Portland Book Events: May 15-21

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 May 15, 2010 through May 21, 2010 are:

Saturday May 15-

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! May’s Book: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.

World’s Smallest Postal Service (Green Bean Books, @12:00pm): Yes, it’s really true!  Get out your magnifying glasses.  The World’s Smallest Postal Service will be transcribing teeny tiny letters to send to your dearest friends.  Come to Green Bean Books between 12 and 4pm and see Lea Redmond’s amazing talent for the tiny!  Checkout www.worldssmallestpostalservice.com for details.

Cory Doctorow (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @2:00pm): Imbued with the same lively, subversive spirit and thrilling storytelling that made Little Brother an international sensation, Cory Doctorow’s For the Win (Tor Books) is a prophetic and inspiring call-to-arms for a new generation.

Portland Rose Festival Living History Program (Powells City of Books, @2:00pm): An educational initiative designed to bring both Portland and Rose Festival history to life, the Living History program features actual historical characters, Mayor Harry Lane (“father of the Rose Festival”) and Georgiana Pittock (“mother of the Rose Society”). For more information, visit www.rosefestival.org.

Tangent presents: Sam Lohmann, Chris Nealon, & T’Chaka Anghelos Sikelianos (Clinton Corner Cafe, @7:30pm): Tangent is pleased to host a multi-media poetry event featuring DC-based poet and critic Chris Nealon who will read his poems, as will Portland poet, curator, and editor Sam Lohmann. Local filmmaker T’Chaka Anghelos Sikelianos will also screen one of his short films. The event is free.

Sharon Doubiago presents “My Father’s Love” (Writers’ Dojo, @7:30pm): Join us for a rare treat of an author at the height of her powers. Now living in San Francisco, Sharon Doubiago has moved up and down the West Coast, residing for extended periods in the Pacific Northwest. Her experiences have birthed vivid poetry and prose. The recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, Sharon has twice been nominated for the National Book Award. She received the Hazel Hall Oregon Book Award for Poetry for Psyche Drives the Coast. Oregon Culture Heritage Commission selected The Book of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes to its Literary Oregon, 100 Books, 1800-2000.  Refreshments will be served. Come early to find good seating. Books will be available.

Sunday May 16-

Lightsey Darst (Dekum Building-Roof, @2:00pm): From Snow White to the Yde Girl and Helen of Troy to Jon Benet, Lightsey Darst’s lurid and lyrical debut, Find the Girl, explores the transition from girlhood to womanhood and America’s almost pornographic fascination with missing and exploited children. This is Darst’s first collection of poems, though as a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship recipient, she’s far from new to the literary world. She’ll be joined by other Portland-area writers for this reading.

The Metal Cowboy: Riding Through Africa (Hillsboro Main Library, @2:00pm): Join author and bicyclist Joe Kurmaskie as he tells the tale of his most recent ride through five African countries.  Copies of his latest book “Mud Sweat and Gears” will be on sale following the presentation.

NW Author Series: Publishing Books for Children (Wilsonville Public Library, @3:30pm, $5): During this humorous and informative 90-minute interactive slide-show, prolific local author and teacher David Michael Slater will share his thoughts on how to write effective books for young children, and how to navigate the submission process once you have a finished piece. He’ll pass along tips and strategies he found on his somewhat unconventional journey through slush piles and rejection letters. You’ll leave confident in your ability to construct an effective plot, find likely markets, and know exactly what to expect once the envelope leaves your hand. Bring your questions and prepare to be inspired!

Sharon Doubiago presents “My Father’s Love” (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:30pm): Join us for a rare treat of an author at the height of her powers. Now living in San Francisco, Sharon Doubiago has moved up and down the West Coast, residing for extended periods in the Pacific Northwest. Her experiences have birthed vivid poetry and prose. The recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, Sharon has twice been nominated for the National Book Award. She received the Hazel Hall Oregon Book Award for Poetry for Psyche Drives the Coast. Oregon Culture Heritage Commission selected The Book of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes to its Literary Oregon, 100 Books, 1800-2000.  Refreshments will be served. Come early to find good seating. Books will be available.

Christopher Howell (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @4:00pm): Encompassing three decades of his distinguished work and drawing upon all of his previous books, Dreamless and Possible (University of Washington Press) is a generous volume of new and selected poems by award-winning poet Christopher Howell.

Robin Hobb (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @4:00pm): Returning to the world of the Tawny Man trilogy, Dragon Haven (Eos) is the second volume in bestselling fantasy writer Robin Hobb’s thrilling two-part tale of resurgent dragons in a world that needs — and fears — them.

Daniel Clowes (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In Wilson (Drawn & Quarterly), the all-new graphic novel from one of the leading cartoonists of our time, Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) creates a thoroughly engaging, complex, and fascinating portrait of the modern egoist — outspoken and oblivious to the world around him.

Spare Room presents: David Wolach, Jen Coleman & Cara Benson (Clinton Corner Cafe, @7:30pm, $5 suggested donation): David Wolach is founding editor of Wheelhouse Magazine & Press, & curator of the series devoted to the intersection of experiments in texts & radical politics, PRESS. Wolach’s most recent books are Occultations (Black Radish), Prefab Eulogies Vol 1: Nothings Houses (BlazeVox), and Hospitalogy (Scantily Clad). Jen Coleman is the author of the chapbook Propinquity, and her work has appeared in many excellent journals including Chain, Ixnay and Tangent.  Cara Benson is author of (made) with BookThug and Protean Parade forthcoming with Black Radish Books. She’s editor of the interdisciplinary book Predictions for ChainLinks. Benson edits the online journal Sous Rature and teaches poetry in a NY State Prison.

Monday May 17-

Kathi Appelt (Barnes & Noble-Clackamas, @4:30pm): We are pleased to welcome children’s author Kathi Appelt to our store for a reading and signing of her new book, Keeper. Appelt is also the author of The Underneath, a National Book Award Finalist and a Newbery Honor book. Come and meet the author!

Peter Nelson (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In I Thought You Were Dead (Algonquin), Peter Nelson delivers a novel that is all at once heartwarming, heartbreaking, and heart-wrenchingly funny. Most of all, it’s a story that proves that when a good dog is by one’s side, life can be full of surprises.

Maile Chapman (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): From celebrated short story writer Maile Chapman comes her debut novel, Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto. In remote Finland in the 1920s, the female patients of a convalescent hospital seek relief from ailments real and imagined. Head nurse Sunny Taylor, an American who has fled an ill-starred life, has a new patient — a faded, irascible former ballroom-dance instructor named Julia Dey. Sunny takes it upon herself to pierce the mystery of Julia’s reserve. Soon, Julia’s difficulty, her tightly coiled anger, places her at the center of the ward’s tangled emotional life. When an obstetrician arrives to test a new surgical stitch, the novel’s escalating menace builds to a terrifying conclusion.

PSU MFA Poetry Graduate Readings (Blackfish Gallery, @7:30pm): These readings celebrate PSU’s graduating creative writing students and present an opportunity to hear some of Portland’s most exciting emerging writers. Reading will be Michael Achterman, Wendy Bourgeois, Chris Cottrell, and Wendy Noonan. Professor Primus St. John will introduce the writers.

Norman Ollestad (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Crazy for the Storm (Ecco) is Norman Ollestad’s harrowing, unforgettable true story of survival when, in 1979, the family’s private plane crashed in the mountains, killing his father and putting Norman’s skills to the ultimate test.

Soul of a Citizen (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Paul Rogat Loeb’s Soul of a Citizen (Griffin) has become a classic handbook for budding social activists, veteran organizers, and anybody who wants to make a change. Revised and updated, this book shows how to get started.

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

Tuesday May 18-

Beate Sirota Gordon (Portland State, Smith Memorial SU, #355, @6:00pm): You are invited to the lecture “How an American Woman Won Equal Rights for the Women of Japan” by Beate Sirota Gordon, author of The Only Woman in the Room. When a team of young Americans began writing a new constitution for Japan in early 1946, Beate Sirota was enlisted to help. Assigned to the subcommittee dedicated to writing the section of the constitution devoted to civil rights, she insisted upon the insertion into the constitution of a clause guaranteeing equality between men and women. The Constitution of Japan remains unrevised to this day. This lecture is hosted by the Center for Japanese Studies.

WITS Reading (Midland Library, @6:30pm): Writers in the Schools (WITS) is a comprehensive program that cultivates young writers and supports Oregon authors through semester-long writing residencies in the Portland public high schools. Reading will be students from Marshall Campus (Biz Tech, Linus Pauling and Renaissance Arts High Schools) with WITS writers Natalie Serber and Cindy Williams Gutierrez.

Emily Dickinson and the Poetry of Spring (Belmont Library, @6:30pm): “Unto my Books ­– So good to turn.” This year¹s annual spring event at Belmont Library will celebrate the work of Emily Dickinson — along with warm weather — by turning to this poet’s love of reading. With a look ahead toward summer reading, we will talk about Dickinson¹s writing about books and some of her favorite authors. Please join us at this event for readers of all ages. Bring a poem by Dickinson, or any other poet, that honors reading or libraries, or the beauty of the season. Hosted by Holly Springfield, meditation teacher and founder of the Portland Chapter of the Emily Dickinson International Society, and Ellen Louise Hart, Dickinson editor and manuscript scholar.

Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh (Reading Frenzy, @7:00pm): Reading Frenzy is honored to welcome Anne Elizabeth Moore to the shop to discuss her new book, Cambodian Grrrl. The book features six essays about her Riot Grrrl-inspired work teaching self-publishing to some of the brightest young women in one of the poorest countries in the world. This event is free and open to the public, with free beer from Ninkasi Brewing!

Gina Ochsner (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Award-winning short story writer Gina Ochsner will be here to read from her first novel, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight. This story, set in a crumbling apartment building in post-Soviet Russia, is about a ghost who won’t keep quiet. This is a crazy, magical, dark but richly redeeming story.

Darcy Hitchcock (Lake Oswego Library, @7:00pm): The Lake Oswego Library is pleased to present author Darcy Hitchcock, as part of the Library’s Third Tuesday Author Series. Darcy Hitchcock is the author of a number of business books including the award-winning The Business Guide to Sustainability (now in its second edition) and The Step by Step Guide to Sustainability Planning. Driven by a desire to bring the sustainability message to a wider audience, she recently published Dragonfly’s Question, a novella and discussion course.

Kathi Appelt (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In Keeper (Atheneum), Newbery Honoree Kathi Appelt enchants with a novel about mermaids, mermen, and what happens when a girl outgrows fairy tales just a little too late.

Phillip Margolin (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): Filled with the fast-paced twists and surprises that propelled Executive Privilege, Phillip Margolin’s Supreme Justice (Harper) reunites attorney Brad Miller, FBI agent Keith Evans, and private investigator Dana Cutler to untangle a five-year-old case involving a ghost ship and the president’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Steve Almond (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): From Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak and (Not That You Asked), comes Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life (Random House), a hilarious power ballad about how a love of music changed the author’s life, from his childhood to life as a new dad.

Wednesday May 19-

Food Politics (Midland Library, @4:30pm): Local author Jean Johnson will discuss food sourcing and compare sustainable agriculture with agribusiness. The class will look at confined animal feeding operations for laying hens, chickens, dairy cows, and beef cattle. Finally, we’ll tackle cost issues and see if it is possible for a family to stay within its budget and buy food that is produced sustainably.

Phillip Margolin (Barnes & Noble-Clackamas, @7:00pm): Join us as we welcome bestselling author Phillip Margolin as he presents his new legal thriller, Supreme Justice. As always, this local author and former criminal defense attorney writes with a compelling insider’s view of criminal behavior.

Figures of Speech presents: Marie Buckley & Sage Cohen (100th Monkey Studio, @7:00pm): Marie Buckley is co-author of Quartet: four poetic voices, and the 2009-10 president of the Oregon State Poetry Association. Sage Cohen is the author of the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World (Queen of Wands Press, 2007), Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writer’s Digest Books, 2009) and The Productive Writer: Tips & Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less & Creating Success (Writer’s Digest Books, forthcoming in December 2010).

Patrick Carman (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In Thirteen Days to Midnight (Little Brown), a nail-biting young adult novel of dark intrigue, powerful romance, friendship, and adventure, reluctant superhero Jacob Fielding learns that the Grim Reaper doesn’t disappear… he catches up.

Heather Strang, Toni Partington, Sophie Tree & Pam Crow (Kir Wine Bar, @7:00pm): Spend Wednesday evening sipping wine, noshing on yummy treats and listening to poetry by Toni Partington, Sophie Tree, Pam Crow and Anatomy of the Heart: Love Poems author Heather Strang.

Bonnie J. Rough (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): Bonnie J. Rough presents Carrier, her memoir of the genetic disorder that ruined her grandfather and causes her to reconsider having children of her own.

Backfence PDX presents: “At Your Service” (Mission Theater, @7:30pm, $14): What do a harem girl, a celebrity personal assistant, and a sexy rock-n-roll writer have in common? They and other awesome people will tell true, unmemorized stories as part of Back Fence PDX’s latest production: At Your Service!  Storytellers for the evening are: Steve Almond, Author of Rock -n-Roll Will Save Your Life; Jillian Lauren, Harem Girl for Prince Jefri Bolkiah; Eric Spitznagel, Super Funny Writer for Playboy and Vanity Fair; Sean McGrath, filled Patrick Swayze’s Sweat Pants in Road House: The Play; Sunny Parker, Corrections Officer; Cole Gamble, Celebrity Personal Assistant; and Doug Lyon, Director of Health Services for Mercy Corps. Cupcake girls and boys will serve you…free cupcakes from Saint Cupcake!

PSU MFA Poetry Graduate Readings (Blackfish Gallery, @7:30pm): These readings celebrate PSU’s graduating creative writing students and present an opportunity to hear some of Portland’s most exciting emerging writers. Reading will be Bob Balmer, MacKenzie Courtney, Crystal Root, Monique Wentzel, and Lora Worden. Professor Charles D’Ambrosio will introduce the writers.

Mountain Writers present: David Axelrod & David Memmott (The Press Club, @8:00pm): David Axelrod is the author of five collections of poems, including The Cartographer’s Melancholy, winner of the 2004 Spokane Prize for Poetry and finalist for the 2006 Oregon Book Award in Poetry,and most recently, Departing By A Broken Gate, published in 2010 by Wordcraft of Oregon. David Memmott has published five books of poetry, a novel and a story collection. Recent work has been published by Strange Horizons, High Desert Journal, Windfall and several anthologies. His newest book is the poetry collection, Giving It Away. He is the editor and publisher of Wordcraft of Oregon.

Thursday May 20-

WITS Reading (Ladybug Organic Coffee Co., @7:00pm): Writers in the Schools (WITS) is a comprehensive program that cultivates young writers and supports Oregon authors through semester-long writing residencies in the Portland public high schools. Reading will be students from Roosevelt Campus (SEIS, ACT, POWER High Schools) with WITS writers Carmen Bernier-Grand, Emma Oliver and Chris Cotrell

Phillip Margolin (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Filled with the fast-paced twists and surprises that propelled Executive Privilege, Phillip Margolin’s Supreme Justice (Harper) reunites attorney Brad Miller, FBI agent Keith Evans, and private investigator Dana Cutler to untangle a five-year-old case involving a ghost ship and the president’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cool Women Poets of New Jersey (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): The Cool Women Poets of New Jersey are a lively performance group of bold poets from the Princeton , New Jersey area. The group began as seven women who started meeting in 1997 to critique poems. Even though long-time Cool member Penelope Scambly Schott has moved to Portland, Oregon, she continues to participate in the monthly critique sessions — via speaker phone. The group includes Schott as well as Eloise Bruce, Juditha Dowd, Lois Harrod, Betty Lies, Joyce Lott, Judy Michaels, Maxine Susman, and Gretna Wilkinson.

Joëlle Anthony (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): A Portland native, Joëlle Anthony sets her debut novel, Restoring Harmony, in the Pacific Northwest, and Portlanders will find many local references, like MAX and Pioneer Square. But things have changed too. The year is 2041, ten years after a worldwide economic collapse, and times are hard. Anthony’s main character, Molly McClure, is a tough, fiddle-playing, sixteen-year-old from British Columbia. When word reaches the family in BC that things are not well for her grandparents in Oregon, she travels down to Portland in hopes of bringing them back to the thriving family farm. In a future world readers will find both recognizable and frightening, Molly struggles against hunger, crime, and poverty, keeping hope alive with both her music and determination.

Katie Arnoldi (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): With Point Dume (Overlook Press), Katie Arnoldi brings to remarkable life subjects she knows well: the death of surf culture, human trafficking, the Mexican drug cartel, illegal pot farms on public lands, environmental devastation, and obsessive love.

Jillian Lauren (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Some Girls (Plume) is Jillian Lauren’s jaw-dropping memoir of how a girl from the suburbs ended up in a prince’s harem and emerged from the secret Xanadu both richer and wiser.

Time Out: Mom-xiety: It’s Not Your Mother’s Angst (Curious Comedy Theater, @7:30pm): It takes a village to chill out a mother. Some sleep deprivation, too much laundry and a pinch of recession calls for a major mama comedy intervention. Writers Jillian Starr, Kate Haas (“Miranda” zine), Debby Dodds (“Little Red Book”) and Jacki Kane (“Sass Mouth: Destiny is a Joke”) and comedians Wendy Bax and Joanie Quinn perform.

Friday May 21-

Rock Paper Show: Exhibit and Release Party (Reading Frenzy, @7:00pm): Reading Frenzy is pleased to host a NW release of Rock Paper Show and a one night exhibit of original posters from the book. Local artists Mike King of Crash Design, Dan Stiles and Casey Burns will be in attendance, along with Jeff Kleinsmith of Patent Pending, and Geoff Peveto, president of API and coordinator of the International Flatstock Poster Convention. The standard and deluxe edition of Rock Paper Show will be available at the event. This event is free, with beer provided by the lovely folks of Ninkasi!

Smorg presents: David Abel and Chris Daniels (The Waypost, @7:00pm): Smorg Reading Series presents some fine poetry with Portland’s own David Abel and longtime Bay Area resident Chris Daniels. Daniels’ new chapbook porous, nomadic (airfoil) will be available for the first time.  Food, beer, wine and espresso all available

WITS Reading (Portland Art Museum, @7:00pm): Writers in the Schools (WITS) is a comprehensive program that cultivates young writers and supports Oregon authors through semester-long writing residencies in the Portland public high schools. Reading will be students from Lincoln High School with WITS writers Laura Moulton and John Isaacson.

Tim Johnston (St. John’s Books, @7:00pm): Join us to hear Porter Prize-winning author Tim Johnston read from his recent collection of short stories, Irish Girl.  Readers will find spellbinding stories of loss, absence, and the devastating effects of chance–of what happens when the unthinkable bad luck of other people, of other towns, becomes our bad luck, our town.  Taut, lucid, engrossing, provocative and often darkly funny, these stories have much to offer the lover of literary fiction as well as the reader who just wants a great story.

Cheeky Pages Romance Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn.

PSU MFA Non-Fiction Graduate Readings (Blackfish Gallery, @7:30pm): These readings celebrate PSU’s graduating creative writing students and present an opportunity to hear some of Portland’s most exciting emerging writers. Reading will be Lisa Ekman, Carla Feinstein, Haili Graff, Ron Horton, Merilee Karr, Jan Kurtz, and Jenny Tatone. Professor Paul Collins will introduce the writers.

Sebastian Junger (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat in War (Twelve), depicting the fear, honor, and trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another.

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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.