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Signs, Seals and Sigils: The Occult Science of Magic Script

Daedalus Books 2074 NW Flanders St, Portland, OR, United States

William Kiesel of Ouroboros Press Sigillic scripts are common in the grimoires and manuals of magic. Learn about magical alphabets, asemic writing and the diverse symbols, signs & signets of practical occultism. What is the difference between a sigil and a seal? How are they constructed and used? Join us and find out! In this class Kiesel will discuss the techniques of sigil construction as found in the texts of the traditional grimoires, magic squares, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as well as Austin Osman Spare and other contemporaries. William Kiesel has been a practitioner of Hermetic Qabalah for three decades and is known for his ability to clearly express the abstract ideas found in esoteric traditions. He is the publishing director at…

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Free – $25

Brandon Shimoda in Conversation With Janice Lee

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Award-winning poet Brandon Shimoda has crafted a lyrical portrait of his paternal grandfather, Midori Shimoda, whose life — child migrant, talented photographer, suspected enemy alien and spy, desert wanderer, American citizen — mirrors the arc of Japanese America in the 20th century. In a series of pilgrimages, Shimoda records the search to find his grandfather, and unfolds, in the process, a moving elegy on memory and forgetting. The Grave on the Wall (City Lights) is a memoir and book of mourning, a grandson’s attempt to reconcile his own uncontested citizenship with his grandfather’s lifelong struggle. Shimoda will be joined in conversation by Janice Lee, author of The Sky Isn’t Blue.

Free

Jessie L. Kwak

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

Art and writing can be among the most fulfilling parts of our lives. But let’s face it: sometimes it's difficult to make time and space for it. Sometimes we have so many ideas it’s difficult to keep them all organized, or even to distinguish one from another. With all the clutter overwhelming your scattered brain, how could you expect to get any work done? More likely than not, you'll find yourself procrastinating on an art project, or not actually knowing what the project is. What to do? Jessie L. Kwak’s From Chaos to Creativity (Microcosm) will help guide you through the clutter and teach you how to focus on the good ideas, manage your project, make time in your life, and execute your passions to…

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Free

Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Physician, researcher, and ethics professor Matt McCarthy is on the front lines of a groundbreaking clinical trial testing a new antibiotic to fight lethal superbugs, bacteria that have built up resistance to the life-saving drugs in our rapidly dwindling arsenal. This trial serves as the backdrop for the compulsively readable Superbugs (Avery) — and the results will impact nothing less than the future of humanity. McCarthy explores the history of bacteria and antibiotics, from Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin, to obscure sources of innovative new medicines (often found in soil samples), to the cutting-edge DNA manipulation known as CRISPR, bringing to light how we arrived at this juncture of both incredible breakthrough and extreme vulnerability. We also meet the patients whose lives are hanging in…

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Free

Maia Kobabe: Gender Queer Reading & Signing

Books with Pictures 1401 SE Division Street, Portland, OR, United States

Come meet Maia and join us for a short reading, then signing, snacks, and hangouts. It's gonna be great! In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender…

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Free

Debra Gwartney in Conversation With Apricot Irving

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Part history, part memoir, Debra Gwartney’s I Am a Stranger Here Myself (University of New Mexico) taps dimensions of human yearning: the need to belong, the snarl of family history, and embracing womanhood in the patriarchal American West. Gwartney becomes fascinated with the missionary Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, the first Caucasian woman to cross the Rocky Mountains and one of 14 people killed at the Whitman Mission in 1847 by Cayuse Indians. Whitman's role as a white woman drawn in to "settle" the West reflects the tough-as-nails women in Gwartney's own family. Arranged in four sections as a series of interlocking explorations and ruminations, Gwartney uses Whitman as a touchstone to spin a tightly woven narrative about identity, the power of womanhood, and coming to peace…

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Free

Tiffany Jenkins: This Show is Awkward AF

Revolution Hall 1300 SE Stark St, Portland, OR, United States

Be among the first to receive the newest edition of Tiffany’s book with exclusive signed book packages available! Tiffany Jenkins is a wife, mother, author, content creator and recovering addict. Although best known for her funny viral Facebook videos, Tiffany speaks shamelessly, openly and honestly about her past and addiction, as well as her struggles with depression and anxiety. Tiffany’s story of hope has had such an overwhelming response from her supporters that she is ready to tackle her next life goal - travel the globe, meet her fans and make as many people laugh and feel inspired as possible. Tiffany Jenkins: This Show Is Awkward AF is the opportunity to spend quality time with Tiffany as she shares stories not-previously covered in her book…

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$30 – $89

Westside Writing Group

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

A group for anyone writing nonfiction or memoir who would like company, support, and, most of all, accountability. Whether you’ve never written a word or you’re a published author, join us!

Free

Bryan Denson

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

The Unabomber was a lone-wolf terrorist who carried out 14 bombings that left 3 people dead and another 23 injured. A cunning genius, he dodged his FBI pursuers for nearly two decades, terrifying Americans from coast to coast. Agent Kathy Puckett, a spy hunter and highly trained psychologist, served as the turning point in the FBI's efforts to understand the mind of the faceless killer. Her insights helped send more than a hundred agents to a remote cabin in the mountains of western Montana on April 3, 1996. There the FBI captured Theodore J. Kaczynski, engineer of the most notorious bombing spree in U.S. history. Bryan Denson’s The Unabomber (Roaring Brook) is the story of the FBI's investigation of the Unabomber and the agent who…

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Free

PNCA Low-Res MFA in CW Talks: Reema Zaman: More than a Memoir; a Movement

Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) 511 Northwest Broadway St, Portland, OR, United States

Reema Zaman More than a Memoir; a Movement, 4:30pm In Room 601 The Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is pleased to announce the launch of the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing with its first residential intensive. In the low-residency model, students will attend two 14-day campus residencies then, beyond residencies, work one-on-one with mentors. Most of the programming during this residency is free and open to the public. From July 28 through August 3, PNCA offers talks, discussions, and readings by acclaimed writers as part of the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program. Every event is free and open to the public. This innovative creative writing program is distinguished by its being situated within a school of…

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Free
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