Tonight 1-13: Kathleen Halme at the Milwaukie Ledding Library

Today’s Featured Book Event:

Milwaukie Poetry Series featuring Kathleen Halme (Milwaukie Ledding Library, @7:00pm): January’s poet, Kathleen Halme, grew up in Wakefield Michigan on the state’s upper peninsula. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan, where her work was recognized with the Hopwood Creative Writing Award. In Drift and Pulse, her third book of poems, Kathleen Halme is fascinated with the domain where matter is experienced as mind. Drawing upon brain science, anthropology and biology, her poems take aim at the big questions of form and death. Her poems have appeared recently in Ploughshares, Poetry, Gulf Coast and 32 Poems. Kathleen Halme’s honors include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry, and a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship in anthropology. She lives with her husband in Portland.

Other Book Events Today:

Sharon Wood Wortman (Lake Oswego Library, @12:00pm): The Lake Oswego Library is very pleased to present bridge expert Sharon Wood Wortman. Sharon is the author of The Portland Bridge Book and Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass: Poems and Bridges Real and Imagined by 70 Poets, with Directions for Five Self-Guided Explorations. Sharon holds a Masters of Education from the University of Portland and has been writing since 1984. Her writing resume includes time as a journalist, a poet, and nonfiction author. She has been leading bridge walks for the Portland Parks and Recreation Department since 1991. Join us for her presentation to learn more about your local bridges, to understand the difference between various types of bridges, and to view some international marvels of engineering. Sharon is enthusiastic and incredibly informative. She makes it enjoyable to learn more about the landmarks that so visibly define this fair city. For more information about Sharon and her work, please visit the web site www.bridgestories.com.

An Afternoon with Oregon Author, R. Gregory Nokes (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, UO White Stage Bldg, @2:00pm): OLLI Members and their friends are encouraged to read Massacred for Gold, The Chinese in Hells Canyon and join author, R. Gregory Nokes, for an up-close and personal discussion of his work and novel. Hailed as “the first authoritative account of the long-forgotten 1887 massacre of as many as thirty-four Chinese gold miners in Oregon’s Hells Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America,” this book explores the atrocities of the massacre and its ensuing cover-up. Nokes also “examines the once-substantial presence of Chinese laborers in the interior Pacific Northwest, describing why they came, how their efforts contributed to the region’s development, and how often mistreatment and abuse were their only reward.”

William Stafford Celebratory Reading (Barnes & Noble-Vancouver, @7:00pm): Local icon Scot Siegel joins our second Wednesday Poetry Group for our annual Stafford event celebrating Oregon’s famous Poet Laureate. Enjoy free treats, a round table discussion and an open mic. Guest readers include Rosemary Lombard and Bill Siverly.

William Stafford Celebratory Reading (Beaverton City Library, @7:00pm): Hosted by Stacy Erickson and Barbara Murray. Featuring FWS Emeritus Board Member Sue Einowski. William Stafford’s poetry is much loved by high school teachers for its accessibility to students and its inspiration prompting us to see the world with fresh eyes. Two high school teachers share ideas for how to use Stafford’s poetry with students in new ways. A social studies teacher combines poetry with google trips to teach about the Tillamook burn, Celilo falls, nuclear testing, and a variety of other regional, historic, and ecologically important places and events. An English teacher shares using Stafford’s poetry to teach the themes of coming of age and the cycle of redemption through one poem a week for an entire term. Guests themselves will read and write during the workshop as well.

William Stafford Celebratory Reading (Marylhurst University, Hemlock Room, Villa Maria Hall, @7:00pm): Hosted by: Co-Presidents Lorian Gray and Beth Sample. Featuring FWS Board Member Leah Stenson.

Scott Lynn (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In a predominantly white suburb of Chicago in the early 1970s, black students were bussed in to attend Thornridge High School. They were not warmly received — until the Thornridge basketball team started winning, bringing fans together from both black and white communities. In Thornridge, Scott Lynn tells this story of prejudice and acceptance, adversity and triumph, and a team that changed attitudes while the players were having the time of their lives.

Ken Robinson (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): The “element” is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion, where people feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson’s The Element (Penguin) looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility.

Ink-Filled Page: Red Anthology Reading (St. John’s Booksellers, @7:30pm): Red Anthology, the latest collection from the Ink-Filled Page literary and arts journal, succeeds in tracing the vibrant hues of life through the black ink on the page. Local contributing authors Andrew S. Fuller, Rose Owen, and Cecilie Scott will weave magic and mysticism through the course of this evening. Witness the wonder of the spoken word. Join us for the Red Anthology reading.

You can find other events on your community Libraries schedule using these links: Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County, and the rest of this weeks Portland book events here.