Portland Book Events: June 5-11

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 June 5, 2010 through June 11, 2010 are:

Saturday June 5-

Bridge and Poetry Walk (NW Second & Everett, @8:30am, $16 adults/$10 children): Sage Cohen will share poems as part of the 2010 bridge walking series, an event led by Sharon Wood Wortman, author of The Portland Bridge Book, and leader of waterfront bridge walks for Portland Parks & Outdoor Recreation since 1991. About a mile long and easy-paced, each walk includes a tour of the Oregon Dept. of Transportation’s Traffic Management Operation Center and the tower and bascule pit of the Morrison Bridge. See eight bridges in all.  Registration not required. Begins at 8:30 a.m. at the corner of NW Second & Everett (steps of the Northwest Natural Building). Ends with lunch (extra $) in Chinatown.

Great Northwest Bookstore Benefit Book Sale (3025 SW 1st Ave, @10:00am-6:00pm): Benefit to help Phil Wikelund pay for demolition on the site where Great Northwest Bookstore burned down earlier this month. 1000s of books, 75 cents – $3, $5/bag on Sunday. Donations welcome. Full details at GNWBookSale.com.

Don Nelson signs Remembering Portland (St. John’s Books, @11:00am): Don Nelson will sign copies of this lovingly assembled collection of historic photographs of Portland.  Drop by to meet Don, celebrate the opening of the new Farmers’ Market season, and pick up a copy of this perfect Fathers’ Day gift!

Market Day Poetry Series (St. John’s Books, @12:00pm): It’s Farmers’ Market time!  With the opening day of the St. Johns Farmers’ Market, we’re kicking off a new season of Market Day Poetry.  Your host today is Dan Raphael, series coordinator, with guest readers Mary Slocum and Rick J. Join us at noon each market Saturday through 25 September, to enjoy a wide spectrum of expression from over 40 participating poets!

Kilong Ung (St. John’s Books, @2:00pm): Kilong Ung has gone from a boyhood in hell to living an especially Portland version of the American Dream.  His memoir, Golden Leaf, chronicles the incredible journey of an ambassador for peace from the killing fields of Cambodia to the Rotary Club of Portland and the fellowship of the Royal Rosarians–through minefields, rockets, bullets, refugee camps, and Reed College.  Join us to meet this inspiring North Portland neighbor.

Writers’ Mixer featuring Diane Cammer (Cover to Cover Books, @5:00pm): Come meet and greet other Northwest writers, network, and have a good time! Diane Cammer will tackle the daunting task of teaching us how to deliver constructive critiques, Clarion-style. In the Clarion method, the writers bring in a page of their work, about 250 words, read the page aloud, and then receive constructive criticism on the spot. We’ll do as many critiques as we have time for in our session. The events are free and do not require a reservation or RSVP. Light refreshments served. June’s mixer will be our last mixer before the summer hiatus. We’ll be back the first Saturday in October with more fabulous guest speakers!

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (Clinton Street Theater, @6:00pm, $8): “I bring not peace, but a sword!” shouts William S. Burroughs in A Man Within. The legendary writer and artist also carried, as director Yony Leyser’s deeply engaging documentary shows, an untold number of shotguns, pistols, knives and other weapons, both real and rhetorical.  Through interviews with friends, lovers and colleagues, both famous (Patti Smith, Gus Van Sant, John Waters) and less so (his “gun handler” is here, as well as his “snake dealer”), A Man Within pieces together a poignant, scrupulous portrait of an intensely complicated and brilliant artist.  Here was a man who chronicled the lives of addicts, decidedly long before it was “chic” to do so; who wrote the seminal book Queer while disavowing any sense of gay identity; who drunkenly killed his wife with a pistol during a game of William Tell; and whose Naked Lunch provoked the last major case of literary censorship in the United States.

Frances McCue (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): Combining travelogue, memoir, and literary scholarship, The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs (University of Washington Press) follows Frances McCue and Mary Randlett in their search for the towns that inspired the poems of Richard Hugo. Their essays and photographs offer a fresh view of Hugo’s Northwest.

Frank Meeink (Mississippi Pizza Pub, @9:00pm): Book launch party for Frank Meeink’s Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, published by local press Hawthorne Books. Live music by Nicole Berke, no cover, and pizza and beer will be provided!

Sunday June 6-

Great Northwest Bookstore Benefit Book Sale (3025 SW 1st Ave, @11:00am-2:00pm): Benefit to help Phil Wikelund pay for demolition on the site where Great Northwest Bookstore burned down earlier this month. All books remaining on this final day of the sale will be $5/bag. Donations welcome. Full details at GNWBookSale.com.

