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: Lisa Montierth & Ashley Burke present “Right Where You Are Now”

Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills (3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, Or)

When: September 25th, 2011, 2:00pm – 3:30pm

How Much: Free & Open to the Public

Info: With vibrant illustrations that transport the reader millions of years back through time — to massive volcanic events, to the tribes of early Americans, and more — Right Where You Are Now (Craigmore Creations), Lisa Monteirth and Ashley Burke’s picture book for children, is an exciting journey with a new educational adventure on every page.

Other Portland Literary Event’s Happening Today:

2:00pm-Feasting on Forbidden Fruit: Banned Books Week Discussion at St. John’s Library

7:00pm-Attic Atheneum Faculty Reading and Class of 2012 Induction at Conduit

7:30pm-Banned Books Week Celebration at Powell’s City of Books

8:00pm-Spare Room presents Camille Roy & Arnold J. Kemp at The Waypost

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!

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: Writers Reflect on 9/11

Who: Tom Spanbauer, Tami Lynn Kent, Jennifer Lauck, and Sage Cohen

Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne (3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.)

When: September 11th, 2011, 4:00pm – 6:00pm

How Much: Free & Open to the Public

Info: At this collective reading, authors Tom Spanbauer, Tami Lynn Kent, Jennifer Lauck, and Sage Cohen will read from their work and reflect on how September 11, 2001, caused a deep shift in our personal worlds.

Other Portland Literary Event’s Happening Today:

3:00pm-29th Street Writers Present “The Opposite of War”

4:00pm-Jack Hart presents “Storycraft” at Powell’s City of Books

7:00pm-Studio Series presents David Abel and Sam Lohmann at Stonehenge Studios

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!

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: Carson Ellis & Collin Meloy present “Wildwood”

Where: Bagdad Theater (3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.)

When: August 30th, 2011, 7:00pm – 8:30pm

How Much: Tickets, $17.99, include admission and a copy of Wildwood

Info: Created by Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists, and illustrator Carson Ellis, Wildwood (Balzer & Bray) is the first book in an epic middle-grade fantasy series. Set in Portland, this spellbinding tale features a secret world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with dark intentions. What begins as a rescue mission becomes something much bigger as two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of the wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

Other Portland Literary Event’s Happening Today:

11:00am-Dylan Williams Benefit Sale at Floating World Comics

7:00pm-INFK Poetry Reading with Anis Mojgani and Riley Michael Parker

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!

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.

Who: Matt Love & Kim Cooper Findling

Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne (3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.)

When: August 22nd, 2011, 7:30pm-9:00pm

How Much: Free & Open to the Public

Info: Oregon opened the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport on Labor Day 1936. For 75 years, the bridge has stood as a monument to excellence in architecture and proof that a partnership between state and federal government can produce something practical, beautiful, and lasting. Blending a variety of genres including memoir, essay, autobiography, and commentary, Matt Love‘s Love and the Green Lady (Nestucca Spit Press) is an ode to an Oregon architectural landmark. In 23 essays set over 20 years, Kim Cooper Findling‘s Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir tells the story of an Oregon girl coming of age in the ’70s and ’80s, navigating her way through pick-up trucks, dive bars, higher education, and backwoods trails before finding a place she belonged.

Other Portland Literary Event’s Happening Today:

7:00pm-Poetry on the Piazza: Robert Mittenthal, Donato Mancini, and Louis Cabri at Director Park

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.

-Six years after being “started on a whim,” Guapo Comics & Coffee will shut its doors on Aug.25th. Make sure to stop by on that day for their “Adios” party.

-Powell’s Books provides a peek behind the curtains on how they put together Indiespensable #28.

-In other Powell’s news, their free iPhone app gets a test drive over on Whimpulsive.

-Neil Gaiman will be embarking on a West Coast tour this fall, with a stop in Portland on Nov. 7th. Time and location have yet to be announced.

-Tin House provides background on the cover of issue #48, which features artwork by Portland native Michael Brophy.

-In other Tin House news, the Denver Post reviewed (and liked) their new anthology Fantastic Women.

-Zachary Schomburg previews a second poem, The Wild Meaningless, from his upcoming collection The Fjords.

-Dill Pickle Club interviews Khris Soden, whose artwork is found in the latest Oregon History Comics release about the Black Panther Party in Portland.

-Portland Monthly got Floating World Comics owner Jason Leivian to dish on some of his favorite Portland zines.

-Portland Monthly also featured Portland’s most entertaining reading series, although there are some others that are certainly worthy of that moniker as well.

-After sorting through over 250 manuscripts, Octopus Books has selected Balloon Pop Outlaw Black by Patricia Lockwood, and Hider Roser by Ben Mirov to publish in the summer of 2012.

-Paper Fort reminds us that the deadline for Oregon Book Awards submissions is August 26th.

-For those who were unable to attend, here is a Twitter recap of this years Willamette Writers Conference.

-Plazm provides an in-depth recap of the recent Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco discussion held at PNCA.

-WITS has made all of their digital chapbooks–past and present–available online.

Image credit Pouregon.

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 Bill Cameron, whose latest Skin Kadash chronicle, County Line (Tyrus Books), is now available for your reading pleasure. Bill even threw in an bonus question, so technically this would be “Six Questions with Bill Cameron.” Enjoy!

What Portland bookstore do you frequent the most?

Murder by the Book is my local fave. It’s the kind of store where I can pop in for a moment to see what’s new and get a half dozen suggestions for books I’m sure to like. The ladies who run the shop, Jean and Barb, not only remember my own tastes, but make suggestions for other readers in the family. My last visit, I got recommendations for both myself and my wife which were spot on. The magic of the small independent bookstore is this kind of personal attention, something Amazon’s recommendation algorithm can’t touch and which isn’t even attempted by the big box stores. Even Powell’s, for all it’s vast wonder, can’t pull this off; it’s simply too big. That’s fine. Powell’s offers a different experience for book lovers, one just as valuable. But for me, my first stop is Murder by the Book.

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

I picked up Hourglass by Myra McEntire, a debut young adult novel. In the last few years, I’ve been reading more and more young adult fiction. We’ve all seen the explosion in YA: the paranormal Twilight series, the dystopian Hunger Games, and a host of other tales from fantasy to adventure to contemporary. It can be easy, I think, to glance at the most popular offerings and dismiss them as faddish escapism. This, I believe, is a mistake. What I see is some of the best writing occurring today. The audience might be young adult, but the stories are of the kind any age can appreciate: rich, engaging, often thought-provoking and in many cases simply damn fine reads.

Hourglass is the latest young adult novel to blow me away. Part science-fiction, part romance, part spiritual journey, with a dash of mystery and a mega-dose of suspense, Hourglass centers around Emerson Cole, a young woman who hallucinates visions of people from the past. As the story opens, Emerson is struggling to pull her life together four years after the death of her parents. She’s been institutionalized and medicated, but the visions keep getting worse. She’s more than willing to believe she’s crazy. The storytelling is rich, the writing crisp and elegant, the issues pertinent. Hourglass is a superb book.

What is the most recent book you’ve read by a Portland author and/or publisher?

She’s not in Portland anymore, but I still think of Alafair Burke as a local. She attended Reed, then lived and worked in Portland for a number of years before re-locating to New York to teach at Hofstra Law School. While a Multnomah County district attorney, she began her writing career with a crime fiction series about a Portland attorney. She’s since moved on to a series about a New York homicide detective. Though no longer a resident, she maintains strong ties to the city. Her book tours always pass through town, and she even returned to Portland fictionally in her latest, the marvelous standlone thriller called Long Gone. I picked it up on release day and had devoured it within a day.

What makes Portland a great literary city?

Am I taking the easy way out if I say I think it’s the weather? Oh, not only the weather. The bike and pedestrian culture is a part of it too. Portland is a city not in a hurry in the same way other cities are. Seattle may share the rain, which keeps its denizens indoors huddled over cups of coffee or tea, or knocking back a beer like we do, but it also has a level of frenzy you don’t feel in Portland. Other cities, for all their varied richness, seem less ruminative, more anxious to get to the next thing. For Portlanders, the next thing is in the courier bag hanging over our shoulder, and odds are good it’s something to read.

What bookstore do you take your friends/family to see when they come to visit?

Like I have a choice. One of the first things visitors say to me when they arrive in Portland for the first time is, “When can we go to Powell’s?” Though we have a number of great little indies, Powell’s is the mothership. It has it’s own climate, and people from around the world want to experience it. Who can blame them?

Where in Portland do you go to unwind?

I’m a walker. For me, unwinding involves a casual five or six mile stroll—further on the weekends. I’m lucky enough to live within easy range of Mount Tabor, so many of my walks take me to the summit or around the reservoirs. On nice days, I carry something to read and camp out for an hour or three. If it’s rainy or dreary, I still carry a book with me, but I’m more likely to stop at a cafe or a pub. I was born and raised in the Ohio flatlands, and after over twenty years in Portland I’m still awestruck by the vistas from Mount Tabor. With a book in hand, there’s nothing to me like looking up to see Mount Hood dominating the horizon. With it’s coffee, views, books, and brews I think Portland will always feel like a gift.

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.

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: PDX Eisner Slam 2011

Who: Greg Rucka, Barry Deutsch, Laura Hudson, and Shannon Wheeler

Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne (3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.)

When: July 14th, 2011, 7-10:0pm

How Much: Free and Open to the Public.

Info: The Eisner Awards are the highest honor in comics, and before the winners are announced at Comic-Con International later this summer, 2011 Eisner Award nominees and Portland residents Greg Rucka, Barry Deutsch, Laura Hudson, and Shannon Wheeler head to Powell’s Books on Hawthorne to sign books and have a panel discussion about comic books and the Portland comic scene.

Other Portland Literary Event’s Happening Today:

6:30pm-Mini-Sledgehammer Writing Contest at St. John’s Booksellers

7pm-Lizzy Acker presents “Monster Party” at Reading Frenzy

7pm-Colleen Houck presents “Tiger’s Quest” at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing

7pm-Deadly Diversions Book Group at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing

7:30pm-Josh Ritter presents “Bright’s Passage” at Powell’s City of Books

8pm-Tin House Readings: Pauls Toutonghi, Matthew Dickman, and Peter Rock at Reed College

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!

Each month, the Basil Hallward Gallery (located upstairs in the Pearl Room) hosts a new art exhibit, as well as dozens of author events featuring acclaimed writers, artists, and thinkers such as Roddy Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Chabon, Annie Leibovitz, and President Jimmy Carter.

The City’s Rare Book Room gathers autographed first editions and other collectible volumes for readers in search of a one-of-a-kind treasure.

And the City’s newest addition (October 2010) is Powell’s Books Bldg. 2, a relocation of Powell’s Technical Books, brings mathematics, sciences, computing, engineering, construction, and transportation sections closer to visitors at the flagship store. Bldg. 2 is located across the street from the City of Books on the corner of NW 10th and Couch.

Every day at our buyers’ counter in the Orange Room we purchase thousands of used books from the public. Powell’s purchases special collections, libraries, and bookstore inventories as well.

Image credit Inputjak.