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Looking Back to Look Forward: A Daily Writing Practice

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class will help you adopt crucial creative habits using your memory of the past to build a practice for the future. Using a series of daily in-class and at-home prompts that focus on ideas of home, trek childhood, and position memory as present, you will generate new work and use research-based ways to bring a sustainable practice into your life. Everyone will have opportunities to give and receive generous feedback on the development of your practice, as well as on your writing. We will pay particular attention to the voice and structure of new work and engage with the common themes that arise out of these prompts: the grief of all families, the complicated solipsism of children, and the way language gives new meaning…

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$240

Oregon Book Awards Show: The Archive Project

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The 2021 Oregon Book Award winners will be announced on May 2, 2021, on a special episode of The Archive Project, airing on OPB Radio at 7:00 p.m. The hour-long show will be hosted by Omar El Akkad and Elena Passarello, and will feature readings from Oregon Book Awards winners, archival audio from previous Oregon Book Awards ceremonies, and an interview with CES Wood recipient Molly Gloss. Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt and grew up in Doha, Qatar until he moved to Canada with his family. He is an award-winning journalist and author who has traveled around the world to cover many of the most important news stories of the last decade. His reporting includes dispatches from the NATO-led war in Afghanistan,…

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Free

Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD in Conversation With Arianna Davis (Ticketed Virtual Event)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing (Flatiron) provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand. “Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives" (Oprah Winfrey). This book is going to change the way you see your life. Have you ever wondered, "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the…

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$28.99

Kristin Hersh in Conversation With John Doe

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A sequel to the critically acclaimed Rat Girl, Kristin Hersh’s beautifully written new memoir takes readers on an emotional journey through the author's life as she reflects on 30 years of music and motherhood. Doony, Ryder, Wyatt, Bodhi. The names of Hersh’s sons are the only ones included in her new book, Seeing Sideways: A Memoir of Music and Motherhood (University of Texas Press). As it unfolds and her sons’ voices rise from its pages, it becomes clear why: these names tell the story of her life. This story begins in 1990, when Hersh is the leader of the indie rock group Throwing Muses, touring steadily, and the mother of a young son, Doony. The chapters that follow reveal a woman and mother whose life…

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Free

Books Around the Corner: Remote Writers Group

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join fellow writers the first Wednesday of the month for a friendly critique. The goal is to support one another with constructive feedback and participate in writing exercises. All experience levels welcome! Join Online Meeting ID: 230 496 085

Free

Suzanne Simard in Conversation With Aaron Scott

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. Now, in her first book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (Knopf), the world’s leading forest ecologist brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths — that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through…

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Free

Feminist book circle: The Revolution Question

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

"An inspiring examination of the critical role of women in revolutionary struggles and the relationship of these movements to feminism. Professor Julie Shayne, Coordinator of the Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, UW Bothell, describes the courageous part played by women in three Latin American liberation movements from 1950s-90s. Interviews with female participants reveal what women brought to the struggle and whether their hopes for leadership and equality were answered. Learn from this still-fresh history and how it applies to questions of feminist leadership today. Everyone welcome." (Promo Copy)

Free

Write A Book: Fiction & Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Write A Book: Fiction & Creative Nonfiction IPRC Creative Workshops for Fall 2020 will be held online via zoom, PST. *Waitlist Instructor: Michael Heald Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 Nine students maximum (ages 18+) Class meetings: 24 (8 per term) Cost: $825 *2 spots available at sliding scale, BIPOC prioritized; email hquinn@iprc.org *2 spots available at no cost, BIPOC prioritized; email hquinn@iprc.org October 7, 2020 – June 9, 2021 This workshop will consist of three eight-week terms. Writers currently working on memoirs, essay collections, novellas, novels, short story llections, oral histories, and long-form journalism are all strongly encouraged to apply. Hybrid forms welcome. Over the course of 24 sessions, writers will work towards a draft of a manuscript in a supportive workshop environment. We’ll explore non-linear…

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$825

Wordplay Festival: West x Midwest Present Alison Bechdel in Conversation with Cheryl Strayed

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join The Loft’s virtual Wordplay Festival for a conversation between Alison Bechdel and Cheryl Strayed about Bechdel’s new graphic memoir, The Secret to Superhuman Strength. The long and complicated history of workout crazes in the US—from the Thighmaster, to Nordictrack, to Peloton and Soul Cycle—have created a culture that chases fads over facts. And Alison Bechdel, iconic, award-winning graphic memoirst, has not been immune to the promises. But in her quest for superhuman strength, Bechdel’s journey leads her to another muscle: the heart. And then turns towards the ultimate flex: letting her brain guide her. Join her and fellow soul-seeker Cheryl Strayed as they discuss Bechdel’s latest graphic memoir. In partnership with Literary Arts (Portland, OR), The Loft (Minneapolis, MN), Black Mountain Institute (Las Vegas, NV),…

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Free

Larissa Pham in Conversation With Mary H.K. Choi

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Like a song that feels written just for you, Larissa Pham’s debut work of nonfiction captures the imagination and refuses to let go. Pop Song (Catapult) is a book about love and about falling in love — with a place, or a painting, or a person — and the joy and terror inherent in the experience of that love. Plumbing the well of culture for clues and patterns about love and loss — from Agnes Martin’s abstract paintings to James Turrell’s transcendent light works, and Anne Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet to Frank Ocean’s Blonde — Pham writes of her youthful attempts to find meaning in travel, sex, drugs, and art, before sensing that she might need to turn her gaze upon herself. Pop Song is…

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Free
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