Portland Book Events: March 20-26

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 20, 2010 through March 26, 2010 are:

Saturday March 20-

7^th annual Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature (University of Portland, 8:00am): Students from over 23 colleges and high schools will present critical essays and creative writing in Franz Hall during the daylong event, and Benjamin Saunders, Oregon Book Award finalist and professor of English at the University of Oregon, will deliver the keynote address in Buckley Center Auditorium. Saunders specializes in the poetry and drama of the English Renaissance and in the Fall of 2009 curated an exhibition of comic-book art at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum titled “Faster than a Speeding Bullet: The Art of the Superhero.” The conference is free and open to the public.

5th/25th Anniversary Sale (Second Glance Books, @10:00am): It’s a double celebration: This month marks Rachelle Markley’s five year anniversary as owner of Second Glance Books, and the store is 25 years old! Everything in the store will be 20% off, all day! And of course, we will have cake! Look for some other special surprises too.

22nd Anniversary Sale (Title Wave Used Bookstore, @10:00am): Title Wave celebrates its 22nd Anniversary.  All used material is 55% off!

Mother Daughter Book Club (Hillsboro Main Library, @10:00am): A book discussion group for girls in grades 3-5 and their mothers or other significant women in their lives to read and discuss great books together. The group meets the third Saturday each month at 10 a.m. at the Main Library. New members are always welcome and no registration is required! March’s Book: Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan. When Naomi’s absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father.

Jeff Garlin (Powells City of Books, @2:00pm): My Footprint (Simon Spotlight) documents Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin’s hysterical, year-long journey to reduce both his physical footprint (by losing 75 pounds) and carbon footprint (by going green).

Embrocation Cycling Journal Release Party (Ampersand, @6:00pm): The latest volume of Embrocation Cycling Journal has just been published. To celebrate, Ampersand is partnering with founding editor, Jeremy Dunn, in hosting a Release Party. Stop in from 6 to 10PM for free beer & music. Several copies of Embrocation will be on hand; purchasing one (or anything in the store of equal value) enters you in a raffle for a variety of cycling-oriented items.

Haiti Beneft Show (In Other Words Women’s Books & Resources, @8:00pm): Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Fist Fite, Hot Victory, and Disemballerina. Also featuring DJ Hornet Leg. Proceeds to benefit Partners in Health, an organization helping survivors of the earthquake in Haiti.

Sunday March 21-

Reading Fair (University of Portland, Chiles Center, 11:00am): The fair’s theme, “Trees, Seeds and Leaves: Grow a Reader,” is designed to engage students from pre-kindergarten to middle school. Events throughout the day include arts, crafts and games that focus on literacy as well as recycling. Also present will be an obstacle course, a puppeteer, and storytelling performances. Every student will receive a free, new book of their choice for attending.  The event, hosted by the University’s School of Education, is free and open to the public.

Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge (Reading Frenzy, @7:00pm): Reading Frenzy is excited to host Gordon Edgar during his visit to Portland in celebration of the recent release of Cheesemonger: Life on the Wedge, a memoir of Gordon’s unlikely move from punk-rock political activist to a serious career as a cheesemonger at San Francisco’s worker-owned Rainbow Grocery Cooperative! Gordon Edgar is the cheesemonger for Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, San Francisco’s biggest independent grocery store and the country’s largest retail worker co-op. He helps organize national and regional worker-cooperative conferences and regional cheese conferences, and serves on the board of directors for the California Artisan Cheese Guild. Edgar’s writing has been published by HipMama.com, Clamor Magazine, MaximumRocknRoll and Zine World.  Free beer from Ninkasi!

The Man Who Ate His Boots (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In The Man Who Ate His Boots (Knopf), Anthony Brandt tells the fascinating whole story of the search for the Northwest Passage, from its beginnings early in the age of exploration, through its development into a British national obsession, and on to the final sordid descent into scurvy, starvation, and cannibalism.

Spare Room presents Canarium Books Reading Tour: John Beer, Ish Klein, & Paul Killebrew (Concordia Coffee House, @7:30pm): Established in 2008 and sponsored by the University of Michigan MFA Program in Creative Writing, Canarium Books is dedicated to publishing poetry by established and emerging authors from the United States and abroad. On the Canarium 2010 West Coast reading tour, John Beer, Ish Klein, & Paul Killebrew will read from their new books.  Check out the Spare Room website for further info.

Monday March 22-

Caffeinated Art No. 87 (Three Friends Coffee House, @7:00pm): Poets Pamela Steele and Kirsten Rian will read along with historian/essayist Matt Love. Check out the Three Friends website for further info.

Oregon Writers Colony Presents: Jessica Maxwell (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): Jessica Maxwell’s Roll Around Heaven is an all-true accidental spiritual adventure that led one nonbeliever to lunch with Deepak Chopra, dance with Stephen Hawking, heal animals with Yogananda, sing Christmas carols with an enlightened rabbi, banish evil spirits with a Himalayan Rinpoche, talk all night with the daughters of Islam, find true love in a Presbyterian choir, share Celtic visions on the isle of Iona, and learn an abiding respect for all paths to God.

Frances Mayes (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In Every Day in Tuscany (Broadway Books), the sequel to her New York Times bestsellers Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany, Frances Mayes lyrically chronicles her continuing, two-decades-long love affair with the region’s people, art, cuisine, and lifestyle. Kirkus Reviews calls Mayes a “sensualist in full bloom.”

The Story of Stuff (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In The Story of Stuff (Free Press), Annie Leonard expands on her Internet film phenomenon with a powerful and inspiring book that tracks the life of the “stuff” we use every day, from extraction through production, distribution, consumption, and disposal.

Culture Is Our Weapon (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Damian Platt’s Culture Is Our Weapon (Penguin) tells the story of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a Rio-based organization employing music and an appreciation for black culture to inspire residents of the “favelas,” or shantytowns, to resist the drugs that are ruining their neighborhoods.

Tuesday March 23-

Diane Hammond (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): From Diane Hammond, the author of Hannah’s Dream, comes Seeing Stars (HarperCollins), a new novel of hope, dreams, love, and ambition — set this time in Hollywood, where every child wants to be a star and every grown-up wants a piece of the action.

Shirley Gittelsohn (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): The work of Portland artist Shirley Gittelsohn is familiar to many. She is known for her large landscapes, many of which reveal the influence of her WPA-era mentors; for her impressionistic, brilliantly colorful floral paintings; and for her penetrating but sympathetically engaging portraits. Her works hang in numerous public spaces and private collections. Tonight she will be here to present her beautiful new book, Shirley Gittelsohn: Paintings and Reflections. This book reproduces dozens of Ms. Gittelsohn’s paintings in gorgeous full color. Each painting is accompanied by a short essay by the artist that places the work in the context of her life and work. So, it is in a very real sense a memoir of an artist’s life. What a treasure! Please join us!

Mark Spragg and Laura Bell (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In Bone Fire (Knopf), Mark Spragg’s gripping novel about life in the modern West, harsh truths and difficult consolation exist alongside moments of hilarity, surprise, and beauty. By turns cattle rancher, forest ranger, wife, and mother, Laura Bell vividly recounts her struggle to find solid earth in which to put down roots. Brimming with careful insight, Claiming Ground (Knopf) is a heartwrenching ode to the rough, enormous beauty of the western landscape.

Wednesday March 24-

Little Tuppen Puppet Show (Green Bean Books, @4:00pm): Come to a free Little Tuppen puppet show performed by Yvonne de Maat of Heart in Hand Preschool! Come early to get a good seat.

Evening Book Group (Hillsboro Main Library, @6:45pm): Join a lively discussion of a popular fiction or nonfiction book. This month’s selection is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer.

Evening Book Group (Tigard Public Library, @7:00pm): The March book is Mark Greenside’s I’ll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany.

Ledding Library Book Club (Ledding Library of Milwaukie, @7:00pm): We will discuss The # 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Verse in Person featuring Jane Knechtel & Amy MacLennan (Northwest Library, @7:00pm): Listen to Oregon poets read from their works. This monthly program is organized by local poets to highlight two to three poets each reading.

Jane Knechtel- Born in Toronto, Knechtel has degrees from University of Puget Sound, University College Dublin and Lewis & Clark College. Her poetry has won several prizes including the Parnell and the Donn Goodwin, and has recently appeared in several anthologies and journals. She lives in Portland with her husband and sons, and volunteers at In Other Words, the only remaining non-profit feminist bookstore in the country.

Amy MacLennan- MacLennan’s poetry has also appeared in numerous reviews and anthologies, and her flash fiction has appeared online in The Big Ugly Review. She was awarded a 2005 Devils Tower National Monument Writer’s Residency. She lives in Ashland.

City of Dragons (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In San Francisco’s Chinatown, private investigator Miranda Corbie stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up, and the cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice — whatever it costs. Kelli Stanley’s debut novel City of Dragons (Minotaur Books) is an “impressive new mystery [that] takes readers back to the San Francisco of 1940″ (Booklist, starred review).

Diane Hammond (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): In Diane Hammond’s latest release, Seeing Stars, Ruth Rabinowitz believes that her daughter, Bethany, is a terrific little actress, so they have come to Hollywood, where dreams come true. Ruth’s husband and Bethany’s father, who thinks their quest for stardom is delusional, has been left behind in Seattle. Joining Bethany Rabinowitz in Hollywood’s often toxic waters are three fellow child actors. As talent managers, agents, coaches, directors, and teachers nurture—and feed on—their ambitions, stars will be made, hearts will be broken, children will grow up, and dreams will both be realized and die.

Backfence PDX presents Lucky Bastards (The Mission Theater, @7:30pm, $12 online/$14 door): What do a former casino dealer with a true crime tale, a guileless 18 year-old Alaskan adventurer, and a television game show contestant have in common? They and other Lucky (or unlucky) Bastards will be telling true tales with no notes, no memorization, just a mic and Portland’s best audience at the Mission Theater!  Lineup: MTV Producer & Director ARTHUR BRADFORD; Cyclist & Portland Mercury Reporter SARAH MIRK; ‘Awesome’ Band Member & Producer of What the Funny? BASIL HARRIS; Tobacco Co. Employee & Former Casino Dealer HEATHER DAWN RAY; Actor & Naive Traveler DAVE WILLIAMS; Love in the Dump Chute Co-host & Intern Extraordinaire MEAGAN KATE; and Lifelong Wheel of Fortune Fan MATT PELLEGRIN.  Free Cupcakes from Saint Cupcake!!  Check out the Backfence PDX website for more.

Thursday March 25-

Opening Reception: 52 Selects (Ampersand, @6:00pm): Featuring the work of ten world-renowned photojournalists, our April show suggests that in some cases photography as journalism does indeed deserve a place on gallery walls & that the rigorous ethical & technical standards of working photojournalists are something to be celebrated. The show also coincides with the launch of 52 Selects, a weekly offering of fine photography prints curated by veteran photojournalist & former gallery owner, Ken Hawkins. Acting as guest curator for this exhibition, Mr. Hawkins has selected photographs by Alan Berner, Rich-Joseph Facun, Greg Foster, Bill Frakes, Joey Ivaneso, Leah Nash, Scott Robinson, Ben Rusnak, Scott Strazzante & Bill Weeks.

Visiting Writers Series: Alice Fulton (Reed College, Psychology 105, @6:30pm): Alice Fulton’s fiction collection, The Nightingales of Troy: Connected Stories, was published by W.W. Norton in 2008. Her most recent book of poems is Cascade Experiment: Selected Poems. She is currently the Ann S. Bowers Professor of English at Cornell University. Alice Fulton will also lead a colloquium, “Losing Your Voice and Finding the Poem,” at noon, Wednesday, March 24, in GCC–D. For more information, visit the Visiting Writers website.

Open Mic at the Library (Lake Oswego Library, @6:30pm): The 2010 Open Mic season has begun—and what a great beginning! January featured performances by a classical guitarist, storyteller, and poets. Please join us for an evening of local talent! Sign up begins at 6:30 P.M. and performances begin at 7:00 P.M. This free program is presented with the generous support of the Friends of the Library.

