Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, March 2-8

Monday, March 02, 2015

Emily Goldman, GoLocalPDX Contributor

If someone could please explain to me why Thursday is Portland’s busiest day of the week in the literary events calendar, I would deeply appreciate it. I’m starting to sound like a broken record exclaiming about how there are too many events to choose from almost every Thursday.

Starting off the week on Monday, Powell’s City of Books will be hosting Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell, co-authors of Tales from Another Mother Runner as they share their stories and experiences of running marathons and being involved in the mother runner community. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Tuesday at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills, Kim Gordon, singer, bassist, and founding member of the rock band Sonic Youth will be reading from and discussing her recent memoir Girl in a Band, exploring both her relationship to Sonic Youth and the development of modern American music genres and her long-time marriage to fellow band-founding member Thurston Moore. Gordon will be joined in conversation by local novelist and screenwriter Jon Raymond. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Also on Tuesday, Michael Gazzaniga, also known as “the father of cognitive neuroscience” and one of the scientists responsible for the split-brain theory, will be at Powell’s City of Books presenting his autobiography From Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience about his lifetime studying brains and how the spheres of our brain communicate (or miscommunicate). 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Wednesday, two bestselling urban fantasy authors will be at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills. Patricia Briggs, author of the popular Mercy Thompson books, will be reading from Dead Heat, the fourth book in her Alpha and Omega series. Anne Bishop, author of the Black Jewels trilogy, will have with her Vision in Silver, the third book in her Novel of the Others series. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Also on Wednesday, novelist and screenwriter Richard Price (you may recognize him as one of the writers for The Wire) will be at Powell’s City of Books with his latest detective novel The White, written under the pseudonym Harry Brandt. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

First on Thursday, Another Reading Through will be celebrating the book launch of local author Margaret Pinard’s second book Dulci’s Legacy, a YA novel about a girl living on Cape Breton Island who starts having inexplicable visions. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Also on Thursday, Broadway Books will be hosting poet and essayist Terry Martin, who will be reading from her new collection of poetry The Light You Find, and novelist Kate Gray, who will be reading from her debut novel Carry the Sky. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Next on Thursday at the Independent Publishing Resource Center, Inara Verzemnieks and Jenny Boully will be reading their work in an evening dedicated to nonfiction writing. This event co-sponsored by the IPRC and the Marylhurst Reading Series. 1001 SE Division St., 7pm, FREE

Thursday is a big day for Portland State University. Ooligan Press will be celebrating the book launch for their upcoming anthology Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity, which contains over 25 essays written by queer writers about their own take on the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage and how marriage isn’t the be-all, end-all for achieving full equality and recognition. The event will feature several author readings and a discussion about the issues and complications surrounding the marriage equality campaign. Smith Memorial Student Union Room 294, 6pm, FREE

Additionally, Katherine Dunn, author of the novel Geek Love, will be giving a reading just a couple of doors down from the launch event. In other words, if you find yourself at PSU on Thursday evening, you’ll be getting two literary events for the price of one! Smith Memorial Student Union Room 238, 6:30pm, FREE

Reed College will be hosting poet and Research Jen Bervin, whose work focuses on the interweaving of text and textile, as part of their Visiting Writers series. Eliot Chapel, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd, 6:30pm, FREE

Lastly on Thursday, local author Tracy Manaster will be at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills presenting her debut novel You Could Be Home By Now about an Arizona luxury retirement community, two new staff members struggling to do their jobs in the midst of their grief, a resident who’s revealed be raising her grandson in secret, and what happens to all these characters when that story goes viral. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

On Friday, acclaimed novelist Molly Gloss will be at Broadway Books where she will be receiving an award for her novel Falling From Horses from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, an award given to six novels this year to authors residing in the Pacific Northwest, selected by owners and staff members of independent bookstores in the region. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 6-7pm, FREE

Also on Friday at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills, C.S. Harris will be presenting Who Buries the Dead, the latest in his long-running series of historical mysteries featuring the 19th century London Viscount Sebastian St. Cyr. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

On Saturday, illustrator Carson Ellis, best-known for his artwork for the MG series Wildwood and the indie band the Decemberists, will be at Powell’s City of Books with his debut picture book titled Home, which explores what it means to call a place home through gorgeously realized artwork. 1005 W Burnside St., 2pm, FREE

Also on Saturday, another round of the 10th annual Poetry Out Loud competition will be held at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 4pm, FREE

On Sunday, Powell’s at Cedar Hills celebrates the 10th anniversary of the children’s character Fancy Nancy with a special anniversary edition of the first ever Nancy Fancy picture book. At the bookstore will be author Jane O’Connor and illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 2pm, FREE

For the last week’s even on Sunday, prolific poety and arts organizer Michelle Tea will be at Powell’s City of Books presenting her book How to Grow Up, a memoir-in-essays exploring her first adult years living in San Francisco and growing into her career. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE