Portland Book Events: October 6-11

From what I could find (please contact me if you have an event you would like me to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of October 6, 2009 through October 11, 2009 are:

Tuesday October 6-

Title Raves: Assigned Reading (Central Library, US Bank Room, @12:00pm): Rave about your reading faves @your library. Remember junior high and high school required reading? Did you sleep through The Scarlet Letter? Read the CliffsNotes for The Canterbury Tales? Adults are rediscovering – and enjoying – the classics that bewildered them as students. Library Director Vailey Oehlke; Martha Gies, writer and teacher, author of “Up All Night;” Robert Brock, Professor Emeritus, University of Montana, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Craig Johnson, who taught Language Arts and Foreign Languages at the Metropolitan Learning Center, will talk about the highlights – and lowlights – of those classics novels. Program participants are encouraged to share their experiences – be prepared to name names (authors and titles)!

Share your faves with the group — and the world. Title Raves recommendations will be posted on the library’s website.

IFCC and Slow Food Portland present U-Pick Cook Zine Party (IFCC, @5:30pm, $8 includes a book): Good, Clean, and Fair food recipes, poetry and short stories about food fill the community created “IFCC food art and words cook book zine”. Personalize your copy by creating a veggie stamp print cover in our kitchen print workspace. Bring your favorite recipe or a question to the Slow Food Advice Booth and enjoy a performance by the lovely and funny ladies- “The Librarians”!

Origins of Multnomah County Library Opening Reception (Central Library, Collins Gallery, @5:30pm): To celebrate Oregon Archive Month and National Archives Month, the Collins Gallery is exhibiting a selection of primary sources on the origins of Multnomah County Library. Using the combined resources of the Multnomah County Archives, the John Wilson Special Collections and Multnomah County Library, this exhibition features photographs, documents, plans and other materials that describe the beginnings and early history of what is now known as Multnomah County Library, which first opened in 1864. The physical features of the library’s numerous buildings, including Central Library (which opened in 1913) and the branches, and the library’s administrative history will be the major focus of this unique exhibition.

Please join us for opening remarks by exhibition co-curators Jim Carmin and Terry Baxter.

Zinesters Talking (Central Library, US Bank Room, @6:30pm): Local independent publishers read from their zines in the fifth annual Zinesters Talking series. “Art for the Millions” author Marc Moscato showcases WPA artworks in Portland and Becky Morton takes you way back to “The Oregon Trail.”

Book Group Spectacular (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:00pm): On Tuesday, October 6, Annie Bloom’s will be throwing a double-whammy of a book group event! First, at 7:00, we’ll meet with everyone who wants to join a book group and tell you all about how Annie Bloom’s book groups work. If you haven’t already filled out one of our Book Group Interest forms, contact us and get on the list … or just show up on October 6 and dive right in!

Next, at 7:30, enjoy complimentary refreshments, while our reps from Random House and Simon & Schuster share their favorite book group picks. We’ll be offering big discounts (plus a few free giveaways!) on Katie and Amy’s favorite books that night, so it’ll be a perfect time for your book group — new or long-standing — to choose your next read (or two, or three!).

Please join us for either or both parts of our Book Group Spectacular. Whether you’re in a book group, looking to join one, or just love hearing about books, it will be a fun gathering and a great way to discover your next good read.

Craft Circle Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil. Bring your crafting supplies as we talk books and crafts.

LECTURE: Going to School with Milton, or Great Texts in the Early Modern Classroom (Lewis & Clark College, Council Chambers, Templeton Student Center, @7:00pm): Craig Kallendorf, professor of Modern and Classical Languages at Texas A & M University, will offer this look at the rise of the common educational system that prevailed in Europe and the areas colonized by Europeans from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries, a system that privileged the humanities and was based in the Greek and Latin classics.  Dr. Kallendorf is the author of Virgil and the Myth of Venice: Books and Readers in the Italian Renaissance.

Diana Page Jordan on the Art of the Interview (Old Church, @7:00pm, $10): Diana Page Jordan will speak to our Willamette Writer’s Portland meeting. With a rich background in diverse media, the meeting is sure to be as informative as it will be inspiring.

You may know her as KATU-TV’s Book Reviewer. Recently, she has gotten a lot of exposure interviewing authors for her radio show Open Book with Diana Jordan. It is that high energy approach that has helped her interview Best Selling authors such as John Grisham, Ann Rule, Chuck Palahniuk and Tess Gerritsen. Diana presses her web presence with a blog where she gives a short review of a different book each day. The website is a catch all platform for her work which includes voiceovers, television appearances, radio interviews and speaking engagements. She has also distilled her interviewing experiences into a book titled BookMark: Life-Changing Secrets I’ve Learned from Interviewing Authors.

David Sibley (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In The Sibley Guide to Trees (Knopf), the man who revolutionized the field guide to birds now brings his formidable skills of identification and illustration to the more than 600 tree species of North America.

UP Readings and Lectures Series presents John Felstiner (University of Portland, Buckley Center 163, @7:30pm): Award-winning author, translator and biographer John Felstiner will lecture on literary translation and read from his latest book Can Poetry Save the Earth?: A Field Guide to Nature Poems.

Wednesday October 7-

Oregon Humanities presents Think & Drink with Richard Read & Lijia Zhang (rontoms, 600 E Burnside, @6:30pm): Pulitzer Prize-winning Oregonian reporter Richard Read and Wordstock visiting journalist and author Lijia Zhang (Socialism is Great! and Western Images of Chairman Mao) for a discussion about life in modern China, journalistic freedom, and writing as social action.

Zhang is in Portland through Pacific Northwest College of Art’s (PNCA) writers’ week, which features authors who are part of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP). She and the other visiting IWP writers will be participating in events at Wordstock and Portland State University’s Portland Center for Public Humanities, as well as at PNCA.

David Ehrlich Reading (Reed College, Psychology 105, @6:30pm): Israeli fiction writer David Ehrlich was a staff writer for Ha’aretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, a reporter and producer for Israeli radio, and recently published two collections of short stories, Tuesday and Thursday Mornings and 18 Blue. He has lectured widely in the U.S. on topics such as literary representations of the Middle East crisis, and regularly moderates readings and discussions at his literary café, T’mol Shilshom. A founder of the Israeli AIDS Task Force in the 1980s, Ehrlich has long been active on behalf of gay rights in Israel. He is writer-in-residence at Portland State University in September and October. Ehrlich will be reading from his fiction, in English.

P:EAR NOIR (Trim/Vojdani Gallery at p:ear, @7:00pm, $35): A benefit for p:ear including readings by Portland Noir authors Dan DeWeese, Zoe Trope and Jess Walter, presenting the top three stories from the Flash Fiction Contest, wine and a literary-themed live auction! BUY TICKETS HERE or call 503.228.6677.

Oregon Literary Review First Wednesday Reading Series (Blackbird Wineshop, @7:00pm): RV Branham, M. F. McAuliffe, and Kassten Alonso will read from their own work, and they will be followed by the 69+ Choir, with a musical rendition of certain exceprts from Curse and Berate in 69+ Languages.

Afterwards there will be miraculous ways to keep the event fresh in your mind for years to come: t-shirts, issues of Gobshite Quarterly (Venus Khoury-Ghata and Marmoud Darwish in English, French, and Arabic, Frederic Raphael in his glory). There will be spamphlets from the GobQ imprint Urban Serf, books (Core, and Curse and Berate), and glasses of wine, though these must be bought from Blackbird. There will be good fellowship and good company. Come! Enjoy!

This reading is part of the First Wednesday series sponsored by the Oregon Literary Review.

The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Buoyed by her firsthand experience, Cindy Hudson’s Book by Book (Seal Press) offers all the how-to tips mothers and daughters need to start their own successful book clubs.

Green Metropolis (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In Green Metropolis (Riverhead), David Owen argues that the greenest community in the U.S. is New York City. Owen appears in conversation with Ethan Seltzer, director of PSU’s School of Urban Studies and Planning. This event is co-sponsored by Portland Spaces and the City Club of Portland.

VOICES Contemporary Lectures presents Elizabeth Edwards (First Congregational Church, @7:30pm): Mrs. Edwards has inspired countless women through her willingness to publicly share her battle with breast cancer through her book Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers, a memoir of her trials, tragedies, and triumphs, and of how various communities celebrated her joys and lent her steady strength and quiet hope in darker times. Her new book, Resilience, was released in May.

Thursday October 8-

“Being a Gay Writer in Israel”: A Reading and Talk with David Ehrlich (Portland State University, Women’s Resource Center, @1:00pm): David Ehrlich, author of the short story collections Tuesday & Thursday Mornings and Blue 18 and founder and owner of Jerusalems landmark literary cafe Tmol Shilshom, is the Schusterman Visiting Israeli Writer-in-Residence at PSU.

Michael Buckley (A Children’s Place Bookstore, @4:00pm): A Children’s Place is delighted to welcome back Michael Buckley (The Sisters Grimm) as he presents the first book in a new series, NERDS – National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society. Combining the excitement of international espionage and all the awkwardness of elementary school, NERDS features a group of students who run a spy network from inside their school, Buckley at his comic best. Join us Thursday, October 8 at 4:00 pm for a reading, author Q&A and book signing.

Dale Basye presents Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck (Barnes and Noble Clackamas, @7:00pm): Join us to welcome local young readers’ author Dale E. Basye as he presents his new book, Rapacia. In Book #2 from his popular ‘Heck’ series, Basye continues the purgatorial fun with wordplay and clever allusions that make this series sparkle.

Michael Buckley (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): N.E.R.D.S. (Amulet Books) is the debut of an exciting new series from Michael Buckley about a secret spy society made up of fifth-grade misfits who use their unique nerdiness to fight crime.

Deadly Diversions Mystery Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, and The Murder of Marie Roget by Edgar Allan Poe. Join us!

Willy Vlautin & Hannah Tinti (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Full of memorable characters, Northline (Harper Perennial) is an extraordinary portrait of contemporary America by writer and musician Willy Vlautin. Richly imagined and gothically spooky, Hannah Tinti’s novel The Good Thief (Dial) introduces one of the most appealing young heroes in contemporary fiction.

Wordstock presents 2nd Story: Stories & Music Live (McMenamins Bagdad Theater, @7:00pm, $20): 2nd Story mixes the immediacy of personal storytelling, the stage presence of theater, and the ambiance that only live music can provide. The result is a one-of-a-kind literary experience–by turns funny, mordant, clever, cringe-worthy, and lovely, and never less than engrossing, exhilarating, and moving.

Friday October 9-

Zoe Weil presents Most Good, Least Harm (Portland State, School of Business Admin. Bldg. – Room 170, @11:30am): Please join us for a FREE talk by Zoe Weil, author of Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life.

Every day we are bombarded by doomsday scenarios, advertising that promotes endless consumption, a declining American economy, and growing environmental problems. But when we do the most good and the least harm in our daily choices, acts of citizenship, community, work, and volunteerism, we create a life of inner peace while contributing to the building of a peaceful, sustainable world for all.

Zoe Weil “MOGO” Presentation (University of Portland, Shiley Hall, Room 319, @4:00pm): Please join us for a presentation with the cofounder and president of the Institute for Humane Education in Surry, Zoe Weil, author of Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life. Zoe will speak about the 7 Keys to the MOGO (most good) principle through an interactive presentation that will leave you motivated to make your own life an expression of your deepest values.

Jeff Lemire Reception and Book Signing (Floating World Comics, @6:00pm): Jeff Lemire is one of the most impressive cartoonists to emerge in the last several years. His graphic novel trilogy Essex County, has been a well-deserved critical darling, and continues to amaze anyone that picks it up.  His new graphic novel THE NOBODY was recently published by Vertigo.  Jeff is currently writing and drawing the new monthly Vertigo series SWEET TOOTH.   Lemire’s expressive ink work, moody storytelling, and a surprising sense of humanity are not to be missed.

Underground Comix From China an Art Exhibit, Minicomic and Zine Release (Floating World Comics, @6:00pm): This October, John Jay from Weiden & Kennedy has organized a series of art exhibits focusing on modern Chinese design, art, photography and fashion.  The exhibits span from the Ace Hotel to Old Town, a path that John has dubbed “The New Creative Corridor”.   The opening weekend (Oct. 9-10) coincides with the opening of JELLYGEN, next door at the Goldsmith Gallery.

I was given an underground Chinese comics anthology called “Special Comics”, filled with a variety of experimental Chinese comics artists I had never seen before.  From this collection we have curated a selection of 9 artists that deserve wider recognition.  In addition to digital prints of the artists’ work we will also print affordable zines and minicomics of their work, making their comics available to American audiences for the first time.

Warm Up For Wordstock (Blackbird Wineshop, @7:00pm): Join us on Friday evening to enjoy a reading by four of Oregon’s most highly regarded poets, Peter Sears, Shaindel Beers, John Morrison and Pamela Steele. The reading, sponsored by Breakerboy Communications, in association with Oregon Literary Review, helps kickoff Wordstock weekend. Come early to enjoy Blackbird’s Friday night wine tasting, then stay for great words by some of the region’s finest writers.

Saturday October 10-

Wordstock 2009 (Oregon Convention Center, 11:00am-5:00pm, $5): The largest celebration of literature and literacy in the Northwest, Wordstock is Portland’s annual festival of books, writers, and storytelling.  Featured authors include James Ellroy, Scott Westerfeld, Jeannette Walls, and R. A. Salvatore.  Oregon Book Award Finalists will take the stage, along with several other local authors.  Don’t forget Wordstock is also for Teachers and Writers, as well as the “general Wordstock community” alike. Check out the Wordstock website for a full schedule of events.

Deborah Hopkinson and Carson Ellis (A Children’s Place Bookstore, @11:00am): Oregon Book Award winner Deborah Hopkinson (Apples to Oregon, A Band of Angels) is joined by illustrator Carson Ellis (The Mysterious Benedict Society) to talk about and sign copies of their new book, Stagecoach Sal, a wild and wooly adventure–based on real-life stagecoach driver Delia Haskell–sure to entice even the most reluctant of readers and celebrate history.

DK Publishing LEGO Star Wars: Visual Dictionary Launch Event (Barnes and Noble Clackamas, @2:00pm): Join us as we welcome DK staff to launch the new LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary! We’ll feature visits with Star Wars characters, including a Stormtrooper, plus prizes giveaways (while supplies last), a costume contest, trivia, games and more!

Richard Dawkins (PSU Peter Stott Center, @6:30pm): CFI Portland is celebrating their one year anniversary by joining forces with A+, Atheist and Agnostics of Portland State University, and bringing in Richard Dawkins to discuss his new book: The Greatest Show on Earth, A Celebration of Life and Evidences of Evolution.  All general admission tickets for the event are free, but they will be released on a first-come, first-served basis the night of the event at the door.  We anticipate long lines and a full house – so be sure to arrive early!

Scott Westerfeld and Sarah Rees Brennan (Barnes and Noble Clackamas, @7:00pm): Join us as we welcome author Scott Westerfeld and debut author Sarah Rees Brennan to our store for a reading and signing event featuring their new books. Westerfeld is the author of bestselling titles for teens, including Uglies, Pretties and Specials.

4th Annual Text Ball (galleryHOMELAND @ the Ford Building, @7:00pm, $12-15): The 4th Annual Text Ball, Portland’s unique celebration of all things text, where attendees are encouraged to come dressed with text as part of their evening attire. The theme for this year’s ball is “A Novel Idea.”  The Text Ball will will feature live music, dancing, text-based refreshments, word games like scrabble, giant crossword puzzles, and “Speech-e-oke.” The evening will culminate in a costume parade, with literary prizes for the best outfits. Anyone who attends Wordstock can purchase a discounted ticket for only $8.  Otherwise, tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Tickets available on brownpapertickets.com

Live Wire presents the 5th Live Wire! Wordstock Extravaganza (Alladin Theater, @8:00pm, $35): This year’s show will feature literary renaissance man Sherman Alexie, crime writer extraordinaire James Ellroy, romance novel enthusiast and critic Candy Tan, world famous slam poet and publisher Derrick Brown, and more, including musical guests Blue Scholars and Y La Bamba.  Tickets available on Ticketmaster.com

Sunday October 11-

Wordstock 2009 (Oregon Convention Center, 11:00am-5:00pm, $5): The largest celebration of literature and literacy in the Northwest, Wordstock is Portland’s annual festival of books, writers, and storytelling.  Featured authors include James Ellroy, Scott Westerfeld, Jeannette Walls, and R. A. Salvatore.  Oregon Book Award Finalists will take the stage, along with several other local authors.  Don’t forget Wordstock is also for Teachers and Writers, as well as the “general Wordstock community” alike.  Check out the Wordstock website for a full schedule of events.

Carol Frischman presents Pets and the Planet (Green Bean Books, @11:00pm): Pets and the Planet author, Carol Frischmann, will visit Green Bean Books to share information from her new guide book about how to be a sustainable pet owner.  The Oregon Humane Society will also be present to offer information about their services and to provide two pets that will be available for adoption.

Flash Choir presents “Strangers Together” based on the poetry of William Stafford (Mississippi Studios, @3:00pm, $10): “Strangers Together” is a setting of 10 poems by Stafford’s book, Passwords. The songs are composed by Sarah Dougher, best known for her work as a solo folk-rock artist and music label owner, and are performed by the Flash Choir.

This project engages the work of Stafford, exploring in particular themes of human connection to animals and the divine, as well as human connection with other humans. Most experience poetry sitting, silently, reading. The choral rendition of these words in a public space will create an opportunity for communal listening, and most certainly a new way of hearing and understanding the work of Oregon’s first Poet Laureate. This project is sponsored by the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Sister Spit: Next Generation (Mississippi Studios, @8:00pm, $10): As part of the closing night for Wordstock the magnificent underground female-centric brilliance that is Sister Spit will read.  Readers include Michelle Tea, Beth Lisick, Sara Seinberg, Kirya Traber, Rhiannon Argo, Ariel Schrag, Ben McCoy, and special guests Nicole J. Georges and Dexter Flowers.

For further events check out the links to the community calendars for Tri-County area Libraries: Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County.