Portland Book Events: March 13-19

From what we could find (please contact us if you have an event you would like us to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of March 13, 2010 through March 19, 2010 are:

Saturday March 13-

Gala Celebration Honoring Local Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (Barnes & Noble-Clackamas, @3:00pm): Come celebrate the talents of the SCBWI-Oregon. Sixteen authors and illustrators of children’s and teen’s books will be here to present and sign their books, including Emily Whitman, Carmen Bernier-Grand, Lisa Schroeder, Dale Basye and Nancy Coffelt.

Mini-Sledgehammer Writing Contest (Sweet Pea Baking Co., @3:00pm): Indigo Editing & Publications presents a miniature version of their popular Sledgehammer Writing Contest. After a reading by Alan Dubinsky—the winner of the last year’s contest—the audience will receive prompts and will have 36 minutes to write their own short stories. All entries will be judged on the spot and winners will take home prizes. The Mini-Sledgehammer Contest is free and open to the public.

Tangent presents: Jake Buffy, Brandon Downing, & Reg Johanson (Clinton Corner Cafe, @7:00pm): Tangent is pleased to host three exciting poets: Portland native Jake Buffy will be making his full-length reading debut; New York-based artist Brandon Downing will be screening some new film shorts; and Reg Johanson will be joining us all the way from Vancouver, BC to perform his new poetry.

Sunday March 14-

It’s Raining Cupcakes (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @2:00pm): Lisa Schroeder, the popular author of I Heart You, You Haunt Me, delivers a sweet treat for tweens in It’s Raining Cupcakes (Aladdin), a novel that’s baked to perfection.

NW Author Series: Write What People Remember (Wilsonville Public Library, @3:30pm, $5): Naseem Rakha presents “Writing What Works: How to Learn from What You Read and How to Write What People Remember.” Naseem Rakha is an award-winning journalist whose stories have been heard on OPB, and NPR. Her first novel, The Crying Tree, has been selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Series and is currently a nominee for the 2010 PNBA Book Award.

Poets Brandon Downing and Macgregor Card (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @4:00pm): Local poet Rodney Koeneke introduces Brandon Downing, whose new book Lake Antiquity (Fence) is a collection of text-collages that is the culmination of more than a decade of visionary irreverance, and Macgregor Card, whose Duties of an English Foreign Secretary won the 2009 Fence Modern Poets Series with its offering of sublime nonsensical balladry.

Monday March 15-

Smallpressapalooza (Powells City of Books, @5:00pm): Powell’s hosts the third annual Smallpressapalooza, a five-hour marathon of readings from some of the best small-press writers of the Northwest and beyond. This year’s line-up includes Alex Wrekk (Brainscan zine), Shawn Granton (editor of The Zinester’s Guide to Portland), Matthew Stadler (Publication Studio), Jeff Burk (Shatnerquake), and many others. Check the Powell’s Calendar for a full schedule of readers.

CAFFEINATED ART # 86 (Three Friends Coffee House, @7:00pm): Erotica author Elva Maxine Beach and local poets Celestial Concubine and Dan Raphael will read from their work.

Colloquium with Editor Shaye Areheart (Lewis & Clark College, Manor House, @7:00pm): Shaye Areheart, an editor at Random House and director of both Harmony Books and Shaye Areheart Books will discuss her path through the publishing world, and the state of the book, today. Areheart’s imprint publishes a range of fiction, both literary and commercial. Her list of authors includes: Chris Bohjalian, Alice Hoffman, Pauls Toutonghi, Lisa Unger, Gillian Flynn, Mary McGarry Morris, Katharine Weber, Allison Winn Scotch, Alicia Erian, and Keith Donohue. She lives in New York City.

Talking Earth Poetry featuring Cass Dalglish (KBOO 90.7 FM, @10:00pm): The first poet in history to sign a poem,  the first poet whose name has come down to us, was a Sumerian woman, Enheduanna. It was a sin to sign her name, but as she was a priest and a prince– Sumerians used no gender words for royalty, priests and gods– she  boldly transgressed.  Cass Dalglish spent five years studying ancient Sumerian cuneiform to be able to read Enheduanna in the original.  Humming the Blues, from Calyx Press, is Dalglish’s rendition of Nin-me-sar-ra,  Enheduanna’s passionate hymn addressed to the god Inanna, female deity of sexual love, fertility and war.  Nin-me-sar-ra was the most famous hymn in the ancient world, copied by scribes as a teaching device for 500 years. Dalglish will read from Humming the Blues and discuss Enheduanna, Inanna, and the jazz of cuneiform translation with Barbara LaMorticella.  (Broadcast Live on the Web)

Tuesday March 16-

Read to Rebuild-A Haiti Benefit Reading (The Writers’ Dojo, @7:00pm, $10 Suggested Donation): Reading Local’s first event!  Come hear from some of Portland’s finest including Ariel Gore, Margaret Malone, Laura Moulton, Ben Parzybok, Kevin Sampsell, and Tom Spanbauer.  Music provided by Sweeter Than Later, and free wine courtesy of Cameron Hughes Wine.  Also featuring a raffle with gift cards and other prizes up for grabs!  All proceeds benefit Mercy Corps in their ongoing efforts to assist the disaster relief in Haiti.  See our event page for further details.

Elizabeth Eslami (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Veneta resident Elizabeth Eslami will be here to read from her new novel, Bone Worship (Pegasus Books). This is a rich and soul-searching novel about an Iranian-American girl whose enigmatic father has decided to arrange her marriage. Jasmine Fahroodhi’s story begins just as she is flunking out of college, getting over a failed romance, and moving back in with her parents – her prim American mother and her mysterious Iranian father. Confused and furious, yet intrigued by her father’s plan to marry her off within one year, Jasmine meets many suitors and learns much about familial and romantic love, and the truth about her evasive father.

Richard H. Engeman (Lake Oswego Library, @7:00pm): The Lake Oswego Library is pleased to present local author Richard H. Engeman as part of the Library’s Third Tuesday Author Series. Richard H. Engeman is a historian and archivist with wide research and writing experience in Pacific Northwest history. Engeman has specialized in working with historical photographs, maps, architectural plans and drawings, and paper ephemera, and his writing has appeared in a variety of publications. He is the author of a recent award-winning unit of the Oregon Historical Society’s online Oregon History Project, Wooden Beams and Railroad Ties: the History of Oregon’s Built Environment. In 2009, Timber Press released The Oregon Companion: an Historical Gazetteer of the Useful, the Curious and the Arcane, and White House Grocery Press issued his Eating It Up in Eden: the Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Cookbook.

Chang-rae Lee (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Combining the complex themes of identity in his novels Native Speaker and A Gesture Life with the broad range, energy, and pure storytelling of Aloft, Chang-rae Lee has delivered his most ambitious work yet with The Surrendered (Riverhead). “A harrowing tale: bleak, haunting, often heartbreaking — and not to be missed,” proclaims Publishers Weekly (starred review).

The Uncanny Physics of Superhero Comic Books (Lewis & Clark College, Templeton Campus Center, @7:30pm): James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, is this year’s Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Society of Fellows Distinguished Visiting Scholar. In his lecture, Kakalios will explore the applications of physics on superheroes, the subject of a course he teaches at the University of Minnesota. This class covers everything from Isaac Newton to the transistor, using only examples from superhero comic books. Kalakios says superhero comic books get their science right more often than one might expect. So, anyone who has wondered how strong you would have to be to “leap a tall building in a single bound” should attend the lecture.

Wednesday March 17-

Poetry Reading featuring John Morrison and Scot Siegel (100th Monkey Studio, @7:00pm): Join us for our two featured readers, some open mic time, and a green surprise or two. Hosted by Steve Williams and Constance Hall.

John Morrison‘s book, Heaven of the Moment, won the 2006 Rhea & Seymour Gorsline Poetry Competition and was a finalist for the 2008 Oregon Book Award in poetry. His poems have appeared in numerous national literary journals, including the Cimarron Review, Poetry East, Southern Poetry Review, and Poet Lore. He is currently a Writer-in-Residence for Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools program in Portland, Oregon.

