Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, Feb. 23-March 1

Monday, February 23, 2015

Emily Goldman, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Photo Credit: A Children's Place (cropped)

This week is starting off with some non-event related news! As some of you may have known, A Children's Place, the oldest independent children's bookstore in Portland, announced in December plans to move from their location on NE 48th Avenue and Fremont to a new location further west while remaining in the same neighborhood. The store's booksellers have been hard at work this past week packing up in the old location and packing in the new one. A Children's Place will officially opene in their new location at 1423 NE Fremont Street this week, day to be determined due to technological snafus. Make sure to go over and say hello to the booksellers and congratulate them on the terrifying endeavor that is moving an entire store!

Portland's literary events don't start this week until Tuesday. Powell’s City of Books is hosting a reading for the 10th annual Poetry Out Loud, a competition created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation in which high school students across the country memorize and recite from a wide selection of classic and modern poetry to compete for more than $50,000 in college scholarships. Tuesday’s event will feature students from Oregon high schools in the northeastern and eastern parts of the state, including the Portland metro area, the winners of whom will advance to the state competition. You can check out Poetry Out Loud’s website for more information. 1005 W Burnside St., 9:30am, FREE

Later this Tuesday evening, Peter Stark will be at Broadway Books reading from his book Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, an adventurous re-telling of the Astor expedition in which two advance parties of over 140 members set out in 1810 to found Fort Astoria, the first colony and trading post in the Pacific Northwest. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Lastly on Tuesday evening, there will be a discussion at Powell’s City of Books centered around a new oral history collection of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza titled Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life under Occupation edited by Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke. Hoke will be reading from and discussing the collection, and he will be joined in conversation by Casey Jarman, former editor at The Believer. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

Wednesday night is Historical Fiction Reading time at Annie Bloom’s Books. Ian Weir will be reading from his novel Will Starling, a rollicking tale set in England following the Napoleanic War in the middle of London’s slums, and Stacy Carlson will be reading from her novel Among the Wonderful, following the early days of P.T. Barnum as he founds his museum of the uncanny and strange. 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 7pm, FREE

Also on Wednesday, Matt Sumell will be at Powell’s City of Books reading from his novel-length collection of stories Making Nice, all of whom follow the pursuits of a angry, violent young man named Alby looking for a way out of the pain he feels as he goes about punching people in the face in one moment and takes care of a baby bird and his grandmother in the next. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

Once again, Thursday is packed with author events. First off, acclaimed poet Yonah Harvey and author of the poetry collection Hemming the Water will be speaking at Reed College as part of their Visiting Writers Series. Performance Art Building #320, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., 6:30pm, FREE

Next on Thursday is the book launch at Another Read Through of local author Courtney Pierce’s newest book The Executrix about three sisters who, in search of a dog gone missing, figure out how to reunite in the way of their mother’s death, and help the protagonist Olivia publish her next book. There will be a reading and a Q&A, not to mention champagne. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Broadway Books’ Thursday offering is local author Mark Pomeroy reading from his book The Brightwood Stillness, published by Oregon State University Press. This debut novel tackles the issues that arise when two men, one a Vietnamese immigrant and the other a nephew of a Vietnam veteran, attempt to confront their pasts and what effects they have had on their present troubles. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

On Thursday, Annie Bloom’s Books will be hosting Nicole C. Kear, author of the memoir Now I See You about how following a diagnosis of the disease retinitis pigmentosa, which would leave her blind, Nicole threw caution to the winds to go on adventures and raise her children before losing her sight for good. 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 7-8:30pm, FREE

Also on Thursday at Powell’s City of Books, John Benditt will be presenting his novel The Boatmaker, published by the Portland-based publisher Tin House. The novel starts out with an island-bound man deciding upon waking from a fever dream to build a boat and sail away to the mainlaind, where he struggles to understand this world’s society, and so comes to better understand himself. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

Thursday’s last event at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, is Ander Monson’s presentation and reading from his book Letter to a Future Lover, a collection of essays concerning “library ephemera,” the signs, details, and inscriptions left behind in physical books, and what these signs say about the ever-changing relationship between humans and the act of reading and writing. 3732 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

On Friday, Powell’s City of Books presents Mary Pilon, NYT reporter and author of the first full-length book exploring the hidden origins and history of the popular board game Monopoly and the social history of corporate greed and American business practices. She will be reading from her book The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal behind the World’s Favorite Board Game. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Saturday, Literary Arts is hosting slam poetry youth workshops with public open mics to follow. Led by Turiya Autry, author of Roots, Reality, and Rhyme, these workshops are geared towards Portland public high school students to share and perform their own work. The open mics are open to the public. 925 SW Washington St., 1-3pm, FREE

Finally on Saturday, Timothy S. Lane, author of the 2014 debut novel Rules for Becoming a Legend, will be giving a reading at Glyph Café and Art Space. 804 NW Couch St., 5-6:30pm, FREE