Back Page Live Recording with Host Jody Seay (Powells City of Books, @2:00pm): Hosted by Jody Seay, Back Page, a television show about Oregon writers, focuses on the story behind the story, the inspiration. The 30-minute program airs at various times and dates on Oregon WIN (Wireless Instructional Network) and on OPB’s digital stations. Join us for a live recording at our downtown store!

Ken Kuhlken (Murder by the Book, @3:00pm): The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles is the sixth book in Ken Kuhlken’s “California Century” series. It takes us back to the early days of series star P.I. Tom Hickey. Ken populates his book with real larger-than-life figures from 1920s Los Angeles: William Randolph Hearst, Harry Chandler, and Aimee Semple McPherson. Through Hickey’s eyes we see the impact they had on a burgeoning community. We also are witness to some of the volatile issues of the day, including racism.

Frances McCue (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @4:00pm): Combining travelogue, memoir, and literary scholarship, The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs (University of Washington Press) follows Frances McCue and Mary Randlett in their search for the towns that inspired the poems of Richard Hugo. Their essays and photographs offer a fresh view of Hugo’s Northwest.

Jacob Paul (Ampersand, @7:00pm): Novelist Jacob Paul stops at Ampersand during his West Coast bicycle & book tour to read from his new novel, Sarah/Sara. Starting in Seattle, Paul is riding to San Francisco & stopping for readings along the way. You can follow a record of his journey here. An engrossing meditation on the meaning of faith, Sarah/Sara is the story of a young Orthodox Jewish woman who undertakes a solo kayaking journey across the Arctic Ocean after her parents are killed and she is disfigured by a terrorist bomb in a Jerusalem café. What begins as a series of diary entries on her struggle with faith ends in a fight for survival, as Sarah slowly comes to realize that she is lost in the Arctic wilderness with the ice closing in around her.

Why We Ride (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In Why We Ride (Seal Press), Verna Dreisbach collects the stories of women who ride horses, sharing their personal emotions and accounts of the most important animals in their lives. Editor Dreisbach will be joined by co-contributors Samantha Ducloux Waltz, Janice Newton, Diane Mapes, Jill Widner, Michele Scott, and Valerie Riggs.

Monday June 7-

Story Time for Grownups: Richard Matheson (Grendel’s Coffee House, @7:30pm): David Loftus will read excerpts from the works of Richard Matheson for the latest installment of Story Time for Grownups.  Matheson is a modern American master of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. If you haven’t read one of his books, even if you don’t recognize the name, you’ve likely seen his stories on the big or little screen. David Loftus has read aloud to numerous live audiences throughout the Northwest, in addition to doing voice recordings for a variety of projects. In July he will appear as the Kralahome in Broadway Rose Theatre’s production of “The King and I” and as the Genies in the company’s children’s theater production of “Aladdin.”

Mountain Writers presents Jessica Lamb & Students (The Press Club, @7:30pm): Jessica Lamb has taught writing for many years through the Northwest Writing Institute, Portland Community College, and Literary Arts Writers in the Schools program. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry, The Southern Review, and Willow Spring. Her collection of poems, Last Apples of Late Empires, from Airlie Press was published in 2009. This event will include brief readings by students from Jessica’s poetry workshop: Paul Guenther, Andrea Munoz, Casey Twining, Carmen Bradbury, Cassandra Schreiber, Dill McVein, and Erik Olson.

Heather Lende (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): In her second novel, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs (Algonquin), Heather Lende (who has been called part Annie Dillard, part Anne Lamott by the Los Angeles Times) shows that the way individuals respond to setbacks has everything to do with faith.

Frank Meeink (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): By age 16, Frank Meeink was a notorious skinhead gang leader. At age 18, he was doing hard time. Teamed up with African-American players in a prison football league, Meeink learned to question his hatred. Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead (Hawthorne Books) describes his descent into and ultimate triumph over drugs and hate.

Tuesday June 8-

Morning Book Discussion Group (Tigard Public Library, @10:30am): Join others in a group discussion about The Whole World Over by Julia Glass.  Greenwich Village bakery owner Greenie Duquette’s coconut cake becomes the impetus for a cross country move to become the New Mexico governor’s chef.  This impulse decision to move west, leaving her husband in New York, and other events beyond Greenie’s control, will change to course of several lives.

Drash: Northwest Mosaic Release Reading (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Thieves, Nobel Prize winners, bus riders and prophets will spring off the pages of Volume IV of Drash: Northwest Mosaic. Editor Wendy Marcus, along with poets and writers from the newest issue of this annual Seattle-based literary journal, will read and rub shoulders at this event. Seattle TimesBook Editor Mary Ann Gwinn described Drash as having an “affinity for the texture of the everyday.” Its content tilts towards Northwest and Jewish themes, but it embraces writers and poets and readers of all persuasions. Scheduled to read at this event are Diana Brement, Jeanne Krinsley, Willa Schneberg, Devan Schwartz, Scot Siegel, Jack Turteltaub, and Sharon Lask Muson.

