LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

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The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma

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

In his role as the founder and director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, the world’s largest program for healing population-wide trauma, Harvard-trained psychiatrist James Gordon has taught a curriculum that has alleviated trauma to populations as diverse as refugees and survivors of war in Bosnia, Kosovo, Israel, Gaza, and Syria, as well as Native Americans on the Pine Ridge Reservation, New York City firefighters, and members of the U. S. military. The Transformation (HarperOne) represents the culmination of Dr. Gordon’s 50 years as a mind-body medicine pioneer and advocate of integrative approaches to overcoming psychological trauma and stress.

Free

Daniel J. Siegel

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

One of the very best scientific predictors for how any child turns out – in terms of happiness, academic success, leadership skills, and meaningful relationships – is whether at least one adult in their life has consistently shown up for them. In an age of scheduling demands and digital distractions, this might sound like a tall order. But as Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, authors of The Whole-Brain Child, reassuringly explain, showing up doesn’t take a lot of time, energy, or money. Siegel joins us to present his new book (cowritten with Bryson), The Power of Showing Up: How Parental Presence Shapes Who Our Kids Become and How Their Brains Get Wired (Ballantine).

Free

A Kids Book About Body Image

The Riveter 501 SE 14th Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Author and psychotherapist Rebecca Alexander reads and signs copies of her new book, A Kids Book About Body Image, helping kids of all races, genders, and sizes have a better understanding of body image and tune out the noise and unhealthy messaging that often surrounds the topic.

$5 – $20

Biography/Memoir Book Club

Books Around the Corner 40 NW 2nd Street, Gresham, OR, United States

The Books Around the Corner Biography/Memoir Book Club will be led by a community member and meets monthly on the third Wednesday of every month at 6PM starting in January. We would like to extend an invitation to all of our biography/memoir loving customers (RSVP is not required). Our book discussions aim to bring people together to talk about books in a safe and inviting atmosphere. Our meetings are lovely and inclusive; we invite you to attend. Come and enjoy a lively discussion about the chosen book with other readers. Join us on January 15th for our first Biography/Memoir Book Club. We will discuss The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King. About the book: Rogers (1928-2003) was an enormously…

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Free

From Historical Trauma to Historical Wisdom: How a Generation Is Healing

Multnomah County Library - US Bank Room 801 SW 10th St, Portland, OR, United States

The Indigenous 20-Something Project began as a movement to heal Native young adults from the lasting impacts of intergenerational trauma caused by colonization. In this interactive talk, Shalene Joseph (A'aniih, Athabascan) and Josh Cocker (Ka'igwu, Tongan) will share their perspectives on the power of historical wisdom to create resilience, hope and community connection. Join us for Everybody Reads, Multnomah County Library’s annual community reading project.

Free

Prove My Soul: Another Side to the Vietnam War

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

From 1966-1967, Brian M. Biggs served a unique tour of duty in Vietnam as a Marine Civic Action Officer, an assignment that included teaching English to elementary school teachers in the village of Hoà M? – a life-changing experience that developed cherished friendships which have lasted to this day. His three return trips to Vietnam in 2001, 2004, and 2006 allowed those friendships to flourish. Those visits also unraveled a mystery born out of the chaos and confusion that was the Vietnam War. A mystery that mistakenly cast him as a spy for the South Vietnamese government and brought to light the role he played in the fate of one of the teachers suspected of being Vietcong. Biggs’s Prove My Soul: Another Side to the…

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Free

*POSTPONED* Esmé Weijun Wang reads at PSU

Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 338 1825 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Esmé Weijun Wang is a novelist and essayist. She is the author of the New York Times–bestselling essay collection The Collected Schizophrenias (2019), for which she won the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize. Her debut novel, The Border of Paradise, was called a Best Book of 2016 by NPR. She was named by Granta as one of the “Best Young American Novelists” in 2017 and won the Whiting Award in 2018. Born in the Midwest to Taiwanese parents, she lives in San Francisco. Esme Weijun Wang

Free

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

Nicholas Buccola in Conversation with Tony Wolk, James Baldwin Celebration

Broadway Books 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Nicholas Buccola in Conversation with Tony Wolk, Discussing the Baldwin/Buckley Debate of 1965 Please join us at 7 pm on Thursday, January 16th, as we cap off our year-long celebration of James Baldwin with a conversation between Nicholas Buccola, author of the recently published book The Fire is Upon Us, and Tony Wolk, professor of literature at Portland State University. Buccola’s book focuses on the historic televised debate in 1965 between James Baldwin, civil rights firebrand, and William F. Buckley Jr., the father of modern conservatism. The topic was "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro." The Fire is Upon Us tells the full story of the event, the radically different paths that led Baldwin and Buckley to it, the controversies…

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Free

Book Reading with Sossity Chiricuzio

Two Rivers Bookstore 8836 N Lombard Street, Portland, OR, United States

From her website (http://www.sossitywrites.com): "Sossity Chiricuzio is a queer femme outlaw poet, a working class crip storyteller. What her friends parents often referred to as a bad influence, and possibly still do." Join us, and her, as she reads from her memoir, Honey & Vinegar: Recipe for an Outlaw. Order your copy of her book in advance, here: https://www.tworiversbooks.com/book/9781786453716

Free
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