We’re constantly perusing our Portland literary directory looking for interesting folks to feature in our weekly “Five Questions” interview series. Today’s featured guest is Scott Nadelson, who just released his latest book, Aftermath.

What is the last book you bought at a Portland bookstore? What made you pick it up?

I recently bought The Late Interiors by Marjorie Sandor at Broadway Books. This is a book I’ve been waiting on for a long time. Marjorie was one of my teachers at Oregon State, a terrific writer with three previous books I already love. This is her second book of nonfiction, and what particularly attracts me to it is its hybrid structure of journal entries, lyric meditations, and formal essays. The book traces five seasons in the life of its author/narrator as she copes with various changes in her world: a new marriage and house, illness of friends and family, the threat of a neighborhood being destroyed. Together the pieces form a larger meditation about the creative process and the various ways we construct our lives in the face of challenges. Sentence by sentence, it’s one of the most gorgeous books I’ve read in quite a while.

What is your favorite poem by a Portland poet?

Not long ago I came across Vern Rutsala’s Becoming American on Poetry Daily, and it floored me. The immigrant experience of my grandfather’s generation is so familiar in our culture that it’s hard to imagine someone capturing it in a way that’s entirely fresh and surprising, but that’s exactly what Rutsala does. The poem is about the tension between the immigrant’s willful forgetting of the past and of places left behind, all “starving winds and nothingness,” and subsequent generations’ longing for that past and those places. The last lines just kill me, in part, I suppose, because they evoke a feeling I know well: “The destroyed huts, / every ditch and abandoned village / crooned to them, bright and dear / and hopelessly beyond their reach.”

What is your favorite Portland-based literary journal?

Glimmer Train, hands down. What a great journal it’s been, for twenty years now and counting. What’s amazing about the editors is that they established an aesthetic early in their history and have trusted their vision without ever compromising. They’ve never been flashy, and their tastes haven’t gotten stodgy, either. They just keep finding new stories that move them, and year after year they publish some of the best stuff around. Their commitment to literary fiction and the short story has been significant not just to Portland but to the writing community as a whole.

What is your favorite Portland reading series?

I’m a big fan of Loggernaut. They’ve done a terrific job of making a dynamic series with a wide range of writers, both local and national, and their thematic focus makes for exciting combinations of readings. They always draw an enthusiastic crowd, too. Plus their website has some of the most interesting and in-depth literary interviews I’ve come across.

What is your favorite Portland-based band?

I’ll take this opportunity to plug Dolorean, not only because they are friends, but because their songs are smart and beautiful and because they deserve bigger audiences. Their newest album, The Unfazed, has been in the rotation on my stereo for months. Heartbreak and stoicism. Nothing makes me happier.

If you are, or represent, a Portland author, book club, bookstore, comic artist, editor, library, literary journal, literary organization, open mic, poet, publisher, reading series, or writing program, and would like to be featured in an upcoming “Five Questions” post, please take a couple minutes and add your listing to our directory.

Photo credit: Hawthorne Books

If you’re promoting an upcoming Portland literary event, and would like to be considered for our daily event highlight, please add your event to our list.

What: Comma featuring Rich Wandschneider and Pamela Steele

Where: Broadway Books (1714 NE Broadway)

When: August 18th, 2011, 7:00pm-8:00pm

How Much: Free & Open to the Public

Info: The Comma reading series, organized by local writer Kirsten Rian and hosted the third Thursday of each month by Broadway Books, pairs regional authors from different literary genres. In August Comma features essayist Rich Wandschneider, founder of Fishtrap, and poet and novelist Pamela Steele.

Other Portland Literary Event’s Happening Today:

12:00pm-Multnomah County Library Twitter Chat with Sarah Mirk

7:00pm-Jon Bell presents” On Mount Hood” at Annie Bloom’s Books

7:30pm-Sophia van Buren presents “Illumination” at St. John’s Booksellers

Are you attending this event tonight? We invite you to recap your experience, and discuss the event with others, here. Or, you can recap any of the other events added to our list. We will pick the best recaps to highlight on our blog!

Every Friday we roundup the links that have been added to our News Found Elsewhere section throughout the week. If you would like to suggest a link for inclusion in next weeks roundup, please send it to links@readinglocal.com.

-Broadway Books announced their new ebook (and regular book) friendly website.

-Over on his blog, Kevin Sampsell helps you get to know B.Frayn Masters (aka Mrs. Sampsell).

-Matthew Stadler’s new “cover” novel Chloe Jarren’s La Cucaracha, is reviewed over on The Millions.

-On his newly redesigned blog, Zachary Schomburg reads a poem from his upcoming collection Fjords.

-BOMBLOG reviews Dodie Bellamy’s the buddhist, which was published locally by Publication Studio.

-See if you can spot the Portland love found in this Algonquin “Booksellers Rock” post.

-Jamie Iredell’s The Book of Freaks, published locally by Future Tense, gets the single-sentence review treatment.

-Jaret Ferratusco’s photography, and his new collection of stories Please Don’t Leave Me, is spotlighted by Jillian Rabe.

-PSU professor Tom Bissell, author of Why Video Games Matter, examines the relevance of the new video game L.A. Noire.

-Karen Cole’s Voodoo Vintners is reviewed by Angie Jabine on the Powell’s Books blog.

-Local cartoonist Matt Borrs heads to Haiti to kick off a graphic record of the devastated country’s rebuilding.