A resource for the PDX literary community. Produced by Old Pal.
LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.
For details regarding specific events please contact the organizers or venues. If you are an organizer or venue and would like to reach out to us please feel free to contact us or submit an event using our submission form. We’d love to hear from you!
Renowned writer, producer, media and theater artist, and founder of Portland's Theater Diaspora, Dmae Roberts will screen her 2015 documentary film Mei Mei: A Daughter's Song and read from her recent book Letting Go Trilogies: Stories of a Mixed Race Family (2016).
Authors Sarah Townsend and Liz Scott in conversation about their memoirs. Setting the Wire by Sarah Townsend is a memoir of postpartum psychosis and a meditation on containment: what we hold and what holds us together. A lyric exploration of motherhood, mental illness, and familial ties, Sarah Townsend’s debut work weaves together personal anecdote, film, music, visual art, and psychology. Setting the Wire is a visceral reflection on the experience of fragmentation as a young psychotherapist and new mother. Liz Scott’s memoir, This Never Happened, goes in search of the answers to the mysteries of her family. In her relentless quest to uncover the truth, she mines photographs and letters, leaving no one, including herself, unexamined. This is a spare work, alternately heartbreaking and darkly…
Authors Sarah Townsend and Liz Scott in conversation about their memoirs. Thursday, June 27, 2019 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Setting the Wire by Sarah Townsend is a memoir of postpartum psychosis and a meditation on containment: what we hold and what holds us together. A lyric exploration of motherhood, mental illness, and familial ties, Sarah Townsend’s debut work weaves together personal anecdote, film, music, visual art, and psychology. Setting the Wire is a visceral reflection on the experience of fragmentation as a young psychotherapist and new mother. Liz Scott’s memoir, This Never Happened, goes in search of the answers to the mysteries of her family. In her relentless quest to uncover the truth, she mines photographs and letters, leaving no one, including herself, unexamined. This is a spare work, alternately…
Occupying a space between traditional nature writing, memoir, journalism, and prose poetry, Bruce Berger’s essays are beautiful, subtle, and haunting meditations on the landscape and culture of the American Southwest. Combining new essays with selections from his acclaimed trilogy of “desert books” – The Telling Distance, There Was a River, and Almost an Island – A Desert Harvest (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is a career-spanning selection of the best work by this unique and undervalued voice. Wasteland architecture, mountaintop astronomy, Bach in the wilderness, the mind of the wood rat, the canals of Phoenix, and the numerous eccentric personalities who call the desert their home all come to life in these fascinating portraits of America’s seemingly desolate terrains.
In contrast to the anxiety surrounding our voting system, with stories about voter suppression and manipulation, there are actually quite a few positive initiatives toward voting rights reform. Professor Joshua A. Douglas, an expert on our electoral system, examines these encouraging developments in his inspiring new book about how regular Americans are working to take back their democracy, one community at a time. Told through the narratives of those working on positive voting rights reforms, Vote for US (Prometheus) includes chapters on expanding voter eligibility, easing voter registration rules, making voting more convenient, enhancing accessibility at the polls, providing voters with more choices, finding ways to comply with voter ID rules, giving redistricting back to the voters, pushing back on big money through local and…
The Insane Clown Posse calls itself "the most hated band in the world," but with 11 million albums sold, the horrorcore hip hop duo from Detroit is a widespread music phenomenon with a cult following. Juggalo Country (Microcosm) is the story of Craven Rock's journey to their annual festival, the Gathering of the Juggalos, where legions of fans in clown makeup come together to attend this family reunion-like event and enjoy musical celebrities, feats of wrestling, debauchery, and most of all, a supportive, tight-knit community. Rock's reporting casts a light on the many contradictions and perils of Juggalodom, sensitively handling questions of gender, health, religion, and what it means to be part of something. Part festival-goer's journal, part music history, part investigative report, part social…
The history of winemaking in Oregon is steeped in legends so well-known they've become gospel, but reality is even more fascinating. In Scott Stursa’s Oregon Wine: A Deep-Rooted History (History Press), discover the truth about who opened the state's first commercial winery and the real origin of Willamette Valley's famed Pinot Noir. Learn about Portland's daring Italian Americans, who kept home wineries during Prohibition, and the flourishing agriculture that contributed to the popularity of fruit wine. From the 19th-century winemakers through the modern industry that now includes more than 700 wineries, places like HillCrest and The Eyrie have been serving Oregonians for a half century. Uncover the forgotten roots of Oregon wine and raise a glass to its prosperous future.
READ THE ARTICLE: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/behind-the-lines-syria-part-one/ This blockbuster investigation from Mother Jones on the United States' involvement in Syria was released in two parts, each of which takes about an hour to read. We're going to read the first part for this meeting and the second part for the next meeting on the 21st. Join the Longreads Club where we explore a long-form article focused on global topics. No membership or registration required. Just read the article, show up, and join the discussion!
Annie Bloom's welcomes California author Mary Lea Carroll to read from her book Saint Everywhere. While visiting Siena, Italy, Mary Lea Carroll grew fascinated with the remarkable story of St. Catherine of Siena and made a resolution: Whenever she was lucky enough to travel, if a shrine dedicated to a female saint was nearby, she'd visit it and learn about her. What started as a hobby grew into a journey she never expected, one rich with challenges and cappuccinos, doubts and inspiration, glasses of wine with strangers and moments of transcendence. Over eight quests, Carroll takes readers along with her as she seeks to learn something from a few great women of history, while looking for ways to be a better citizen of the world.…
At the heart of every beehive is a queen bee. Since her well-being is linked to the well-being of the entire colony, the ability to find her among the residents of the hive is an essential beekeeping skill. In QueenSpotting (Storey), experienced beekeeper and professional “swarm catcher” Hilary Kearney challenges readers to “spot the queen” with 48 fold-out visual puzzles — vivid up-close photos of the queen hidden among her many subjects. QueenSpotting celebrates the unique, fascinating life of the queen bee and chronicles royal hive happenings such as The Virgin Death Match, The Nuptual Flight — when the queen mates with a cloud of male drones high in the air — and the dramatic Exodus of the Swarm from the hive.