Portland Book Events: January 9-15

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 January 9, 2010 through January 15, 2010 are:

Saturday January 9-

William Stafford Celebratory Reading (Tigard Public Library, @2:00pm): Join us for an afternoon of stories about William Stafford and readings of his poems, as well as the works of four local poets.  Bring your own favorite Stafford poem to read, your memories of Stafford or ways he influenced you and your work, as well as a poem of your own to read. The featured readers are:  Co-hosts Bill Siverly and Michael McDowell, Robert Davies, Melanie Green, Donna Henderson, and David Oates.

William Stafford Celebratory Reading (Milwaukie Ledding Library, @2:00pm): The Ledding Library will host a birthday celebration honoring the life of Oregon poet William Stafford. William Stafford, who passed away in 1993, was an American poet and pacifist. He was named Poet Laureate of Oregon in 1975 and his writings are often associated with the Pacific Northwest. Hosted by Library Board Member Tom Hogan and City Councilor Greg Chaimov, the event will feature readings from Gail Barker, Ellen Hart, Susanna Lundgren, Helen McNaughton, Heidi Pullen, Ron Rasch, Holly Springfield, Bruce Wolfe and FWS Board Member Paulann Petersen. As your gift for this celebration, please bring along a favorite Stafford poem to read for the rest of the group. The celebration will begin with the featured readers and will then be open for those in the audience who wish to read.

OWC Calendar Day (Broadway Books, @3:00pm): Drop by, visit with OWC members Rae Richen and Marlene Howard and purchase your raffle tickets for drawing to win a Colonyhouse 2010 Calendar signed by all 12 author/models.

Sunday January 10-

OWC Calendar Day (Murder by the Book, @3:00pm): Host, local mystery author Bill Cameron will be there to talk to you and help you purchase your raffle tickets for drawing to win a signed Colonyhouse 2010 Calendar.

Spare Room presents Kyle Schlesinger, Charles Alexander, and Joel Bettridge (Concordia Coffee House, @7:30pm, $5.00 suggested donation):

Kyle Schlesinger is the proprietor of Cuneiform Press, recently relocated from New York to Texas, and coeditor of the journal Mimeo Mimeo. His latest book, What You Will, is due next month from New Lights Press; Charles Olson at Goddard College, which he edited, will be out from Effing Press in April. Kyle’s writings and research related to poetics, visual communication, and artist’s books can be found at www.kyleschesinger.com.

Charles Alexander is founder/director of Chax Press, publisher of innovative poetry and book arts editions. His books of poetry include Hopeful Buildings, Arc of Light / Dark Matter, Near or Random Acts, and Certain Slants. He shares a studio and life with Tucson visual artist Cynthia Miller. Lately he has been lost (or found) somewhere among the poetic waters of Ludovico Ariosto, Walter Ralegh, Marie de France, and David Jones. He’ll surface sometime soon . . . perhaps.

Joel Bettridge is the author of two books of poetry, Presocratic Blues (recently out from Chax Press) and That Abrupt Here, as well as the critical study, Reading as Belief: Language Writing, Poetics, Faith. He coedited, with Eric Selinger, Ronald Johnson: Life and Works. Currently he is an Assistant Professor of English at Portland State University.

Shotgun on My Chest (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Shotgun on My Chest: Memoirs of a Lewis and Clark Book Collector (12-Gauge Press) tells the story of Roger Wendlick, who plunged nearly $150,000 into debt to assemble the world’s finest private collection of Lewis and Clark materials (currently on display at Lewis & Clark College).

Portland Poetry Slam (Backspace, @7:30pm): We proudly bring you the next dose of bi-monthly badassery with our all ages slam, with a feature set from the U of Washington Slam Team! sign up @ 7:30 sharp.

Show: Grass Widow, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, STLS, Nature (In Other Words Women’s Books & Resources, @8:00pm): GRASS WIDOW is an all-girl three piece from San Francisco that already has an LP on Make A Mess and an EP on Captured Tracks under it’s belt. All 3 are former members of the bay area band Shitstorm and have recently been voted “best of the bay” of 2009 by The San Francisco Bay Guardian. PURPLE RHINESTONE EAGLE is another all-girl 3 piece playing wild hair-raising 70′s style psychedelic rock STLS Double drum collaboration between Lisa Schoenberg (Explode Into Colors) and STS (ex-Haggard, Rock Camp For Girls). NATURE Yet another all-girl 3 piece featuring Cassia Gammill and Adee Roberson of The New Bloods along with Portland’s premier recording engineer Christina Files (The Swirlies, Mary Timony). Nature has a 7″ in the works on M’lady Records. This will be their first ever show!

Monday January 11-

Ink-Filled Page: Red Anthology Reading (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Ink-Filled Page is a literary and arts journal whose latest collection, Red Anthology, features Portland writers Andrew S. Fuller, Sandra Arguello, and Rose Owen.

William Langewiesche (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): To what extent was the “miracle” on the Hudson the result of extraordinary — but not widely known — advances in aviation and computer technology over the past 20 years? In Fly by Wire (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), noted journalist William Langewiesche takes readers on a strange and unexpected journey into the fascinating world of advanced aviation.

PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series Features: AA Bronson (Portland State, Shattuck Hall Annex, @7:30pm): AA Bronson will lecture about his work! The public is invited (its free, tell your friends)

Tuesday January 12-

Science Fiction Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt.

Joe Sacco (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): From acclaimed cartoonist-reporter Joe Sacco comes a sweeping, original investigation of a forgotten crime in the most tormented of places. Spanning 50 years and moving fluidly between one war and the next, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan Books) captures the essence of a tragedy.

Wednesday January 13-

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.”

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.

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.

Thursday January 14-

3rd Anniversary Open Mic Potluck and Book Launch (Cover to Cover Books, @6:30pm): Join us as we celebrate three years of open mic poetry at Cover to Cover Books with a special reading and potluck, as well as music by violinist Alisha Judge. Please bring a dish and some poems to share. With our featured reader, Toni Partington: Toni Partington is a poet, editor, collage artist, life/career coach, and grant writer. Her new book, Wind Wing, a collection of poems dedicated to the women who transformed her life, will be available for $10. The author of a poetry chapbook, Jesus Is A Gas (2009). Toni serves as an associate editor for VoiceCatcher, an annual Pacific Northwest anthology of women writers. Toni is a regular columnist for Writing The Life Poetic, an online Zine that complements the print version of the book by Sage Cohen.

Deadly Diversions Mystery Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie. Join us!

Jack Ohman (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In Angler Management (Headwater Books), his collection of more than 30 essays, political satirist Jack Ohman explores a wide range of topics about fly fishing — such as falling in, fishing records, getting your kids to fish with you, and how not to tie flies (to name only a few).

Elizabeth Eslami (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Bone Worship (Pegasus) is Elizabeth Eslami’s rich and soul-searching debut novel about an Iranian-American girl whose enigmatic father has decided to arrange her marriage. “The novel is full of wonderfully drawn characters,” praises Library Journal.

Friday January 15-

Cheeky Pages Romance Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month’s romance group meets to discuss Ravenous: The Dark Forgotten by Sharon Ashwood. Join us!

John Perkins (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In Hoodwinked (Broadway Books), former economic hitman John Perkins pulls back the curtains on the double-cross of the American people by the CEOs running the “corporatocracy” and the politicians they manipulate.

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