Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, August 10-16

Monday, August 10, 2015

Emily Goldman, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Happy Monday!

This week is particularly event-packed, with a grand total of six literary events to choose from on Thursday. Variety is the spice of life, right? Have fun choosing and sampling!

MONDAY
There will be a Ladies Night poetry reading featuring poets Fråncëscå Cāpønę, Colleen Louise Barry, Natalia Panzer, and Laura A. Warman at Valentine’s. 232 SW Ankeny St., 8pm, FREE

At Powell’s on Hawthorne, Chitra Viraraghavan will be reading from her novel The Americans, a novel whose connected stories of eleven Indians and Indian Americans living all over the United States has drawn favorable comparisons to Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

Val Brelinski will be at Powell’s City of Books presenting her debut novel The Girl Who Slept with God, the story of three sisters whose world is turned upside-down when the youngest, most religious sister Grace returns home from a missionary trip pregnant with whom she believes is the child of God. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

TUESDAY
Local author Polly Dugan will be at Broadway Books reading from her new YA novel The Sweetheart Deal in which a man named Garrett finds himself in the position of needing to fulfill a promise he made to his best friend to marry said friend’s wife if he ever dies. Dugan will be joined in conversation by fellow local author Scott Nadelson. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Powell’s at Cedar Hills will be hosting Cat Winters, who will be reading from her new novel The Uninvited, a story set during the Great Influenza of 1918 about a young woman who arises from her sickbed to flee the ghosts who continue to haunt her and are ever-growing in number. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

At Powell’s City of Books, Katy Simpson Smith will be presenting her novel The Story of Land and Sea, a multigenerational tale spanning from the Revolutionary War to the present day in which a former pirate returns to sea in order to heal his sick daughter, a plantation owner goes against society’s expectations to seek love with a pirate turned Continental soldier, and a female slave forced into marriage fights to protect her son. Smith will be joined in conversation by Pauls Toutonghi, author of Evel Knievel Days. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

WEDNESDAY
In Other Words will be hosting this month’s Unchaste Readers event. This reading will consist entirely of women of color, and will feature authors Melanie Alldritt, Shannon Barber, Nadia Martinez Chantry, Anna Doogan, Tessara Gabrielle Dudley, Jamondria Marnice Harris, S. Renee Mitchell, Olivia Olivia, Ijeoma Oluo, Sidony O’neal, Maria Talicuran, and Monet Patrice Thomas. 14 NE Killingsworth St., 7pm, FREE

Jennifer Bird will be at Annie Bloom’s Books presenting her book Permission Granted, a book which encourages readers to take the Bible into their own hands and explore the texts on their own terms.
7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 7-8pm, FREE

At Powell’s at Cedar Hills, Colleen Houck will be presenting the first book in a new YA series titled Reawakened in which teenager Lilliana stumbles upon a reawakened Egyptian prince in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and travels back in time with him to stop an evil god from conquering the world. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Powell’s City of Books will be hosting National Book Award-winning author William T. Vollman, who will be reading from his latest novel The Dying Grass, the fifth entry in his series of books about the settlement of North America. The Dying Grass tells the story of the Nez Perce War in the late nineteenth century told from the perspective of United States General Oliver Otis Howard. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

THURSDAY
Another Read Through will be hosting local author Sandra de Helen, who will be sharing her Portland-based mystery series featuring Detective Shirley Combs who utilizes Sherlock Holmes’ methods to solve crimes alongside narrator Dr. Mary Watson. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Broadway Books will be celebrating the state of Oregon and the works of Nestucca Spit Press with authors Matt Love, author of the memoir/tour guide A Nice Piece of Astoria; Tim Sproul, author of his third poetry collection Newported: A Poetic Field Guide to the Pacific Coast; and Bill Hall, author of the novel McCallandia, an alternate history in which Oregon Governor Tom McCall becomes the president of the United States instead of Ronald Reagan. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Poet Seth Landman and poet/musician Mike Young will be giving a reading at the IPRC. 1001 SE Division St., 7:30pm, FREE

Mother Foucault’s Bookshop will be celebrating the authors of Abandon Press with authors David Longoria, Dusty Santamaria, musician Justin Fallen, and guests Sarah Archer and Rose Schwartz. The event will be hosted by Travis Champ. 523 SE Morrison St., 7pm, FREE

Portland’s craft beers, breweries, and the men and women who create them have come to be one of the city’s most identifying features, all of which is explored in the book Portland Beer Stories: Behind the Scenes with the City’s Craft Brewers. Author Steve Shomler will be at Powell’s City of Books discussing the book and Portland’s beer history and scene. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

At Powell’s on Hawthorne, novelist Juliet Cardinal will be reading from her novel An Irish Volunteer, a turn-of-the-century novel set in revolutionary Ireland and based on true, tragic relationship between the eccentric Catholic and noble-born poet Joe Plunkett who joins a secret society supporting Irish independence and Grace Gifford, a Protestant artist. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE