Portland Book Events: May 22-28

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 22, 2010 through May 28, 2010 are:

Saturday May 22-

Oolicon: Writer Workshops (Portland State, Smith Memorial Student Union, @9:00am, $32 Single Workshop-$130 Full Day): Oolicon: Write to Publish is a two-day conference that aims to demystify the publishing process for writers of all levels of experience. Day one of the event will include workshops for aspiring authors and publishing professionals. Workshops will address subjects such as the state of publishing, the writer/agent relationship, young adult trends and audience, and sustainable publishing. Panelists include Greg Netzer, the director of Wordstock, Laura Whipple from Pinball Publishing, Aaron Coulter from Dark Horse Comics, and Andi Zeisler from Bitch Media. Visit the Write to Publish website for a complete schedule of workshops.

Voices in Verse (Cedar Mill Community Library, @10:00am): Bring along a cup of coffee and share your own poetry or listen to others read their favorites. The group meets on the fourth Saturday morning of each month in the library’s upstairs meeting room.

Muhammad Yunus (Bagdad Theater, @2:00pm, $26 Includes copy of Building Social Business): Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and, with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has developed a visionary new dimension for capitalism. In his book Building Social Business (Public Affairs), Yunus shows how this concept has gone from being a theory to an inspiring practice, demonstrating how it holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise. Co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon.

Phillip Margolin presents Supreme Justice (Borders-Tigard, @2:00pm): Phillip Margolin is back with the exciting, heart-pounding follow-up to his bestselling book Executive Privilege. And the whole gang is here! Brad Miller, Dana Cutler, and Keith Evans take readers inside the U.S. Supreme Court when they are called upon to untangle a five-year-old case involving a ghost ship and the President’s nominee to be the next Justice.

Stumptown Underground Release Party (Whiffies Fried Pies, @6:00pm): Whiffies Fried Pies hosts the release party for Stumptown Underground‘s 9th anthology, All in the Family.  Find the issue preview here.  You’ll be able to meet and greet with the issue’s contributors, purchase copies of “All in the Family” for $5 (contributors get 1 copy each) before all your friends, and get fierce on some ping pong and pies! Editor Andy Johnson will be bringing his ping pong table, you bring your lucky paddle and maybe you can attempt to beat him, but he’s serious about ping pong, so watch out. We’ll be doing it tournament style, winner gets a free copy of the new issue!

Live Wire Radio (Mission Theater, @6:30pm, $15): Guests include: Congressman Earl Blumenauer – Bicycle and bow-tie wielding Representative for Oregon’s 3rd District, Earl has devoted his life to public service; Steve Almond – Author of Candyfreak, My Life in Heavy Metal, (Not That You Asked) and his latest Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life; Bill Oakley- Writer of The Simpsons, Creator of Mission Hill, The Mullets and consulting producer on Futurama; Stacy Bolt – Writer, Blogger and always a fan favorite essayist. Musical guests: The Baseball Project with Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5, R.E.M., Young Fresh Fellows), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Gutterball, Danny & Dusty, Miracle 3), Peter Buck (R.E.M., The Minus 5) and Linda Pitmon (Golden Smog, Miracle 3); and Damien Jurado.

Sunday May 23-

Oolicon: Open House (Portland State, Smith Memorial Student Union, @10:00am, $10): Write to Publish is a two-day conference that aims to demystify the publishing process for writers of all levels of experience. Day two is “Open House Day,” featuring vendor booths and professional resources such as agents, editors, regional publishers, literary magazines, and designers, along with the author appearances and signings. Award-winning authors Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin will be sharing their publishing experiences, and several other noteworthy Portland-area writers will also be appearing, including Shannon Wheeler, Deborah Hopkinson, Virginia Euwer Wolff, and Lilith Saintcrow.

Words Alive! VoiceCatcher Fundraiser (Tabor Space, @1:00pm, $45): Portland Writers presents a “Words Alive! Jumping from Page to Stage like a Pro” with Carolyn A. Martin, Ph.D. Limited to ten participants–both men and women. Bring approximately five minutes worth of your writing to read and practice. Carolyn A. Martin, Ph.D., is a world-class educator, author, and keynote speaker who has delighted hundreds of thousands of business professionals over the past 24 years. Known for her humor, practicality, and passion, she now applies the lessons she’s learned as a speaking professional to helping others perform their creative work. Happily retired, Carolyn currently serves as president of the board of directors of VoiceCatcher, an organization supporting women’s diverse voices in the Portland/Vancouver area. Register through email at: register[at]pdxwriters.com

Poets Andrew Michael Roberts and Carol Guess (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @4:00pm): A wide-ranging gathering of 34 brief essays and 66 prose poems by distinguished practitioners, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry (Rose Metal Press) is as personal and provocative, accessible and idiosyncratic as the genre itself.

William Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner (Floating World Comics, @6:00pm): This graphic novel (To Teach: The Journey, In Comics) brings to life William Ayers’s bestselling memoir To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher. These illustrated stories begin with Ayers’s early days teaching kindergarten and follow this renowned educational theorist on his “voyage of discovery and surprise.” Readers meet fellow travelers from schools across the country and watch as students grow across a year and a lifetime. Dave’s Killer Bread and Ninkasi will be providing food and beverages!

Bryan Charles & Mike McGonigal (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In two volumes of Continuum’s acclaimed 33 1/3 series, Bryan Charles’s Wowee Zowee offers a compelling examination of the classic Pavement album, including interviews with all band members; and Mike McGonigal’s Loveless examines My Bloody Valentine‘s epoch-making, late-’80s record that turned out to be their last album.

Monday May 24-

Oregon Writers Colony Presents: Bill Cameron (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): Bill Cameron is the author of the dark, gritty Portland- based mysteries Lost Dog, Chasing Smoke, and Day One. His stories have appeared in Spinetingler Magazine, Killer Year: Stories to Die For…From the Hottest New Crime Writers, and Portland Noir anthology. He is a member of Friends of Mystery, Mystery Writers of Ameria and International Thriller Writers.

Louis Sachar (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): The Cardturner (Delacorte) is the latest novel from Louis Sachar, the bestselling author of Holes. As the summer after junior year begins, Alton Richards becomes intrigued by his great-uncle Lester, by the game of bridge, and especially by a pretty, shy girl — and struggles to figure out what it all means.

What’s Eating You? (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): What’s Eating You? (Princeton) recounts Eugene H. Kaplan’s true and harrowing adventures with parasites and introduces readers to the intimately interwoven lives of host and parasite.

Pinewood Table Graduate Readings (The Press Club, @7:30pm): Joanna Rose is author of Little Miss Strange (PNBA Fiction Prize/OR Book Award Finalist), and has guided critique at The Pinewood Table for over 10 years. Scott Sparling‘s Wire to Wire will be published by TinHouse in March 2011. Sherri H. Hoffman‘s short stories can be found in Etchings, Duck and Herring Field Guide, and online at the Noneuclidean Cafe, and Whidbey Writers Student Choice.

Tuesday May 25-

Juliet Schor (The Haseltine Building, @6:00pm, $36 includes copy of Plentitude): At a moment of ecological and financial crisis, author and economist Juliet Schor presents a revolutionary strategy for transitioning toward a richer, more balanced life. In her new book, Plenitude (Penguin Press), Schor offers a groundbreaking intellectual statement about the economics and sociology of ecological decline, suggesting a radical change in how we think about consumer goods, value, and ways to live.

Robin Cody (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Please join us as we welcome Robin Cody, who will read from his newly published collection of essays, Another Way the River Has: Taut True Tales from the Northwest (OSU Press). One of Oregon’s most accomplished and beloved writers, Robin has worn many hats in his life, and the pieces in this book go back as far as 1982. Many cover his life on the various rivers he loves (Clackamas, Willamette, Columbia), some are about his work as a basketball ref and a baseball umpire, and some deal with his career as a school bus driver. Also included are pieces on other truly Oregon topics: Ken Kesey, Pendleton Round-Up cowboys, gyppo loggers, and more. We hope you can be here!

Phillip Margolin presents Supreme Justice (Murder by the Book, @7:00pm): Stop, in the name of justice! First there was something rotten in the presidential enclave, and attorney Brad Miller, FBI agent Keith Evans, and P.I. Dana Cutler battled on the side of truth and justice in Executive Privilege. Through no fault of their own, they are back. This time death is walking the halls of the Supreme Court. In Oregon, Sarah Woodruff has the distinction of having been tried twice for the murder of an ex-boyfriend. The charge stuck the second time around, and Sarah is on death row. Does she belong there? Her fate is in the hand of the Supremes, and someone doesn’t want her case brought back.

Devon Monk, Ilona Andrews, & Lilith Saintcrow (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In Devon Monk’s Magic on the Storm (Roc), an apocalyptic storm is bearing down on Portland — and when it hits, all the magic in the area will turn unstable and destructive. In Ilona Andrews’s Magic Bleeds (Ace), Kate Daniels cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to deal with. But a new player in town may be too much for even Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. In Lilith Saintcrow’s Flesh Circus (Orbit), the fourth in the urban fantasy series starring Jill Kismet, the stakes are higher than ever as hellbreed and voodoo practitioners converge on Santa Luz.

VoiceCatcher Reading & Fundraiser (First Unitarian Church, @7:00pm, Suggested $5-10 Donation): Please join us for a special evening celebrating the power of words, women and family! VoiceCatcher contributors reading will be: Sulima Malzin, Mary McIntosh, Heidi Schmaltz, Jennifer Springsteen, Gerri Ravyn Stanfield, Pearl Waldorf, and Sharon Wood Wortman. The evening will highlight the work of the Thirteen Salmon Family Center, a day center for homeless families, and its partner, Goose Hollow Family Shelter.

Louis Sachar (Barnes & Noble-Clackamas, @7:00pm): Can you think of a better way to get ready for summer reading than with a fabulous author? Join us to welcome Louis Sachar, the award-winning author of Holes, as he presents his new book for teens, The Cardturner. Fans of all ages are invited.

Jonathan Balcombe (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): With vivid stories and entertaining anecdotes, Jonathan Balcombe’s Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals (Palgrave Macmillan) gives the human pedestal a strong shake while opening the door into the inner lives of the animals themselves.

Wednesday May 26-

46th Annual Nina Mae Kellogg Awards (Portland State, Smith Union, #328 @5:00pm): The annual Nina Mae Kellogg Awards in English recognize excellence in student writing across the university in 23 categories, from memoir to journalism. This years keynote speaker will be Elise Paschen, a poet and literary critic who served as Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America from 1988 to 2001, and who is also the co-founder of Poetry in Motion, a program that places poetry posters in subways and buses across the country.

WITS Reading (Talking Drum Bookstore, @6:00pm): 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 Jefferson High School with WITS writers Renee Mitchell and Nicole Georges.

Feminist/Queer Science Fiction/Fantasy Reading Group (In Other Words Books, @6:00pm): A reading group for science fiction/fantasy works with themes and characters that provoke discussions about the concepts of gender and sexuality.The sci-fi/fantasy genre allows us to intimately experience worlds in which the rules/laws of our own world can be cast aside and different structures, (biological, technological, psychological, sociological, etc.) can be explored. Authors such as Octavia Butler, Ursula LeGuin, and James Tiptree are examples, but there are no set limitations on who we will read.

Write Around Release Party & Community Reading (First United Methodist Church, @6:30pm): Join Write Around Portland to celebrate the release of our new anthology, The Top, featuring writing by women in residential drug and alcohol treatment, homeless youth, low income housing residents, domestic violence survivors and many others. The reading is free, and everyone is welcome. Anthologies will be available for purchase (cash/check), and financial donations are welcome and appreciated.

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 Hearts of Horses” by Molly Gloss. New members are always welcome!

Classics Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss Native Son by Richard Wright. Join us!

Julia Quinn (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Bestselling romance author Julia Quinn returns with Ten Things I Love about You (Avon), another clever, witty, and delightful historical romance.

Verse in Person – Poetry Readings (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.

Evening Book Group (Tigard Public Library, @7:00pm): The May book is George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, first published 60 years ago. Registration is not required and new members are always welcome.

Tea, True Womanhood and Uppity Women (Tigard Public Library, @7:00pm): Through journals, stories, songs and readings, award-winning author Susan Butruille explores dynamics designed to keep women in their places. She tells about some women who defied convention and turned toward freedom.

An Eagle Named Freedom (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): An Eagle Named Freedom (Morrow) chronicles how Jeff Guidry nurtured an eaglet with two broken wings back to health — and then, when Guidry began fighting his own battle against non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the eagle guided him to fight for his own life.

Poets Alison Apotheker and Stacey Brown (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Stacey Brown’s Cradle Song is a book-length poem in sections that grapples with issues of race, family, and cultural identity against the backdrop of the poet’s childhood in the South. “Look how the world pleads to be contained/and everlasting,” writes Alison Apotheker in Slim Margin, her first book of poetry. Her work is the recipient of an Oregon Literary Arts fellowship and two Pushcart Prize nominations.

Thursday May 27-

Kwame Anthony Appiah (U of O-Portland, @5:30pm): The Oregon Humanities Center presents the Tzedek Professorship in the Humanities lecture by Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy at Princeton University and director of the PEN American Center. In his lecture “A Life of Honor,” Appiah will examine the notion of “honor,” which has been used to justify many practices throughout history, including duels in aristocratic England, foot binding in 19th-century China, and honor killing in modern-day Pakistan.

Open Mic (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.

Friends of Mystery presents “Fresh Blood” (Terwilliger Plaza, @6:30pm): Join Friends of Mystery for a panel of of up-and-coming mystery authors hosted by best-selling author Chelsea Cain. The panel will feature Northwest authors Bill Cameron, Mike Lawson, Dana Haynes and Brian Thornton, each with a different niche in the crime/thriller world, each creators of page-turning tales. The event will start with our annual book sale beginning at 6:30 pm. We will have hardbacks, paperbacks, audio books and DVD’s for sale. Most hardbacks will be priced at $1.00 and paperbacks at 50 cents. These books were donated by members for the sale. If you have books to donate, please bring them to the May meeting.

WITS Reading (BiPartisan Cafe, @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 Franklin High School with WITS writers Alexis Nelson and Hunt Holman.

Blood Secrets (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Written by real-life blood spatter expert Rod Englert, Blood Secrets (Thomas Dunne) reveals how forensic experts “read” the story of a murder told in the traces of blood left behind, providing crucial evidence that has helped convict criminals who might have otherwise walked free.

Charles Goodrich & Bill Siverly (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): In addition to his new book, Going to Seed, Charles Goodrich is the author of another volume of poems, Insects of South Corvallis (Cloudbank Books, 2003), and a collection of essays about nature, parenting, and building his own house, The Practice of Home (Lyons Press, 2004). Bill Siverly has taught literature, composition and creative writing at PCC for twenty-five years. He has published four books of poetry, Parzival (1981), Phoenix Fire (1987), The Turn (2000), and Clearwater Way (2009). Bill is co-editor of Windfall: A Journal of Poetry of Place, which features poetry of the Pacific Northwest.

Mystery Book Group (St. John’s Books, @7:00pm): Love mysteries? Love to talk about them? Join us for the inaugural meeting of our new mystery book group! We’re kicking things off in classic style with The Nine Tailors, Dorothy Sayers’ renowned tale of codes, churchyards, and a body in a belfry. Local tragedy, natural disaster, and a strange death all shake the underpinnings of a peaceful English village. Sit down with us to share your thoughts on this book and help choose future readings! Store book group selections are always 20% off in-store.

David Moskowitz (Audubon House, @7:00pm): The Audubon Society presents David Moskowitz, author of the newly published Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest: Tracking and Identifying Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Invertebrates (Timber Press, $25.95).  The book includes illustrated descriptions for more than 180 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates most common in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, northern California, Idaho, and western Montana. With more than 460 photographs, hundreds of scale drawings, and more than 90 distribution maps, it belongs in every pack and is a must-have for nature lovers of all ages and skill levels.

Lynn Schooler (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Walking Home (Bloomsbury) chronicles Lynn Schooler’s solo journey into the Alaskan wilderness — first by small boat across the formidable Gulf of Alaska, then on foot along one of the wildest coastlines in North America.

Deanna Fei (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In A Thread of Sky (Penguin), a stunning debut by talented new writer Deanna Fei, three generations of women, looking to reconnect with their ancestral home and with one another, tour mainland China on a journey that will change their family forever.

Friday May 28-

To Print for the Revolution: Celebrating Five Years of Eberhardt Press (Red & Black Cafe, @7:00pm, $5-20 Suggested Donation): Join friends and colleagues for a benefit and exhibition featuring the publishing and printing of Portland’s own Eberhardt Press.  Celebrating its fifth year as a radical publisher and provider of low-cost quality printing to do-it-yourself and radical projects, Eberhardt Press has printed countless posters, postcards, zines, books and album covers. All funds raised during the event will go to the next phase of Eberhardt Press – a new printing press and additional titles! Featuring Free Beer from Ninkasi for all attendees!

Poets Alex Birkett & Kori Sayer (St. John’s Books, @7:00pm): Two Portland-area poets read from their most recent collections. Alex Birkett presents poems from New Homes, and Kori Sayer will read from Dr. Turpentine.

Bill Press (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Writing with his characteristic and incisive wit, Bill Press’s Toxic Talk (Thomas Dunne) exposes the destructive power of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the other polarizing figures of right-wing talk radio who dominate 90% of the political airwaves today.

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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.