Friends of Mystery Bloody Thursday (Terwilliger Plaza, @7:00pm): Join us for readings by Portland author Phil Margolin and Seattle author Robert Dugoni, who will discuss legal thrillers. In addition, the 2009 Spotted Owl Award will be presented to Phil Margolin for Executive Privilege. The event will begin with a reception at 7:00 pm, followed by the program at 7:30 pm. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Open Mic Poetry featuring Danika Dinsmore (Cover to Cover Books-Vancouver, @7:00pm): Danika Dinsmore blogs about her multi-disciplined writing life as The Accidental Novelist. Her accidental novel, Brigitta of the White Forest, will be released in March 2010. She and her husband, music maven Ken Ashdown, live in Vancouver, BC. Danika will have the following books for sale: Traffic ($5), her red book ($10), Every Day Angels and Other Near Death Experiences ($10), and between sleeps ($12). Her CD, All Over the Road, will also be available for $10.

Kim Harrison (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Rachel Morgan has fought vampires, werewolves, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter — and lived to tell the tale. But she’s never faced off against her own kind — until Black Magic Sanction (Eos), the latest from New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison.

Live Wire! Radio (Mission Theater, @7:30pm, $20/General Admission, $30/Reserved): Live Wire! is an independently produced radio variety show recorded in front of a live audience at the Mission Theater and broadcast on Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). Guests on the March 25th show include:

• Floater, a local band with a new release entitled “Stone by Stone”
• Memoirist/Author Kevin Sampsell (A Common Pornography)
• Actor/Comedian Timmy Williams from the sketch comedy group The Whitest Kids U’Know
• Author Robin Romm (The Mercy Papers)
• 6’3″ journalist/author Arianne Cohen (The Tall Book)
• Plus, original sketch comedy from Faces For Radio Theater, music from Ralph Huntley and the Mutton Chops, host Courtenay Hameister — and more!!

Malena Watrous (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): If You Follow Me (Harper Perennial) is at once a fish-out-of-water tale, a dark comedy of manners, and a strange kind of love story. Alive with vibrant and unforgettable characters, it guides readers over cultural bridges even as it celebrates the awkward, unlikely triumph of the human spirit.

Jo Nesbo (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In The Devil’s Star (Harper), the latest from Jo Nesbo, detective Harry Hole is assigned to investigate a series of bizarre murders — and partnered with Tom Waaler, a colleague he neither likes nor trusts. Determined to find the killer and expose the crooked Waaler, Harry discovers the two investigations melding in unexpected ways.

Friday March 26-

“City Folk” Release Party (Portland City Hall, @5:00pm): Stumptown Underground is quite pleased to announce that our “City Folk” release party will be held at Portland City Hall! You’ll be able to meet and greet with the issue’s contributors, purchase copies of “City Folk” for $5 (contributors get 2 copies each) before all your friends, as well as partake in choice beverages provided by Widmere Brewery and Stumptown Underground for your enjoyment.

Christopher Moore (Bagdad Theater, @7:00pm, $24): The undead rise again in Bite Me (William Morrow), the third farcical vampire love story from the wonderfully twisted imagination of New York Times-bestselling author Christopher Moore. Tickets, $24, include admission and a copy of Bite Me, and are available at the Bagdad Theater, the Crystal Ballroom, and Ticketmaster.

Roving Writers Roam to North Portland (Posies Cafe, @7:00pm): Reading prose and poetry with open mic to follow.

Cherie Priest (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Cherie Priest’s award-winning novel Boneshaker (Tor) is an extremely entertaining extrapolation of the increasingly popular steampunk and zombie genres. “A steampunk-zombie-airship adventure of rollicking pace and sweeping proportions, full of wonderfully gnarly details,” declares Scott Westerfeld, author of Leviathan.

Jo Nesbo (Murder by the Book, @7:00pm): Jo Nesbo is one of Norway’s premiere writers. The Devil’s Star is the third in the series starring Harry Hole, a Norwegian police inspector. (His books The Redbreast and Nemesis, the first two in the series, were previously released in English.)  The Redbreast was awarded the distinction of “Best Norwegian Crime Novel Ever Written” by the Norwegian book clubs in 2004. Jo, who lives in Oslo, is also a musician and economist.

Sam Lipsyte (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Grasping after odd jobs to support his wife and child, university fundraiser Milo Burke is offered one last chance by his former employer: he must reel in a potential donor — a major ask — who turns out to be Milo’s sinister college classmate. And the give won’t come cheap. The Ask (Farrar Straus Giroux) is “a brilliant and scabrously entertaining riff on contemporary America” (Kirkus, starred review).

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.