Scot Siegel is the author of three volumes of poetry, Some Weather (Plain View Press 2008), the chapbook Untitled Country (Pudding House Publications 2009), and a second chapbook, Skeleton Says, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. In celebration of Oregon’s Sesquicentennial, Poetry Northwest and the Oregon State Library selected Some Weather as one of 150 Outstanding Oregon Poetry Books, one for each year of statehood. Siegel was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009.

Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): A compelling investigation into one of the most coveted and cherished ideals, Stephen S. Hall’s Wisdom (Knopf) also chronicles the efforts of modern science to penetrate the mysterious nature of this timeless virtue. This event co-sponsored by the OHSU Brain Institute.

Thursday March 18-

Hip Haikus and Raucous Rhymes (Belmont Library, @1:30pm): Have you ever written a collective poem? Composed a lyrical ode to your favorite food? Saluted that certain-somebody with a silly sonnet? In the spirit of Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Hip Hop artists such as Blackalicious, find rhythm in the everyday. In this workshop we will explore a range of poetry styles through hands-on writing exercises.

Historic Photos of Oregon (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Historian William C. Stack will join us to present his new book, Historic Photos of Oregon (Turner Publishing). This book offers a collection of nearly 200 images that present a compelling look at the history of our intriguing and picturesque state. Photographers represented in the collection include Edward S. Curtis and Dorothea Lange. The author’s captions and commentary combine with the photos to make an entertaining visual record of life in the Beaver State.

Open Mic Poetry featuring Jim Martin (Paper Tiger Coffee House-Vancouver, @7:00pm): The third installment of Paper Tiger’s open mic reading series features Jim Martin.  Jim Martin is a retired biologist and teacher, who spends his time with family, volunteering at animal shelters, advising and board work in science inquiry education, doing tap and ballet, writing and reading poetry at open mikes, and doing and exhibiting photography. Much of his poetry is influenced by his experiences in biology and teaching.

History of the Black Panther Party in Oregon (Architectural Heritage Center, @7:00pm): The Northwest History Network presents: “‘We’re going to defend ourselves’: The Portland Chapter of the Black Panther Party & Local Media Response.” A presentation by Jules Boykoff & Martha Gies, with special guests Kent Ford & Percy Hampton, original members of the Portland chapter, Black Panther Party. Light refreshments provided. Martha Gies is the author of Up All Night (2004), and many short stories, essays and articles. Jules Boykoff is the associate professor of political science at Pacific University. The Northwest History Network is a non- profit consortium of regional history, archives, library, and other professionals.

Jimmy McDonough (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): In Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen (Viking), the first full-scale biography of the enduring first lady of country music, bestselling biographer Jimmy McDonough tells the story of the small-town girl whose meteoric rise led to a decades-long career full of tragedy and triumph.

James Greer and Mark Gluth (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): James Greer’s The Failure (Akashic Books) is a picaresque novel, set in Los Angeles, about two guys who conceive and badly execute a plan to rob a Korean check-cashing store in order to finance the prototype for an impossibly ridiculous Internet application. Mark Gluth’s The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis (Akashic Books) is a groundbreaking debut that creates a world in which a woman’s life is refracted through dreamlike logic.

Friday March 19-

Chelsea Handler Booksigning (Powells City of Books, @3:00pm): In the hilarious new book from Chelsea Handler, author of Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, the comedian mines the wealth of material that is her family, her sex life, and her distinctively outrageous worldview. Life doesn’t get more hilarious than when Handler takes aim with her irreverent wit. With Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (Grand Central), Handler delivers one laugh-out-loud moment after another as she sets her sights on the ridiculous side of childhood, adulthood, and daughterhood. Please note: This is a booksigning only. The author will not read from her work.

Cheeky Pages Romance Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @2:00pm): This month we meet to discuss Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale. Join us!

The Butcher and the Vegetarian (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In The Butcher and the Vegetarian (Rodale), Tara Austen Weaver puts a chick-lit spin on Michael Pollan as she chronicles her transformation from lifelong vegetarian to cautious meat-eater. Weaver explores whether it’s possible to be an ethical meat eater, which lifestyle is better for the environment, and whether there’s any chance of going back once you’ve tried bacon.

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

Image credit Zorger.