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Reading: Fire & Water: Stories from the Anthropocene

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland writers Mary Fifield and Kristin Thiel, editors of Fire & Water: Stories from the Anthropocene, for a group reading and discussion. The co-editors will be joined by fellow contributors Jan Underwood and Jack Kirne. Omar El Akkad, who blurbed the book, will be reading from a story by contributor Carlos Labbé. About Fire & Water: A Sámi woman studying Alaska fish populations sees our past and future through their present signs of stress and her ancestral knowledge. A teenager faces a permanent drought in Australia and her own sexual desire. An unemployed man in Wisconsin marvels as a motley parade of animals makes his trailer their portal to a world untrammeled by humans. Featuring short fiction from authors around the globe, Fire…

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Free

Grab & Go Book Clubs

Ledding Library of Milwaukie 10660 SE 21st Avenue, Milwaukie, OR, United States

Grab & Go Book Clubs for ages 5-12 begin the week of October 1-8 and go through April. Pick up your activity bag for the October books at the children’s desk any time October 1-8. Book selections will be posted at https://www.milwaukieoregon.gov/library/kids-book-groups  Little Comics Each month, October-April, we’ll read a graphic novel for first readers. Ages 5-7. Book Buddies Each month, October-April, we’ll read books nominated for the Beverly Cleary Children’s Choice Award. Ages 7-9. ORCA Book Group Each month, October-April, we’ll read books nominated for the Oregon Readers’ Choice Award. Ages 9-12.

Free

Writing And/As the Mother with Amanda Montei

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writers, artists, and theorists have long used the figure of The Mother to make sense of what we seek in writing, art, and politics. Today, The Mother remains a receptacle for all our cultural anxieties and longings. And yet, the work of taking care, cleaning up, and maintaining life—which someone must do to make space for creative practice— is too often rendered invisible. How have the body and labor of The Mother shaped our ideas of comfort, home, work, and novelty? How does caring for others, big and small, teach us to care on the page? Should the book be a space in which we are held, or perhaps something else entirely? In this 4-week course, we will discuss the cultural and political influences that…

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$350

The Stacks Coffeehouse: October 2021 Writing Class

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Generative, Drop-in Writing Class @ The Stacks Coffeehouse $20 for 4 weeks Buy now This class will be focused exclusively on creating new work, with prompts sent out every Friday morning via email (starting October 1st) and live student readings via Zoom every Thursday at 7pm PST, where everyone will be encouraged to share their works-in-progress in answer to the prompt (The last class reading will be October 28th). All levels are welcome. Prompts are geared toward flash fiction, but we love nonfiction and poetry too. Generative: This class is generative, which means we’ll be focused on generating new work rather than polishing existing work. Prompts will be emailed on Fridays, and the class with meet live every Thursday at 7pm to share work. Unlike…

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$20

Writing Beyond Stereotypes of Disability

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Characters with disabilities have been around as long as there have been stories, but often those characters are based on stereotypes that serve as plot shortcuts and end up being harmful to real people with disabilities. Disability is one of humanity’s most shared traits. It is inevitable that to write characters you will write disability. This class will use model texts and generative writing exercises to explore how to go beyond stereotypes such as the one-handed villain, the pitiable cripple, and the inspirational athlete, to write nuanced characters that honor human diversity on the page. Because we live in an able world, discussions and exercises will also touch on writing disabled worlds and how to reveal the often invisible expectations of ablism in our current…

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$95

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Turning Words into Magic, with Keeonna Harris

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

*Saturday is sold out, join waitlist by emailing workshop@gmail.com or purchase Sunday below* Many of us get stuck writing; searching for that grandiose word rather than write words that we use every day and that reflect our lives. Sometimes, the magic of the word is in the mundane. This craft intensive is for writers who are feeling discouraged and unable to find the perfect word/and or words to convey the nuance and depth we want our readers to feel. We will be exploring excerpts from Heavy by Kiese Laymon and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. Participants will leave this intensive with a set of practical strategies on choosing a word that “fits” the ongoing themes of their work. We will do writing exercises in which I will push you to…

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$75

Portland Storytellers’ Guild: MORE THAN FOOD: Stories that Have Sustained Us Through the Pandemic

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Sometimes you need a story more than food. Let a retired librarian, a favorite grandpa, and a homeschooling mom entertain you with tales that are seeing them through these difficult times. From fantastic lore and witchcraft to personal fables and faux pas, it's an evening sure to sustain you...at least for the night! Pam Maben believes that our stories tell us who we are and offer us wisdom as we navigate our lives. As a school librarian she was introduced to a wide variety of stories especially folklore and mythology that has been an inexhaustible source of possible ways of looking at the world. She is a member of the Guild of Sacred Storytellers and a part of The Crones storytelling group. Patrick Gannon is…

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$10

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: You Can Do Anything With Words and Images, with Courtney Cook

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In the words of Harvey Pekar, from which this course draws its name, “Comics are just words and images. You can do anything with words and images.” This generative course is designed to spark inspiration by providing an exploration of the nearly endless ways text and image can be combined to create a symbiotic relationship that strengthens work as a whole. Created for writers and artists at every level, this course aims to eradicate self-doubt and the belief that one must embody a certain level of artistic skill to employ utilizing illustrated or visual elements in their own work. Through examining graphic narratives by creators such as Kristen Radtke, Yumi Sakugawa, Kevin Huizenga, Allie Brosh, and Theresa Wong, and participating in a series of generative…

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$75

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Turning Words into Magic, with Keeonna Harris

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

*Saturday is sold out, join waitlist by emailing workshop@gmail.com or purchase Sunday below* Many of us get stuck writing; searching for that grandiose word rather than write words that we use every day and that reflect our lives. Sometimes, the magic of the word is in the mundane. This craft intensive is for writers who are feeling discouraged and unable to find the perfect word/and or words to convey the nuance and depth we want our readers to feel. We will be exploring excerpts from Heavy by Kiese Laymon and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. Participants will leave this intensive with a set of practical strategies on choosing a word that “fits” the ongoing themes of their work. We will do writing exercises in which I will push you to…

Continue reading2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Turning Words into Magic, with Keeonna Harris
$75

Miriam Toews in Conversation With Laura van den Berg

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

From Miriam Toews, bestselling author of Women Talking and All My Puny Sorrows, comes a compassionate, darkly humorous, and deeply human new novel about three generations of women. When Swiv is temporarily kicked out of school, her grandma gives her an assignment to write a letter to her absent father. Swiv’s assignment to Grandma is to write a letter to Gord, her unborn grandchild and Swiv’s brother or sister. “You are a small thing,” Grandma writes to Gord, “but you must learn to fight.” Grandma has been fighting all her life: from her upbringing in a strictly religious community, ruled over by the odious Will Braun, she has fought the people who wanted to take away her joy, her independence, and her spirit; she has…

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Free
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