Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, September 20-27

Monday, September 21, 2015

Emily Goldman, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Photo Credit: Broadway Books (cropped)

Happy Monday!

If you haven’t heard, Portland’s very own national literary podcast Late Night Library is launching a book club this coming November. In keeping with Late Night Library’s mission to shine a spotlight on new authors, the book club will feature solely debut titles, with a focus on titles penned by women and people of color. Subscribers will get a new title in the mail every month (and occasionally extra goodies) and the author will be featured on Late Night Library’s podcast Late Night Debut. People Like You by Margaret Malone, published by Portland independent Press Atelier26, has been selected as the inaugural title. Subscriptions are $9.99 a month, and you can sign up here.

MONDAY
Oregonian columnist Steve Duin will be at Broadway Books with his new novel The Less We Touch, a story about the politics of high school sports, based on a the true story of a Lake Oswego coach and the actions he took on behalf of his students. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Carol Riggs will be a Powell’s at Cedar Hills reading from her debut YA novel The Body Institute, the story of a teenage girl named Morgan who can temporarily take over other people’s bodies and leave them feeling great afterwards, a sweet gig until glitches start occurring with the tech. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Short story master Joy Williams will be sharing her her first story collection in over 10 years, 33 stories both old and new, titled The Visiting Privilege at Powell’s City of Books. She will be joined in conversation by Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

Anita Feng will be reading her novel Sid, which mixes classic and modern storytelling as she in she imagines what the Buddha’s life would have looked like in the modern world. at Powell’s on Hawthorne. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

TUESDAY
At Annie Bloom’s Books, Fayette Fox will be sharing her book The Deception Artist about an imaginative eight-year-old who repeatedly lies to make herself feel better who sets it aside in order to uncover the truth about what’s going on with her family. 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 7-8pm, FREE

Richard Goodfellow will be at Powell’s at Cedar Hills reading from his debut novel Collector of Secrets, a thriller in which an American English teacher in Japan is on the run from the Yakuza with only a stolen diary that everyone wants and which might be the key to his survival. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

At Powell’s City of Books, Amy Stewart will be presenting her latest novel Girl Waits with Gun, based on the true story of Constance Kopp, one of the United States’ first female sheriffs, in which her fight for restitution for property damage gives her an opportunity to aid the sheriff and pack a gun of her own. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

WEDNESDAY
Comics artist Aaron Lopestri, illustrator on titles such as Wonder Woman, Justice League Captain Marvel, and Uncanny X-Men, will be at Things From Another World celebrating the release of the first issue of his new creator-owned miniseries titled Power Cubed about a teenager who can create whatever he wants with a strange piece of alien technology, which he’s going to use to rescue his abducted father. 2916 NE Broadway Ave., 4-7pm, FREE

Portland author Judy Nemery will be at Annie Bloom's Books presenting the third book in her mystery series set in the Willamette Valley wine country titled The Man Who Wasn’t There, in which a prominent wine pioneer is murdered after getting into a fight with a developer who wants to build a destination resort near his vineyards. 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 7-8pm, FREE

Broadway Books will be hosting Lidia Yuknavitch, acclaimed memoirist and author of the recently published novel The Small Backs of Our Children, and Liz Prato, author of the debut short story collection Baby’s On Fire. 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

At Powell’s at Cedar Hills, Elisabeth Egan, book editor at Glamour magazine, will be presenting her debut novel A Window Opens, the story of Alice Pearse, a modern-day Bridget Jones wanting to have it all and be it all as she struggles to adjust to her husband’s radical career change and the subsequent changes in her personal, professional, and familial life. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Powell’s City of Books is hosting novelist and film & TV writer Jerry Stahl, who will be reading from his new book Old Guy Dad, a memoir a mix of previously published columns in The Rumpus and new material, detailing his adventures of he and his girlfriend having a baby while he’s fighting a terminal disease. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

THURSDAY
Local poets Amy Schutzer, Nancy Slavin, and Rita Traut Kabeto will each be reading from their respective books of poetry at Another Read Through. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

At Powell’s at Cedar Hills, learn more about the enigmatic Parkinson’s Disease and how scientists have been struggling for years on end to make any progress in finding a cure with journalist Jon Palfreman, author of Brian Storms: The Race to Unlock the Mysteries of Parkinson’s Disease. He will be joined in conversation by Holly Chaimov, Executive Director of Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon, the sponsor of the event. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

David Baker will be at Powell’s City of Books presenting his debut novel Vintage, in which a desperate food journalist attempts to save his career by tracking down a valuable bottle of wine stolen half a century ago by the Nazis. Baker will be joined in conversation by winemaker Scott Wright. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

Powell’s on Hawthorne will be hosting Kevin Griffin who will be discussing recovery from addiction and reading from his book Recovering Joy: A Mindful Life After Addiction. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

Reading Frenzy will be hosting the release party for author and artist Lisa Congdon’s quotation book titled Fortune Favors the Brave, a book filled with quotes meaningful to her which she hand-lettered herself. 3628 N Mississippi Ave., 7pm, FREE

FRIDAY
Another Read Through will be hosting not one, not two, not three, but seven authors as part of the book launch for a collaborative creative effort titled the Paradisi Chronicles, a science fiction universe in which ten families have left Earth to found colonies in New Eden in the Paradisi System, only to find the land already inhabited by aliens whom they must learn to live side-by-side with. The seven founding authors will be reading from their respective books, all of which are being released on the same days. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 7-8:30pm, FREE

At Broadway Books, Kim van Alkemade will be reading from her debut novel Orphan Number Eight, a historical novel based on a true story about what happens following a meeting between a woman and the doctor who performed dangerous medical experiments on her in a Jewish orphanage as a child.1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Celebrated memoirist Mary Karr will be at Powell’s City of Books presenting her newest book The Art of the Memoir, in which Karr breaks down her own writing process and how she recalls and reassembles her own history, exploring the intersection between memory and identity as she recreates her own past. Karr will be joined in conversation by Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

SATURDAY
At Powell’s City of Books, music fans will appreciate hearing Bryan C. Parker read from his book Beat Happening’s Beat Happening, the story of the Olympia-based lo-fi band who released five songs in the eighties with record company K Records that changed the face of music. Joining Parker will be the members of Beat Happening and K Records founder Calvin Johnson 1005 W Burnside St., 4pm, FREE

Roll Up Photo Studio and Gallery will be hosting a reading with poets Paul Maziar and C.E. Putnam with live music performed by Kris Doty and Martha Bryan. 1715 SE Spokane St., 6-8:30pm, FREE

SUNDAY
Vu Tran will be at Powell’s on Hawthorne sharing his debut novel Dragonfish, the story of an Oakland cop blackmailed into searching the underbelly of Las Vegas for his ex-wife by her current husband, a search that takes him back decades to her past in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 4pm, FREE

The reading series À reading is having its 21st reading, and in honor of the occasion, there will be a poetry reading and performance with Sidony O’neal, Jamie Mortara, Clementine von Radics, and Christian M. Patterson at Valentines. 232 SW Ankeny St., 5-8pm, FREE

At Powell’s City of Books, Franklin Veaux, writer and founder of the polyamory website More than Two, will be reading from his memoir about his open marriage which he and his wife were forced to reconceptualize when they met a woman for whom they both developed feelings titled The Game Changer: A Memoir of Disruptive Love. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE