surges with energy and purpose.

OPEN MIC READINGS. Cyberccino Café, The Meander Readings Open Mic Poetry Tuesdays @ 7:30PM, 2130 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon, 503-281-6584.

Wednesday, 23rd

Write Time Writing Group, Wednesday the 23rd, 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.

Robert Crais Reading. Wednesday, February 23, 7:30 PM, Twenty-Third Avenue Books. In his major New York Times bestseller The Last Detective, Crais returned to his signature characters, private investigator Elvis Cole and partner Joe Pike. Now, in The Forgotten Man, after scratching the surface of Cole's troubled past, Crais returns with a stunning suspense novel that leads to the dark secrets of Cole's own life.

Fred Newman discusses his book MouthSounds, 6:00 p.m., Wednesday, Barnes & Noble Jantzen Beach, 1720 N. Jantzen Beach.

Classics Book Group, Wednesday the 23rd, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we discuss Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh as well as A Long Day’s Journey into Night. New members are always welcome to join.

Authors’ Night, with Tracy Daugherty, Marjorie Sandor, and Scott Nadelson. Clackamas Community College Literary Arts Center, RR 220, 7 p.m., Wednesday evening. Daugherty’s recent novel, Axeman’s Jazz (Southern Methodist University Press), received the Oregon Book Award for the Novel this past year, the same year Sandor’s Portrait of My Mother, Who Posed Nude in Wartime (Sarabande Books) was an Oregon Book Award finalist for short fiction. And this same year, Nadelson’s Saving Stanley (Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts) received the Oregon Book Award for Short Fiction. Come hear the three of them share their work and answer questions. 7 p.m., Literary Arts Center at Clackamas Community College, Wednesday, February 23. $2. contribution to Friends of the Library suggested.

Thursday, 24th

Dennis Britten presents his book Made in Oregon. Local poet Dennis Britten will be reading from his new and selected poetry. In lyrical verse, Britten evokes the natural beauty of Oregon and his experience of it. These pieces were written over a period of more than 40 years and are reflections of the poet's heritage as an Oregonian, Thursday, February 24, 2005, 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books.

Visiting Writers at Reed College--Poet Tim Seibles reads selections from his work, 8:00 p.m., Thursday, Reed College, Vollum Lounge, 3203 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.

Karsten Heuer, Thursday the 24th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Accompanied by a remarkable Border collie named Webster, Karsten Heuer set off on a grand adventure: to move through the land as a bear or wolf might, 2,100 miles along the spine of the Rocky Mountains. Walking the Big Wild: From Yellowstone to the Yukon on the Grizzly Bear's Trail is the riveting account of his journey. He faced ferocious storms, avalanches, and raging rivers; lost one girlfriend, found another; and kept hiking despite the suspicions of hunters, ranchers, and miners. And then there were the grizzlies.... Tonight's event includes a slideshow.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Mojo Coffee Den, Thursdays: 8:30 pm, Writer's Right; Host: Emily Riley, Thursdays @ 9:30 PM, 2816 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97214, 503-236-2084.

Friday, 25th

Clackamas Literary Review Reading. Join us as we celebrate the publication of the new 2005 issue of the CLR. Readers whose work has been published in this issue are Diane Williams Stepp, Verlena Orr, Mir Emanpoor, and Yuvi Zalkow. Noon-1:00, Literary Arts Center (RR 220), Clackamas Community College, 19600 S. Molalla Ave., Oregon City, OR. Free.

The Story of Canada Lee, Friday the 25th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee, award-winning playwright and journalist Mona Z. Smith brings us the first-ever biography of the great black actor, activist, athlete — and victim of the blacklist. Once revered, now largely forgotten, Canada Lee was as familiar to audiences as Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman are today. Among the most respected black actors of the '40s and a tireless civil rights advocate, Lee was unjustly dishonored, his name reduced to a footnote in the history of the McCarthy era, his death one of a handful directly attributable to the blacklist. After nearly a decade of research, Mona Z. Smith revives the legacy of a man who was perhaps the blacklist's most tragic victim.

Monday, 28th

Oregon Writers Colony Presents Monday the 28th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Writers and their manuscripts need an edge says Elaura Niles, author of Some Writers Deserve to Starve: Thirty-one Brutal Truths about the Publishing Industry. Bringing the advice of publishing pros as well as that from her own experience, Elaura will share insight on who's who in publishing as well as how writers can break into the industry.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Xenos House of Culture, Host: Phread, Mondays @ 8-9:30pm, poetry open-mics every Monday. Poetry Slams follow open-mics on the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month. 8527 Lombard St., St. Johns, 503-735-9125, 503-283-8860.

Legs McNeil Monday the 28th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The adult film industry is a $10 billion-per-year business that has infiltrated the American mainstream, with its stars showing up as TV hosts and making guest appearances in Hollywood feature films. The Other Hollywood reveals how the porn industry got started — with a $22,000 Mafia investment in a film called Deep Throat — and how it mushroomed over the next quarter-century despite efforts by politicians, the FBI, and others to bring it down. In this uncensored history of the porn film industry, acclaimed underworld chronicler Legs McNeil, and co-author Jennifer Osborne, pull back the grimy satin sheets on one of the most astounding success stories in the history of American business.

This Life She's Chosen Monday the 28th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Each finely tuned story in This Life She's Chosen, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum's remarkable debut collection, captures a pivotal moment in the life of a woman trying to reconcile past expectations with present, usually unplanned, developments. In the title story, a woman who decided she really should be French visits her married daughter, who once again becomes tangled in a web of lies and disapprovals. In "Picnic," a new spin on family politics emerges during an outing with mysterious Aunt Vivian. Bringing to mind the work of Elizabeth Bishop and Alice Munro, the stories in This Life She's Chosen form a sophisticated and graceful collection.

March

Tuesday, 1st

Peter Robinson Tuesday the 1st, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. There turns out to be a connection between the mysteriously empty London mansion of Inspector Alan Banks's long-distant brother and a murder on Banks's home turf in Peter Robinson's latest suspense Strange Affair. Robinson's award-winning novels have been named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, a Notable Book by the New York Times, and a Page Turner of the Week by People magazine.

The Mystery of the Nile Tuesday the 1st, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it seemed incredible that no one had ever made a complete descent of the Nile. In April 2004, renowned adventurer Pasquale Scaturro made history by completing his epic journey down the Nile in 114 days, traveling 3,250 miles by kayak, from its source in Ethiopia to the shores of Alexandria, where it flows into the Mediterranean Sea. In The Mystery of the Nile, Scaturro details his historical quest in a fast paced adventure story of a risky, high-profile expedition that many said was impossible.

Robert Hill Long at Portland State University, Tuesday, March 1st, Room 333, Smith Memorial Center, 6:30 PM. Robert Hill Long was raised and educated in North Carolina. He was the founding director of the North Carolina Writers’ Network in 1984. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1988), the North Carolina Arts Council (1986), and the Oregon Arts Commission (1997). Before coming to the University of Oregon in 1991, he taught at Clark University, Smith College, and the University of Hartford. His first book, The Power to Die, was published by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center in 1987. The Work of the Bow received the 1995 Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize and was published in 1997. A book of flash fictions/prose poems, The Effigies, was issued by Plinth Books in 1998 and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in poetry. His poems, prose poems, and flash fictions have appeared in anthologies—Best American Poetry 1995 (Touchstone), Flash Fiction (W. W. Norton), The Best of the Prose Poem (White Pine), Drive, They Said and Outsiders (Milkweed Editions)—and in numerous journals across America, including CutBank, Denver Quarterly, Diagram, DoubleTake, High Plains Literary Review, Hudson Review, Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, Manoa, Massachusetts Review, New England Review, North Carolina Literary Review, Poetry, Poetry East, STAND (UK), Taos Review, Turnrow, Virginia Quarterly Review, Willow Springs, and Zyzzyva. This event is free and open to the public.

OPEN MIC READINGS. Cyberccino Café, The Meander Readings Open Mic Poetry Tuesdays @ 7:30PM, 2130 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon, 503-281-6584.

Wednesday, 2nd

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.

Phillip Margolin presents Lost Lake, Wednesday, March 2, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. It's a beautiful summer night in Portland, Oregon. Ami Vergano, a young attorney and single mother, arrives at her son Ryan's Little League game with their tenant and new friend, Dan Morelli. When the assistant coach calls in sick, Morelli seems happy to help out. But then one player roughly blocks another, and a fight erupts. Before the game ends, Ami witnesses violence that shocks and horrifies her and makes her question everything she thought she knew about Morelli. On the other side of the continent, in a cheap motel room in Washington, D.C., ex-mental patient Vanessa Kohler, a reporter for Exposed, a tabloid that specializes in alien-abduction stories, watches a piece on television about the Little League massacre and quickly places a call to the FBI. For years she's been telling anyone who will listen about a vast government conspiracy to conceal a secret military unit headed by Gen. Morris Wingate, a presidential candidate, and for years every-one has dismissed her stories. But when Vanessa sees Dan Morelli fighting, she believes she's found the key to proving that her theories are true. Vanessa hires Ami Vergano to represent Morelli, who is charged with attempted murder, and Ami is drawn into Vanessa's paranoid world. Are Vanessa, a former mental patient, and Morelli, a confessed mass murderer, telling the truth about one of the nation's most respected soldiers and politicians? Or are their charges a product of two sick minds? Ami has to decide who -- and what -- to believe, in Phillip Margolin's most exciting and surprising thriller since his breakout bestseller Gone, But Not Forgotten.

Cherry Muhanji, reading and book signing of Her, Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30pm, In Other Words Bookstore, 3734 SE Hawthorne, 503-232-6003. Come join us as our special guest, Northwest author and Portland State University professor, Cherry Muhanji reads from her book entitled Her and shares some new material. Her is an amazing story about the black men and women of Detroit in the late fifties. The story weaves the lives of the people living in the Harlem of Detroit, and the ways they spent their nights at the Frolic and Flame bars, trying to forget their days at the Ford Motor plant. With raw honesty, Her explores relationships between Black women and how they hold each other up and then let each other down in their constant struggles to teach each other how to survive. This is a free event made possible by the community partnership between Portland State University's Wendy Cutler's Lesbian Literature class and In Other Words Bookstore.

Daniel Silva Wednesday the 2nd, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Few recent thriller writers have excited the kind of critical praise that Daniel Silva has, with his novels featuring art restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon. Now, in Prince of Fire, Allon is back in Venice, when a terrible explosion in Rome leads to a disturbing personal revelation: the existence of a dossier in the hands of terrorists that lays bare his history. A knife-edged thriller, this is Daniel Silva at the top of his form.

Ian O'Conner on Sebastian Telfair Wednesday the 2nd, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. "No journalist in America gets to the heart and soul of sports culture stories like Ian O'Connor," says the Los Angeles Times. Now, in The Jump, O'Connor follows Trail Blazer point guard phenomenon Sebastian Telfair on his quest from high school to NBA stardom — and exposes all that big-time sports in America has become, the good and the bad. Under O'Connor's penetrating scrutiny, Telfair becomes the prism through which the circus of modern basketball is explored.

Thursday, 3rd

First Thursday with Butch Anthony Thursday the 3rd, 6:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The Basil Hallward Gallery welcomes artist Butch Anthony. A resident of rural Alabama, home to his Museum of Wonder, Butch has invented his own brand of Alabama folk art he calls "Intertwangleism." His paintings and sculptures are comprised of collected junk he finds on the side of the road, in dumpsters, or in piles of scrap. Butch has exhibited worldwide and recently completed a project for Samuel Mockbee's Rural Studio in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico.

Elizabeth Flock presents Me & Emma, Thursday, March 3, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. Carrie Parker, the precocious 8-year-old narrator of Elizabeth Flock’s ME & EMMA keeps her greatest treasure, an exotic stamp collection, secreted in her hot attic bedroom. She tries not to sass her mother, she plays make-believe in the woods of her impoverished North Carolina home, and she longs to be popular in school. She is also fiercely protective of her five-year old sister Emma. But her daydreams and her hiding places can’t veil the violent reality of her life, and keeping Emma by her side won’t shield her sister for very long. Me & Emma is a disarmingly tender and startling novel about the determination and resilience of childhood. Carrie has good reason to worry about Emma – Richard, their abusive, alcoholic stepfather, delights in tormenting the girls, and he’s begun to show a special interest in Emma. And their mother can’t defend them any better than she can defend herself, especially after the girls’ plan to run away fails, with devastating consequences. After the family moves for Richard’s job, life seems even more difficult, until the girls find an unlikely friend. He teaches Carrie to be strong and helps ground her to her past, then leads her to a shocking moment of truth, one that will leave everyone—including the reader—reeling. Flock expertly captures the inner workings of Carrie’s mind. With a distinctive style that blends the appeal of such rich classics as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird with the contemporary draw of The Secret Life of Bees, she seamlessly slips the reader into this child’s fractured world and her impressive fight to piece it back together. Carrie Parker’s voice will linger long after the last page of Me & Emma is turned.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Mojo Coffee Den, Thursdays: 8:30 pm, Writer's Right; Host: Emily Riley, Thursdays @ 9:30 PM, 2816 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97214, 503-236-2084.

The Cruelest Miles Thursday the 3rd, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. In the winter of 1925 in Nome, Alaska, an outbreak of diphtheria threatened the city's icebound residents. Many would die without a badly needed shipment of fresh serum. Planes couldn't reach Nome due to blizzard conditions. The only one way to transport the serum was by dogsled, a 700-mile, five-day trip across frozen rivers, mountains, and treacherous ice. In The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race against an Epidemic, Gay and Laney Salisbury chronicle the saga of the men and dog teams that made the dangerous journey. Tonight's event includes a slideshow.

Friday, 4th

Lisa Steinman, Maxine Scates & Vern Rutsala. Three of Oregon’s finest prize-winning poets are teaming up for a special evening of poetry at the Mountain Writers Center.Lisa Steinman, Maxines Scates, and Vern Rutsala will read Saturday, 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. Friday, March 4, 7:00 p.m. Reading, Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie Ave., Portland, OR. $8/$5 MWS Members.

Sunday, 6th

Further Adventures in Words and Music: Jazz Stories. Lynn Darroch, with John Stowell on guitar and Rob Davis on saxophones, with special guests. Sunday, March 6, 3:00 p.m. O'Connor's Annex, 7840 S.W. Capitol Hwy., in Multnomah Village, $5.00, food and beverage available for purchase. All ages welcome.

Monday, 7th

The Talking Earth, KBOO, March 7, 10-11 PM: Write Around Portland writers read from WRAP's latest anthology, Everyday Revolutions. WRAP offers free creative writing workshops to low-income people and other marginalized groups, with the aim of transforming lives. Barbara LaMorticella hosts.

Tuesday, 8th

Science Fiction Book Group Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month authors Andy Mangels and Michael Martin lead our Science Fiction discussion group in a talk about their book Worlds of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Volume II: Trill and Bajor. New members are always welcome to join.

OPEN MIC READINGS. Cyberccino Café, The Meander Readings Open Mic Poetry Tuesdays @ 7:30PM, 2130 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon, 503-281-6584.

Stiquito Controlled! Tuesday the 8th, 7:00PM, Powell's Technical Books. James Conrad presents a unique opportunity to learn about robotics in Stiquito Controlled!: Making a Truly Autonomous Robot. The book includes accessible instructions for buildling Stiquito, a small multi-legged robot that resembles a "walking-stick" insect. Best of all, the book comes complete with the kit to build Stiquito, as well as a microcontroller board that allows Stiquito to walk on its own.

Nature Noir Tuesday the 8th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra is the story — part Edward Abbey, part James Ellroy — of Jordan Fisher Smith's fourteen years as a park ranger on forty-eight miles of Sierra Nevada river canyons, government-owned land condemned to be inundated by a huge dam. Ranger work, in this place where wildness tends toward the human kind, includes encounters with armed miners who scour canyons for gold, drug-addled squatters, and extreme recreators who enjoy combining motorcycles, parachutes, and high bridges. Nature Noir reveals some startling truths about park rangering on America's public lands.

Wednesday, 9th

Geraldine Brooks Wednesday the 9th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. From the author of the international bestseller Year of Wonders comes March, a powerful novel set against the catastrophe of the Civil War. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, March, and adds adult resonance to portray the moral complexity of war and a marriage tested by the demands of extreme idealism. In her telling, March emerges as an idealistic chaplain in the little known backwaters of a war that will test his faith in himself and in the Union cause as he learns that his side, too, is capable of acts of barbarism and racism.

Carlos Reyes presents At the Edge of the Western Wave, Wednesday, March 9, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. Portland poet Carlos Reyes will be reading from his latest collection of poetry. At the Edge of the Western Wave captures the spirit of rural Ireland, evoking both its landscape and its people.

Thursday, 10th

Deadly Diversions Book Group Thursday the 10th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we meet to discuss both The English Assassin by Daniel Silva and A Dedicated Man by Peter Robinson. New members are always welcome to join.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Mojo Coffee Den, Thursdays: 8:30 pm, Writer's Right; Host: Emily Riley, Thursdays @ 9:30 PM, 2816 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97214, 503-236-2084.

Novelist Percival Everett at Reed College, Thursday, March 10, 8 p.m.,Psychology Building Auditorium, Room 105. The work of Percival Everett demonstrates his prodigious talent, energy and daring. His most recent novel, American Desert, and a book of short fiction, Damned if I Do, came out in 2004, as did an experimental novel co-authored with James Kincaid titled A History of the African American People (proposed) by Strom Thurmond as Told to Percival Everett and James Kincaid. His other books include For Her Dark Skin, Zulus, The Weather and The Women Treat Me Fair, Cutting Lisa, Walk Me to the Distance, Suder, The One That Got Away, Watershed, God's Country, Glyph, Erasure and Big Picture. Everett grew up in South Carolina and attended the University of Miami as well as the University of Oregon, where he did graduate work in philosophy; he also holds an MFA in writing from Brown University. He has taught at Bennington College, the University of Wyoming and the University of California at Riverside and is currently a professor in the English Department at the University of Southern California. He lives on a ranch in California and also on Vancouver Island.

The Far Out Story of Vortex I Thursday the 10th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Summer 1970. Portland, Oregon. President Nixon was about to speak at the American Legion convention. The FBI told Governor Tom McCall he should expect 25,000 Legionnaires and 50,000 anti-war freaks to clash in the Rose City and make Chicago '68 look like a "tea party." A few hippies proposed a rock festival to give peace a chance. They asked McCall, a Republican battling for re-election, for a place to hold it. He gave them a state park and told the cops to lay off. Did they ever. Matt Love's The Far Out Story of Vortex I documents for the first time what a short strange trip it was for the 100,000 who attended Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life.

Friday, 11th

Joy Harjo Friday the 11th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Alive with compassion, Joy Harjo's collection How We Became Human gathers poems from throughout Harjo's twenty-eight-year career, beginning in 1973 in the age marked by the takeover at Wounded Knee and the rejuvenation of indigenous cultures in the world through poetry and music. How We Became Human explores its title question in poems of sustaining grace. Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Nation, is one of our foremost Native American voices.

Anosh Irani Reading, Wednesday, May 11, 7:30 PM, Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Anosh Irani’s The Cripple and His Talismans is a funny, absurd, violent and tender journey through Bombay--and the 21st century.

Sunday, 13th

John Dunning Sunday the 13th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. From the bestselling author who has charmed America with his passion for collectible first editions comes a riveting new Cliff Janeway crime novel that reveals some of book collecting's shocking secrets. In John Dunning's The Sign of the Book, rare books dealer Janeway agrees to help a friend of a friend, who's accused of murdering her husband. Coincidentally, the victim had an amazing book collection.

Monday, 14th

Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide Monday the 14th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Over the past several years, "the American in Tuscany" has become a literary subgenre. Launched by the phenomenal success of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun, bookstores now burgeon with witty accounts of this clash in cultures. Before this subgenre exhausts itself, it's only fair that we hear the other side of the story — that of a native Tuscan and of dozens of Americans who have stormed through his life and homeland. Written with affection and humor, Dario Castagno's Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide is a Tuscan tour guide's account of some of his more remarkable customers, from the obsessive and the oblivious to the downright lunatic.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Xenos House of Culture, Host: Phread, Mondays @ 8-9:30pm, poetry open-mics every Monday. Poetry Slams follow open-mics on the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month. 8527 Lombard St., St. Johns, 503-735-9125, 503-283-8860.

Bob Flaherty Monday the 14th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. Set in an Irish working-class suburb of Boston in the 1960s and 1970s, Bob Flaherty's debut novel, Puff, centers on the quest of two twenty-something brothers. Posing as rescue personnel, they attempt to steer their dilapidated van through the most ferocious blizzard anyone can remember, all to score a bag of pot. Trapped in their own ruse and forced to act the part of the saviors they are pretending to be, the brothers run into an endless stream of foes and obstacles that stand in the way of their elusive high. A raucous caper with the wonderful lunacy of John Irving's The World According to Garp, Puff is as hilarious as it is heartfelt.

Tuesday, 15th

The Flaming Luau of Death, Tuesday the 15th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Author Jerrilyn Farmer's irrepressible creation, Mad Bean, is back in The Flaming Luau of Death. Madeline has planned phenomenal parties for Hollywood heavyweights of every ego size, but now she's cooking up something very special for one of her own — a bachelorette weekend in Hawaii for cherished employee Holly Nichols. This hysterical riff on a luau will have everything. Tiki lamps. Hula lessons. A dead body washing in on the warm island tides. Okay, that wasn't in the original plan, and the uninvited corpse isn't the only shocker throwing a monkey wrench in the proceedings.

OPEN MIC READINGS. Cyberccino Café, The Meander Readings Open Mic Poetry Tuesdays @ 7:30PM, 2130 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon, 503-281-6584.

Christopher Rice, Tuesday the 15th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In Light before Day, Christopher Rice pens a riveting and complex story of an elusive serial killer and a labyrinth of revenge and sexual obsession. Two men join forces to determine whether a serial predator is preying upon young gay men in West Hollywood. But the truth is being guarded by a diabolical force that neither man could have imagined, and they explore paths of vengeance, murder, and sexual perversion that will lead them from the mansion-strung Hollywood Hills to the drug-ravaged plains of California's Central Valley.

Jane Smiley: Portland Arts & Lectures is pleased to present an evening with Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and short story writer. Smiley will speak at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (SW Broadway and Main) at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, 2005. General Admission $25; Senior/College students $18; Upper Balcony seating $15; High School students $5. Tickets are available by calling Literary Arts at 503.227.2583, online at www.literary-arts.org, at the Portland Center for Performing Arts Box Office, all Ticket Master locations or at the door. About Jane Smiley: From her first novel, Barn Blind (1980), to her most recent novel, Good Faith (2003), Jane Smiley has created a body of work of prodigious scope. In 1991, she won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for A Thousand Acres, a riveting family drama set in the American heartland during the 1980s, inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear. In Moo (1995), she presents a wry and intricately woven satire on modern academia. A master of historical fiction, Smiley canvassed fourteenth-century life in The Greenlanders (1988) and lent a feminist eye to 1850s Kansas in The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (1998). She captured the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of Thoroughbred racing in Horse Heaven (2000), which novelist and critic Jane Houston described as "a narrative act of balancing so ambitious and so precisely executed that it becomes necessary to see Smiley as half acrobat, half writer: the novel is as athletic as the animals it describes." Her new book, a work of personal nonfiction, is A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck (2004).

Wednesday, 16th

Write Time Writing Group Wednesday the 16th, 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.

Tim Guest presents My Life in Orange: Growing up with the Guru, Wednesday, March 16, 2005 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books. At the age of six, Tim Guest was taken by his mother to a commune modeled on the teachings of the notorious Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Bhagwan preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern mysticism, chaotic therapy, and sexual freedom, and enjoyed inhaling laughing gas, preaching from a dentist's chair, and collecting Rolls Royces. Tim and his mother were given Sanskrit names, dressed entirely in orange, and encouraged to surrender themselves into their new family. While his mother worked tirelessly for the cause, Tim-or Yogesh, as he was now called-lived a life of well-meaning but woefully misguided neglect in various communes in England, Oregon, India, and Germany. In 1985 the movement collapsed amid allegations of mass poisonings, attempted murder, and tax evasion, and Yogesh was once again Tim. In this extraordinary memoir, Tim Guest chronicles the heartbreaking experience of being left alone on earth while his mother hunted heaven.

Tim Dorsey, Wednesday the 16th, 7:00PM, Powell's Books in Beaverton. Serge A. Storm returns for another hilarious tour of the wacky underside of the Sunshine State in Tim Dorsey's Torpedo Juice. And this time the lovable but maniacal hero is on a mission: Stay off police radar and reinvent himself. Naturally Serge makes a beeline to the Reinvention Capital of the United States, the Florida Keys, where nobody is who they seem to be and the freaks are the least of his worries. Unfortunately for Serge, some other less likable lunatics have latched on to the same idea.

Swimming to Antarctica, Wednesday the 16th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Lynne Cox, the famous long-distance swimmer, known for her ability to withstand cold temperatures that might kill others, tells the fascinating story of how she braved the frigid waters of Antarctica. Now in paperback, with photos and maps added especially for this new edition, Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer is the acclaimed life story of a woman whose drive and determination inspire everyone she touches.

Thursday, 17th

TED KOOSER : March 17, 2005, Literary Arts, Inc. Recently appointed the U.S. poet laureate by the Library of Congress, Nebraskan poet Ted Kooser is the first poet from the Great Plains to hold the position. He is the author of ten collections of poetry, including most recently Delights & Shadows (2004) and Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison (2000). Wieden & Kennedy Atrium, 224 N.W. 13th Avenue, Portland. Series Tickets: $65 General, $48 Seniors and College, Individual Tickets: $18 General, $12 Seniors/College. $5 high school, to order, call 503.227.2583. Tickets are available online.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Mojo Coffee Den, Thursdays: 8:30 pm, Writer's Right; Host: Emily Riley, Thursdays @ 9:30 PM, 2816 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97214, 503-236-2084.

Lily Tuck, Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM, Powell's Books on Hawthorne. A historical epic that tells an usual love story, Lily Tuck's National Book Award-winning novel, The News from Paraguay, offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of 19th-century Paraguay, a largely untouched wilderness where Europeans and North Americans intermingle with both the old Spanish aristocracy and native Guarani Indians. With the urgency of the narrative, rich and intimate detail, and a wealth of skillfully layered characters, Tuck's writing recalls the epic novels of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.

Anne Lamott, Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. With the trademark wisdom, humor, and honesty that made Anne Lamott's book on faith, Traveling Mercies, a runaway bestseller, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in increasingly fraught times. The world is a more dangerous place than it was when Lamott's Traveling Mercies was published five years ago. Fortunately for those of us who are anxious about the state of the world, whose parents are aging and dying, whose children are growing harder to recognize as they become teenagers, Plan B offers hope in the midst of despair. It shares with us Lamott's ability to comfort and to make us laugh despite the grim realities.

Friday, 18th

Robert Thurman, Friday the 18th, 7:30PM, Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Few teachers in the West possess both the spiritual training and the scholarship to lead us along the path to enlightenment. Robert Thurman is one such teacher. Now, Thurman — the first Westerner ordained by the Dalai Lama himself — shares the centuries-old wisdom of a highly valued method used by the great Tibetan masters. The Jewel Tree of Tibet immerses readers in the mysteries of Tibetan spiritual wisdom, offering a practical system of understanding yourself and the world, of developing your learning and thought processes, and of gaining deep, transforming insight.

February 7 - February 25 Regional Literary Events

2005-01-30T13:32:00.000-08:00

Metro Literary Events and Information—
February 7-February 25, 2005

General Announcements:

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: www.co.clackamas.or.us/artsaction/. For more information about the Oregon Cultural Trust, visit www.culturaltrust.org.

February

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).

Don West Reading. Monday, February 7, 2005 7:30 PM. Location: Twenty-Third Avenue Books. Description: Complex yet effortlessly readable, Dream of the Great Blue examines the profound impact that love has on all our lives, regardless of age. Don West was born in Murray, Kentucky in 1946 but grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Michigan State University and went on for his MFA at The Ohio University in Theater Direction, Art, and Poetry. His story "Tall" won first place in the Sandscript Art and Literary Magazine Awards in 2000. His story "Coping" was a finalist in the William Faulkner Short Fiction Awards and the New Millennium Awards in 2002. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Tucson, Arizona. He has been writing, drawing and painting from childhood and shows his work in galleries across the country.

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."

The Talking Earth, KBOO, 10-11:00, Lois Rosen and Brittney Corrigan join Barbara LaMorticella tonight to read and talk about their work. Lois is a retired Chemeketa Community College teacher, Her new book Pigeons from Traprock Books in 2004 is the first fruit of her retirement. Brittney Corrigan lives in Portland, with animals, her husband, and a 16-month old son. Lois' and Brittney's poems have graced many poetry publications. Hear them both tonight.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Xenos House of Culture, Host: Phread, Mondays @ 8-9:30pm, poetry open-mics every Monday. Poetry Slams follow open-mics on the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month. 8527 Lombard St., St. Johns, 503-735-9125, 503-283-8860.

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.

Spoken Word Showcase: Slam poets Andrea Gibson and Suzy LaFollette perform, 8:30 Tuesday, Wax, 5101 N. Interstate Ave., $3.

OPEN MIC READINGS. Cyberccino Café, The Meander Readings Open Mic Poetry Tuesdays @ 7:30PM, 2130 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon, 503-281-6584.

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.

Portland Arts & Lectures presents: Tracy Chevalier, Thursday, February 10th,$18.75 - $29.75, Tickets: The PCPA box office and Ticketmaster. Time: 7:30. Tracy Chevalier is a novelist as adept at revealing historical periods as she is at capturing the complexities of her characters. In her best-selling Girl with a Pearl Earring (2000), set in seventeenth century Holland, she traces the coming of age of Griet, a young servant for Johannes Vermeer who becomes the subject of one of his famous paintings. The New Yorker wrote, “[Chevalier] creates a world reminiscent of a Vermeer interior: suspended in a particular moment, it transcends time and place,” and Time called the novel “an exquisitely controlled exercise that illustrates how temptation is restrained for the sake of art.” Her latest novel, The Lady and the Unicorn (2003), is inspired by six tapestries from the Middle Ages that hang in the Musée de Cluny in Paris. The stories within these tapestries provide counterpoints to the lives of the novel’s four main female characters—Genevieve, Claude, Alienor and Christine. Chevalier applies skills as a researcher to create richly detailed works exploring history and character, religion and secularism, class divisions and proscriptive sexual mores. The author of two other historical novels, Fallen Angels (2001) and The Virgin Blue (1997), she currently resides in London.

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."

Vern Rutsala and Paulann Petersen will be reading together at Lewis and Clark College as part of a reading series sponsored by the Watzek Library there, Thursday, February 10th, at 7 pm. The reading will be in the Hoffman Gallery, which is attached to Watzek Library. The reading is free and open to the public, and there's no charge for parking on campus in the evening. Vern Rutsala was born in 1934 and is a native of Idaho. Nine books of his poetry have been published, four chapbooks, and over 700 poems which have appeared in literary reviews and anthologies. He has won numerous 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 won the Oregon Book Award in 1992 for Selected Poems. Paulann Petersen’s second full-length collection of poems, Blood-Silk, poems about Turkey, was published earlier this year by Quiet Lion Press of Portland. Her first, The Wild Awake, was published by Confluence Press in September of 2002. Another, A Bride of Narrow Escape, will be published next spring by Cloudbank Books as part of its Northwest Poetry Series. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Petersen also has three poetry chapbooks (Under the Sign of a Neon Wolf, The Animal Bride, and Fabrication), and her poems have appeared in many periodicals, including Poetry, The New Republic, Prairie Schooner, and Wilderness Magazine. Her work has been selected for Poetry Daily on the Internet and for Poetry in Motion, which puts poems on busses and light rail cars in the Portland metropolitan area.

Poets Ralph Salisbury and Ingrid Wendt read selections from their work, 4 p.m., Thursday, Willamette University, Hatfield Library, 900 State St., Salem.

Downtown Vancouver. Vancouver author Pat Jollota signs copies of her book, 7 pm, Thursday, Barnes & Noble Vancouver, 7700 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver.

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.

Scott Nadelson: The Portland author reads from his book Saving Stanley, 7:30 pm, Thursday, Portland State University, Smith Memorial Center, Room 298, 724 SW Harrison St.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Mojo Coffee Den, Thursdays: 8:30 pm, Writer's Right; Host: Emily Riley, Thursdays @ 9:30 PM, 2816 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97214, 503-236-2084.

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.

Everybody Reads: Bring original poetry or prose inspired by Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. Multnomah County Library’s community reading book, 7 pm, Friday, Barnes & Noble Jantzen Beach, 1720 N. Jantzen Beach.

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.

OPEN MIC READING: Noir (The Rabbit Hole), Beat Revival; Host: Chris Canttrell, Sundays @ 9:30pm, 203 SE Grand Ave. (SW corner of SE Grand & Ankeny), Portland, OR, 503-231-2925.

Monday, 14th

China, Inc. Monday the 14th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. Provocative, timely, and essential, China, Inc., is a dramatic account of China's growing dominance as an industrial superpower by journalist Ted C. Fishman, who explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred — and why it already affects us all. The result is a richly engaging work of penetrating, up-to-the-minute reportage and brilliant analysis that will forever change how readers think about America's future.

Borders Downtown, “I Love Monday” readings with host Dan Raphael and three guest readers, 7:00. The calendar gods coincided the Borders series and Valentine’s Day this year. Readers are Laura Winter--excellent chef, music connoisseur, world traveler and poet who dances as she reads, Joseph Bradshaw--known to have had serious crushes on dead poets, who loves language in all its pieces and transformations, and Patrick Bocarde--radio icon and music historian, offering love poems to the current regime in his new book "This Economy Must Be Destroyed." All this love, for free, Valentine’s Day, at the corner of 3d & S.W. Morrison.
Talking Earth-- Poetry on KBOO Monday Nights at 10!

OPEN MIC READINGS: Xenos House of Culture, Host: Phread, Mondays @ 8-9:30pm, poetry open-mics every Monday. Poetry Slams follow open-mics on the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month. 8527 Lombard St., St. Johns, 503-735-9125, 503-283-8860.

Tuesday, 15th

Charles Johnson, Tuesday the 15th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. National Book Award-winning author of Middle Passage, Charles Johnson presents his newest book of short stories, Dr. King’s Refrigerator: And Other Bedtime Stories. This insightful and witty collection explores issues of identity and race, including the title story, which depicts Martin Luther King, Jr., on the eve of the Montgomery bus boycott, at a turning point in his life.

OPEN MIC READINGS. Cyberccino Café, The Meander Readings Open Mic Poetry Tuesdays @ 7:30PM, 2130 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon, 503-281-6584.

Wednesday, 16th

The Bonus Army, Wednesday the 16th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. In the summer of 1932, at the height of the Depression, some 45,000 veterans of World War I descended on Washington, D.C., to demand the bonus promised them eight years earlier for their wartime service. They were met with tanks and soldiers. Through seminal research, including interviews with the last surviving witnesses, Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen give the full and dramatic account of a nearly forgotten but historic incident in our recent past. The Bonus Army is an epic story in the saga of our country.

Rumi's Resonance: from Afghanistan to Turkey, sponsored by readings from Around the World, A New Poetry Series at Costello's Travel Caffé, 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 16th, 2005, 2222 NE Broadway, Portland OR 97232, FREE. This month Angie Chuang and Paulann Petersen read selections from Jelaluddin Rumi, the renowned 13th-century Sufi mystic-poet whose ecstatic poetry is claimed by the region once known as the great Persian Empire. Both poets will also read selections from their own work influenced by Rumi or marked by either his birthplace--Afghanistan--or his burial place--Turkey. The reading will be accompanied by live music and an open mic will follow. Enjoy coffee, dessert, drinks and poetry in a European style café. Paulann Petersen's work has appeared in Poetry, The New Republic, Prairie Schooner, Willow Springs, Calyx, and the Internet's Poetry Daily. A collection of her poems, The Wild Awake, was published by Confluence Press in September of 2002; Quiet Lion Press published Blood-Silk, a volume of her poems about Turkey, in 2004; and a third collection, A Bride of Narrow Escape is forthcoming from Cloudbank Books in 2005. Angie Chuang is an award-winning journalist who writes about race and cultural issues for The Oregonian. In the past couple of years, she's traveled to Afghanistan and Vietnam to pursue stories about local immigrants with ties to those countries. As a poet, Angie has been published in Windfall: A Journal of Poetry and Place and Spirit in the Words, an anthology of poetry written by journalists. She has a forthcoming poem in Ephemeris. She recently completed Latitude 10-45N, a chapbook manuscript of sonnets about modern-day Vietnam.

Thursday, 17th

Elizabeth Woody, Thursday February 17th, noon to 1:00, Clackamas Community College’s Literary Arts Center (RR 220), free. Elizabeth Woody will read from her work. Ms. 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. She received an American Book Award in 1990 for her book Hand into Stone from the Before Columbus Foundation. This book has been republished, including new prose and poetry, as Seven Hands Seven Hearts. In 1993 Elizabeth received a "Medicine Pathways for the Future" Fellowship/Kellogg Fellowship from the American Indian Ambassadors Program of the Americans for Indian Opportunity. She is a recipient of the William Stafford Memorial Award for Poetry from the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Association and was a finalist in the Oregon Book Awards in poetry in 1995. She held a Brandywine Visiting Artist Fellowship in 1986, and in 1997 she was awarded a J.T. Stewart Award and Fellowship by Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers on Whidby Island, WA. In May of 1997, she participated in a residency sponsored by Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, CA.

Nina Simonds, Thursday the 17th, 7:00PM, Powell’s books for Cooks and Gardeners. In her groundbreaking cookbook, Spices of Life, Nina Simonds offers us more than 175 luscious recipes, along with practical tips for a sensible lifestyle, that demonstrate that health-giving foods not only provide pleasure but can make a huge difference in our lives. With its delicious, easy-to-prepare recipes — from Steamed Asparagus with Cardamom Butter to Fragrant Cinnamon Pork with Sweet Potatoes, and beyond — and concise health information, this delightful book opens up a whole new world of tastes for us to enjoy every day and to share with family and friends.

Andrew Sean Greer, Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. "We are each the love of someone's life," begins The Confessions of Max Tivoli. Andrew Sean Greer's widely acclaimed second novel follows the eponymous hero, who was born with the physical appearance of an elderly man and grows older mentally like any child while his body appears to age backwards, growing younger every year. And yet, his physical curse proves to be a blessing, allowing him to try to win the heart of the same woman three times as at each successive encounter she fails to recognize him, taking him for a stranger, so giving Max another chance at love. Hailed as "resplendently poetic and loftily sorrowing" by John Updike, The Confessions of Max Tivoli is a beautiful and daring feat of the imagination. This event is co-sponsored by Portland Arts and Lectures.

Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Thursday the 17th, 7:30PM, Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. With starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, plus glowing blurbs from the likes of Charles Baxter, Rattawut Lapcharoensap could be the next big literary sensation. His first book, Sightseeing, is a glorious fiction debut written with exceptional acuity by an award-winning twenty-five-year-old Thai-American writer. Gorgeous and lush, painful and candid, Sightseeing is an extraordinary reading experience, one that powerfully reveals that when it comes to how we respond to pain, anger, hurt, and love, no place is too far from home.

Friday, 18th

Michael Shermer, Friday the 18th, 7:30PM, Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. Bestselling author of Why People Believe Weird Things and publisher of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer is ready to disbelieve you. In his newest book, Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, Shermer delves into the unknown, from heretical ideas about the boundaries of the universe to Star Trek's lessons about chance and time. From a scientist who pretends to be a psychic for a day — and fools everyone — to a son who explores the possibilities of alternative and experimental medicine for his cancer-ravaged mother, Science Friction delivers a thought-provoking, fascinating, and entertaining view of life in the scientific age.

Saturday, 19th

Sunday, 20th

Nikki Giovanni, Sunday, February 20, 2005 7:30 p.m., Lewis & Clark's Flanagan Chapel, $8 General Public and Free for L&C Students/Faculty/Staff. As one of the most widely read American poets, Nikki Giovanni has written over two dozen books and essays. The world-renowned poet, commentator, writer, activist, and educator has received numerous awards and honors for her work. Nikki Giovanni has received NAACP Image Awards, the Langston Hughes Award, the Rosa Parks Women of Courage Award, and is a member of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not only has she been named Woman of the Year by three magazines, but she has received 21 honorary doctorates from various universities across the country.
Ms. Giovanni received a bachelor of Arts from Fisk University and is currently a Professor of English at Virginia Tech. There will be a reception held at the college's Frank Manor House prior to the lecture. Tickets for that event will be $25 and can be purchased at the door. The reception will start at 6:00pm. Tickets for both events will be available at the Lewis & Clark Bookstore. Will call available for lecture. Bring L&C ID. For more regarding tickets and event information contact Bookstore: 503-768-7885 or Cedra Fox: cfox@lclark.edu

OPEN MIC READING: Noir (The Rabbit Hole), Beat Revival; Host: Chris Canttrell, Sundays @ 9:30pm, 203 SE Grand Ave. (SW corner of SE Grand & Ankeny), Portland, OR, 503-231-2925.

Monday, 21st

Kevin Canty, Monday the 21st, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The award-winning author of Into the Great Wide Open and Honeymoon and Other Stories returns with a stunning new novel. Winslow in Love breathtakingly captures both the beauty and the complexity of a relationship between a creatively stagnant, overweight, alcoholic poet and a damaged young woman half his age bent on her own brand of self-destruction. The piercing prose of Winslow in Love reaffirms Kevin Canty's status as one of America's finest writers.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Xenos House of Culture, Host: Phread, Mondays @ 8-9:30pm, poetry open-mics every Monday. Poetry Slams follow open-mics on the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month. 8527 Lombard St., St. Johns, 503-735-9125, 503-283-8860.

Tuesday, 22nd

Emily Raboteau, Tuesday the 22nd, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. A daughter's future and her father's past converge in Emily Raboteau's The Professor's Daughter, an explosive first novel exploring identity, assimilation, and the legacy of race. When Emma Boudreaux's older brother, Bernie, winds up in a coma after a freak accident, it's as if she loses a part of herself. The key to Emma's self-discovery lies in her father's tortured history. In exhilarating, magical prose, The Professor's Daughter traces the borderlands of race and family, the contested territory that gives birth to rage, confusion, madness, and invisibility. This striking debut marks the arrival of an astonishingly original voice that surges with energy and purpose.

OPEN MIC READINGS. Cyberccino Café, The Meander Readings Open Mic Poetry Tuesdays @ 7:30PM, 2130 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon, 503-281-6584.

Wednesday, 23rd

Write Time Writing Group, Wednesday the 23rd, 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.

Classics Book Group, Wednesday the 23rd, 7:00PM Powell's Books in Beaverton. This month we discuss Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh as well as A Long Day’s Journey into Night. New members are always welcome to join.

Authors’ Night, with Tracy Daugherty, Marjorie Sandor, and Scott Nadelson. Clackamas Community College Literary Arts Center, RR 220, 7 p.m., Wednesday evening. Daugherty’s recent novel, Axeman’s Jazz (Southern Methodist University Press), received the Oregon Book Award for the Novel this past year, the same year Sandor’s Portrait of My Mother, Who Posed Nude in Wartime (Sarabande Books) was an Oregon Book Award finalist for short fiction. And this same year, Nadelson’s Saving Stanley (Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts) received the Oregon Book Award for Short Fiction. Come hear the three of them share their work and answer questions. 7 p.m., Literary Arts Center at Clackamas Community College, Wednesday, February 23.

Thursday, 24th

Dennis Britten presents his book Made in Oregon. Local poet Dennis Britten will be reading from his new and selected poetry. In lyrical verse, Britten evokes the natural beauty of Oregon and his experience of it. These pieces were written over a period of more than 40 years and are reflections of the poet's heritage as an Oregonian, Thursday, February 24, 2005, 7:30 PM, Annie Bloom's Books.

Karsten Heuer, Thursday the 24th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. Accompanied by a remarkable Border collie named Webster, Karsten Heuer set off on a grand adventure: to move through the land as a bear or wolf might, 2,100 miles along the spine of the Rocky Mountains. Walking the Big Wild: From Yellowstone to the Yukon on the Grizzly Bear's Trail is the riveting account of his journey. He faced ferocious storms, avalanches, and raging rivers; lost one girlfriend, found another; and kept hiking despite the suspicions of hunters, ranchers, and miners. And then there were the grizzlies.... Tonight's event includes a slideshow.

OPEN MIC READINGS: Mojo Coffee Den, Thursdays: 8:30 pm, Writer's Right; Host: Emily Riley, Thursdays @ 9:30 PM, 2816 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97214, 503-236-2084.

Friday, 25th

Clackamas Literary Review Reading. Join us as we celebrate the publication of the new 2005 issue of the CLR. Readers whose work has been published in this issue are Diane Williams Stepp, Verlena Orr, Mir Emanpoor, and Yuvi Zalkow. Noon-1:00, Literary Arts Center (RR 220), Clackamas Community College, 19600 S. Molalla Ave., Oregon City, OR. Free.

The Story of Canada Lee, Friday the 25th, 7:30PM Powell's City of Books on Burnside. In Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee, award-winning playwright and journalist Mona Z. Smith brings us the first-ever biography of the great black actor, activist, athlete — and victim of the blacklist. Once revered, now largely forgotten, Canada Lee was as familiar to audiences as Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman are today. Among the most respected black actors of the '40s and a tireless civil rights advocate, Lee was unjustly dishonored, his name reduced to a footnote in the history of the McCarthy era, his death one of a handful directly attributable to the blacklist. After nearly a decade of research, Mona Z. Smith revives the legacy of a man who was perhaps the blacklist's most tragic victim.

Regional Literary Events

2005-01-24T01:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Regional Readings, January 18 on

2005-01-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

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.