Reading Local: Portland

Every Saturday we will bring you links to articles from around the web featuring members of Portland’s lit community.  Please feel free to pass along any you come across as well, by emailing us at portland@readinglocal.com, and we will include them in next week’s edition of Short Stories.

Over on Wallet Pop Marc Acito discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to allow unlimited corporate political donations:

It’s official – the words “Supreme Court Justice” are an oxymoron. Or just moron, period. Thanks to the Supremes’ recent decision giving corporations free reign to purchase politicians, now we can look forward to product placement in the Oval Office, logos emblazoned on the walls of Congress and endorsement deals for Samuel Alito. (“I take Viagra so I can screw America!”)

Or, worse, we won’t see any of it. Our political leaders will be de facto corporate employees beholden to enriching unseen shareholders of a shadow government. The United State, Inc., f/s/o the Fortune 500.

Camille Alexa’s short story “Shades of White and Road” was featured in Fantasy Magazine:

It came to me that I should run away from home taking nothing but myself and so I thought I would and so I did. I’d not gone ten turns of the spiral before a small leathery suitcase began to tag along in my invisible wake. “Take me! Use me! Fill me!” it said. “Please, please fill me; I need to be filled.”

I scarcely spared it a glance. “Sorry,” I said, my voice as firm as the clist clist clank of my heels striking sparks against the metal of road beneath me. “Sorry, but I’ve no use for a thing needing filling. I’m on my own.”

I had to admire the thing; had to give it some credit, for even on its tiny legs it managed to keep pace with me for another hour. It kept its silence, but I felt its sorrowful gaze tugging at my skirts like younger brothers. By the time I stopped for lunch, it was breathing hard but still looking determined. I pulled an apple from my pocket and began to peel the green green skin away with my small pointy teeth.

Bill Cameron’s story “The Princess of Felony Flats” will be included in First Thrills, an “anthology of original short stories by some of the best thriller writers at work today”:

Everyone remembers their first thrill, their first . . . kill.

Today’s best-selling thriller authors all began with that first book, the one that hooked us and made us gasp for more. Tomorrow’s bestsellers are no different and Tor/Forge wants to introduce you to this fresh, new crop in an anthology that will keep you turning pages deep into the night.

Brian Michael Bendis is interviewed on Bookslut:

Bendis is particularly prolific. Besides the 129 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man he has so far written, he has also lent his talents to New Avengers, Ultimate X-Men, as well as more adult titles. His bleak series Alias re-imagined a C-list Marvel super-heroine, Jessica Jones, as an alcoholic private detective.

Bendis is 41 and was born and raised in Cleveland, OH. He spent five years at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he came a few credits short of graduating. He now lives in Portland, OR with his wife and two small daughters. We spoke by phone on January 15. Despite the range of his career, our conversation focused almost entirely on Ultimate Spider-Man.

David Abel and Sam Lohman have started publishing a new chapbook series, under the name “Airfoil.”:

We’ve started by publishing ourselves: Airfoil 1 is Commonly by David Abel; Airfoil 2 is Onlooking by Sam Lohmann. Now there is an Airfoil Chapbooks blog where you can buy them, or just look at them (they’re pretty).

Joe Sacco’s “Footnotes in Gaza” is reviewed in the NY Times Sunday Book Review:

Joe Sacco’s gripping, important book about two long-forgotten mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza stands out as one of the few contemporary works on the Israeli-Palestinian struggle likely to outlive the era in which they were written.

Sacco will find readers for “Footnotes in Gaza” far into the future because of the unique format and style of his comic-book narrative. He stands alone as a reporter-cartoonist because his ability to tell a story through his art is combined with investigative reporting of the highest quality.

Author: Gabe Barber

Founder and publisher of Reading Local. I am an avid reader, primarily of non-fiction, and am ever curious to discover how local literature fits into the increasingly volatile literary landscape.

Gabe Barber has written 1026 articles for us.