Thank you very much for visiting the new Reading Local: Portland! There are a host of ways you can use and interact with the new site, so we wanted to provide a quick guide to help get you started.

Events:

• Want to know what literary events are taking place each day in and around Portland? Just check out the yellow strip down the center of the home page, where you will find a list of events that have been added to the site, displayed relative to the current date. On the main Events page you can drill down even further, and search for events by category. Additionally, every morning on our blog (which is now the “News & Features” section) we will highlight an event taking place that day.
• Are you promoting an upcoming Portland literary event, and want to add it to our list? It now takes but a few minutes to add your event to our list using this form. You can find this form by scrolling over EVENTS on the menu bar, and clicking on the “Add an Event +” link.
• Want to discuss an event you’re planning to attend, or have just attended? We’ve designed the comment sections for each event listing to promote and facilitate discussion around events. As an added incentive for doing so, each week on our blog we will highlight one event recap or preview we think is particularly awesome.

New Releases:

• Intrigued by the idea of “reading local” and want to know where to get started? Our New Release section is the most comprehensive list of new releases from Portland authors, publishers, poets, literary journals, comics, and zinesters. Additionally, each week on our blog we will highlight one new release.
• Are you a Portland author, publisher, poet, literary journal, comic, or zinester looking to promote your new release? It now takes but a few minutes to add your new release to our list using this form. You can find this form by scrolling over NEW RELEASES on the menu bar, and clicking on the “Add Release +” link.
• Have you recently read one of the new releases found on our site and would like to review or discuss it? We’ve designed the comment sections for each new release listing to promote and facilitate reviews and discussion about these new releases. As an added incentive for doing so, each week on our blog we will highlight one new release review we think is particularly awesome.

Directory:

• The words “Portland literary community” are used quite a bit on this site, are you wondering what that actually means? Once it’s fully built out, our Portland literary directory will be the most comprehensive guide to who actually makes our literary community so wonderful. Additionally, each week on our blog we will feature one member of Portland’s literary community in the “Five Questions” interview series.
• Are you, or do you represent, a Portland author, bookstore, book club, comic artist, editor, library, literary journal, literary organization, open mic, poet, publisher, reading series, or writing program, that would like to add your listing to our directory? It now takes but a few minutes to add your listing to our directory using this form. You can find this form by scrolling over DIRECTORY on the menu bar, and clicking on the “Add Listing +” link.
• Would you like to share the  experience (good or bad) you’ve had with a member of Portland’s literary community? We’ve designed the comment sections for each directory listing to promote and facilitate reviews and discussion about these listings. As an added incentive for doing so, each week on our blog we will highlight one directory listing review we think is particularly awesome.

News Found Elsewhere:

• Want to get a quick snapshot of what’s happening in Portland’s literary community? Each day we comb through RSS feeds, Google Alerts, Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter looking for the best interviews, reviews, features, and other articles that feature Portland’s literary community. You can find the fruits of this labor in the News Found Elsewhere section.
• Have an article you think we should link to? Send it to us at links@readinglocal.com.

We hope this provides an insight into the new features available on the site, but perhaps the best advice we can give for getting comfortable with the new design, is to just jump in and start exploring. We encourage you to click from link to link for no other reason than to see where you end up. If you come across something you think isn’t right or is confusing, you can use the feedback tab found on the right of the site to let us know what’s up. Or, if you’re done exploring and want to start back at square one, you can always click on the logo at the top of the site to get back to the home page.

We’re very excited about the possibilities of the new site, and our sincere hope is that in time it will become an invaluable resource for organizing and promoting Portland’s wonderful literary community.

That was my Twitter review of last nights Backfence PDX show “Caught Red Handed,” featuring stories never before told from Pema Teeter, Jeff Hardison, Jami Curl, Nicole Georges, Eric Schniewind, Viva Las Vegas, and Rael Dornfest.  Since I have more than 140 characters to work with here, I suppose I can get a bit more nuanced in my reaction to last nights show.

First off, being that I could never get up on stage and tell a story from my life, I cannot critique the delivery of any of last nights storytellers.  The pure fact that they had the courage to get up in front of everyone, and relate a moment from their lives, inspires the rounds of applause they received.  Were some presenters more natural up on stage? Better able to provoke a laugh? Find the perfect word or sentence to describe what they went through? Most certainly.  But if you choose to focus on that, you’re missing the whole point of a show like Backfence.  That point being, at least from my perspective, that we all have a story to tell.  And whether or not we’re born with the “gift of gab,” we’re all storytellers at heart.  Some choose to tell their stories on stage in front of people.  Others choose to convey their life’s script while sitting behind a computer screen.  All of us however, surround ourselves with people that then share in, and become part of, our stories.  Which in a condensed way, desribes what Backfence is, just on a bit more organized and grander scale.

In addition to needing an outlet for our own stories, we also love to be entertained by someone else’s.  Entertainment not just in the form of laughter, but also sadness, anger, fear, and nearly every other emotion. And this is why Backfence works, because it simultaneously fills both of these human desires.  Not in a mutually exclusive way either.  Because even though it wasn’t me up on the stage talking about my mom having the police come to our house because I stole my uncle’s Joe Montana rookie card, hearing the stories told did bring out that memory.  An experience I’m sure I wasn’t alone in, and one that in a way allows the audience to become the storyteller.

We need more experiences like Backfence.  Experiences that bring the human element back into our lifes. We are now too often entertained by the season finale of “Heroes,” or the big screen premier of “The Hangover.”  Which serve their purpose, and have their place in the entertainment continuum, but also dehumanize the world around us.  So props to Frayn and Melissa for recognizing the need for people to have an outlet to become more engaged in their community, and props to the community for finding and supporting their efforts.