Science Fiction Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds. Join us!

Hugh Rowland (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In On Thin Ice (Hyperion), Hugh Rowland, star of the History Channel’s popular Ice Road Truckers, shares his story with his own salty humor: from how he got his start on ice roads to how he’s survived misadventures north of the Arctic Circle.

Tuesday Night Nourishment Book Group (Garden Home Community Library, @7:00pm): This month’s selection is Per Petterson’s “Out Stealing Horses”. New members always welcome to join our lively discussion & light refreshments. Books available in the library. See us at the check out desk.

Mini Sledgehammer Writing Contest (Blackbird Wineshop, @7:00pm, 21+): Join Indigo Editing for their monthly Mini Sledgehammer Writing Contest, graciously hosted by Blackbird Wine Shop, every second Tuesday at 7 p.m. The contest is free to enter. Each event includes 36 minutes of writing guided by four writing prompts. Stories will be read aloud, judged, and the winner will take home prizes.

Linda Greenlaw (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): The bestselling author’s sequel to The Hungry Ocean is a fast-paced account of her return to swordfishing. Capturing the moment-by-moment details of her journey, Seaworthy (Viking) is Linda Greenlaw’s compelling narrative about a person setting her own terms and finding her true self between land and water.

Wednesday June 9-

Flash Choir presents “Strangers Together” (Lake Oswego Library, @12:00pm): “Strangers Together” is a setting of 10 poems from William Stafford’s book, Passwords, composed by Sarah Dougher and performed by the Flash Choir.  This project engages the work of Stafford–exploring in particular poems dealing with human connection to animals and the divine, as well as human connection with other humans. Most experience poetry sitting, silently reading. The choral rendition of these words in a public space will create an opportunity for communal listening, and perhaps, a new way of hearing and understanding the work of Oregon’s first Poet Laureate.

Book Group (West Slope Community Library, @2:00pm): Please join us for a discussion of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.

Book Group (West Slope Community Library, @6:30pm): Please join us for a discussion of The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Paul Merchant (Milwaukie Ledding Library, @7:00pm): Paul Merchant is the William Stafford Archivist at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. A native of Wales, he taught for many years at Warwick University before taking up residence in Oregon. His fourth collection of poems, Some Business of Affinity (2006), was a finalist for an Oregon Book Award. His third volume of translations from modern Greek, Monochords by Yannis Ritsos, was published in 2007 by Trask House Press.

Nena Baker (Tigard Public Library, @7:00pm): Oregon author and investigative journalist Nena Baker explores the many factors that have given rise to the “chemical body burden” in The Body Toxic. Almost everything we encounter-from soap to soup cans, computers to clothing-contribues to a chemical load unique to each of us.

The Boys from Little Mexico (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In the tradition of Friday Night Lights, Steve Wilson’s The Boys from Little Mexico (Beacon Press) follows the all-Hispanic boys’ soccer team from Woodburn High, who are determined that this will be the season they beat the wealthy suburban schools around them and finally win the Oregon state championship.

Thursday June 10-

Book Group (Wilsonville Public Library, @6:00pm): June’s selection is Jim Fergus’ One Thousand White Women.  This is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial “Brides for Indians” program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man’s world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.

Bill Cameron (Murder by the Book, @7:00pm): In Day One, Portland author Bill Cameron continues the trials and travails of Skin Kadash, who is a retired cop at this point. He has endless days now to ruminate on an unsolved murder case. The sole witness appeared to be a young teenager. That boy, Eager Gillespie, is now a few years older, and Skin needs to find out what Eager’s involvement is with a present-day shooting across from Skin’s own home and with a young woman who ran away from an abusive life in a rural Oregon community.

Tamler Sommers (Reading Frenzy, @7:00pm): Do we have free will? Is Catherine Zeta-Jones objectively hotter than Drew Barrymore? These are just a couple of the questions that philosopher Tamler Sommers attempts to answer in his interviews with ten acclaimed researchers in the burgeoning field of moral psychology. A Very Bad Wizard (McSweeney’s, 2009) is essential reading for anyone curious about the origins and inner workings of our moral lives.

Shirley Desai (In Other Words Books, @7:00pm): Shirley Desai, author of The 7 Connections to Happiness and Harmony- Decision Making Made Easy With Yoga’s 7 Chakras, will be leading a lively talk and sharing some insights from her new book. In particular, Shirley will be discussing the topic of life balance and how the 7 Chakras can be understood as a practical, step-by-step framework for self analysis and making empowering shifts and decisions in life.

Graphic Novel Reading Club (Bridge City Comics, @7:00pm): June’s selection is John Byrne’s Fantastic Four Visionaries Vol. 1. Not since the days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the trailblazers of the very mythology known as the Marvel Universe, had someone so perfectly captured the intense mood, cosmic style and classic sense of adventure of Marvel’s first family of heroes – the Fantastic Four.  John Byrne took these characters and launched them into realms where few creators before this had dared to go, reminding us all there was a family at the heart of this team of adventurers. The Fantastic Four has always been called “The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine.” The evidence is found in these very pages.

Deadly Diversions Mystery Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale. Join us!

Amy Gullick (Natural Capital Center, @7:00pm): Award-winning nature photographer Amy Gulick explores one of the rarest ecosystems on earth, Alaska’s Tongass rain forest. Gulick spent two years hiking, paddling and camping amid the bears, islands and salmon streams of the Tongass to capture images for her new book, Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska’s Tongass Rain Forest (Braided River/Mountaineers Books, 2010). The book is a 2010 silver award winner from the Independent Publishers Book Association.

Kristin Berger (Cover to Cover Books, @7:00pm): Poet Kristin Berger will be the featured reader in Cover to Cover’s popular monthly open mic poetry reading series hosted by Christopher Luna. Kristin lives in Portland, Oregon, where she serves as an Associate Editor of VoiceCatcher. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, For the Willing (Finishing Line Press, 2008, $12), and her non-fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Kristin’s poetry and essays have appeared in CALYX, New Letters, and The Pedestal Magazine among other publications.

Peter Donahue (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): Peter Donahue’s Clara and Merritt unfolds amidst the violent strife between longshoremen and Teamsters in Seattle in the 1930s and ’40s. When Clara Hamilton, the daughter of a longshoreman, and Merritt Driscoll, a member of the Teamsters union, fall in love, their relationship is immediately threatened by the fierce antagonism between the rival unions. This exciting new novel explores how people reckon with the larger forces of world events in their everyday lives—extending author Peter Donahue’s remarkable exploration of Northwest history.

Laura Fraser (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In All over the Map (Harmony), Laura Fraser, bestselling author of The Italian Affair, buys readers the plane tickets and takes them in search of adventure and romance as she wonders whether it’s possible, in midlife, to have it all.

101 Things I Learned in Film School (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Written by Neil Landau, an experienced screenwriter and script consultant to the major movie studios, 101 Things I Learned in Film School (Grand Central) is the perfect book for anyone who wants to know about the inner workings of the industry. Co-sponsored by the Northwest Film Center, this event includes a screenwriting workshop.

Friday June 11-

Jeffery Deaver (Murder by the Book, @12:00pm): In Jeffrey Deaver’s The Burning Wire gigantic explosions rock New York City, and the perpetrator has begun to send demanding letters. Can Lincoln Rhyme catch this killer at the same time he is closing in on his archnemesis, “The Watchmaker”? The strain may be too much for Lincoln’s fragile condition. With assists from long-time sidekicks Amelia Sachs and Ron Pulaski, Lincoln tries to save a city without sacrificing himself

Rose City Used Book Fair (Friendship Masonic Center, @2:00pm-8:00pm, $2 or $1 + 1 can of food): An unpretentious book fair featuring 1000′s of books from over 26 different Independent Booksellers. Used books, bargain books, collectible books, prints, ephemera, appraisals, seminars, and door prizes will all be available. Check out the event website for full details.

Dirty Queer Open Mic (In Other Words Women’s Books & Resources, @6:30pm, $1-$5 Suggested Donation): Dirty Queer is an X rated open mic: a place to celebrate sexuality and strut your creative stuff! Hosted by renegade writer and poet Sossity Chiricuzio, Dirty Queer is proven itself to be a thought provoking evening of excitement, laughter and full body shivers. We’re looking for queer erotic entertainers of all sorts: dancers, jugglers, singers, musicians, comics, poets, storytellers, magicians, gender performers … if you can do it in 5-10 minutes or less (w/ minimal props/equip), this open mic’s for you! It’s highly recommended to bring your own folding chairs if you can, as we average 85 people/month. Everyone who attends has a chance to win door prizes from local businesses! Caveats: 18+, consent is key, no hate speech.

Jeffery Deaver (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In Jeffery Deaver’s The Burning Wire (Simon & Schuster), Lincoln Rhyme is back and on the trail of a killer whose weapon of choice cripples New York City with fear.

Peter Donahue (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Appearing in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, Peter Donahue presents his new novel, Clara and Merritt (Wordcraft of Oregon), a story that unfolds amidst the violent strife between Longshoremen and Teamsters in Seattle in the 1930s and ’40s.

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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.