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Elisa Gabbert in Conversation With Samantha Irby & Sarah Rose Etter

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

We stare at our phones. We keep multiple tabs open. Our chats and conversations are full of the phrase “Did you see?” The feeling that we’re living in the worst of times seems to be intensifying, alongside a desire to know precisely how bad things have gotten — and each new catastrophe distracts us from the last. The Unreality of Memory (FSG) collects provocative, searching essays on disaster culture, climate anxiety, and our mounting collective sense of doom. In her new collection, acclaimed poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert explores our obsessions with disasters past and future, from the sinking of the Titanic to Chernobyl, from witch hunts to the plague. These deeply researched, prophetic meditations question how the world will end — if indeed it…

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Free

Allie Brosh Ticketed Event

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

For the first time in seven years, Allie Brosh — beloved author and artist of the extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller Hyperbole and a Half — returns with a new collection of comedic, autobiographical, and illustrated essays. Solutions and Other Problems (Gallery Books) includes humorous stories from Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life. Solutions and Other Problems, featuring all-new material, marks the return of a beloved American humorist who has “the observational skills of a scientist, the creativity of an artist, and the wit of a comedian” (Bill Gates). Brosh will be joined in conversation by a…

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$30

Dan Mathews in Conversation With Alex Ebert

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Dan Mathews knew that his witty, bawdy, unhinged mother, Perry, was unable to maintain her fierce independence at 78 — so he flew her across the country to Virginia to live with him in an 1870 townhouse badly in need of repairs. But to Dan, a screwdriver is a cocktail not a tool, and he was soon overwhelmed with two fixer-uppers: the house and his mother. Unbowed, Dan and Perry built a rollicking life together fueled by costume parties, road trips, after-hours gatherings, and an unshakable sense of humor as they faced down hurricanes, blizzards, and Perry’s steady decline. They got by with the help of an ever-expanding circle of sidekicks — Dan’s boyfriends (past and present), ex-cons, sailors, strippers, deaf hillbillies, evangelicals, and grumpy…

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Free

Fall 2020 Online: Writing the Non-Fiction Book Proposal: Second Section

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writing a book proposal is the best first step to writing a nonfiction book for both adults and young readers. An excellent proposal helps you organize your ideas, understand the competition, and can help you land a publishing contract even before you write the book. This six-week class will take you step-by-step through the major parts of the nonfiction book proposal: the query letter, overview, competitive analysis, marketing and promotion, author background, outline and sample chapter. Bring an idea, and be ready to write. The class includes extensive handouts and questionnaires to guide your work. Class outcomes: By the end of this six week workshop, students will leave with a rough draft of a nonfiction book proposal. More information: Download 10 Reasons to Write a…

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$285

Colin Quinn

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In Colin Quinn's new book, Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast of the 50 States (St. Martin’s), the comedian, social commentator, and creator and star of the one-man Broadway show, Red State Blue State, and the Netflix special, Unconstitutional, tackles the condition of our union today. The United States is in a 50-states-wide couples’ counseling session, thinking about filing for divorce. But is that really what we want? Can a nation composed of states that are so different possibly hang together? Quinn identifies the hypocrisies inherent in what we claim to believe and what we actually do. Within a framework of big-picture thinking about systems of government — after all, how would you put this country together if you started from scratch today? — to dead-on observations…

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Free

Bookmark: A Benefit for Literary Arts

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us virtually for this year’s Bookmark: A Benefit for Literary Arts on Thursday, October 1 at 6:00 p.m. PDT! We’ll come together online to celebrate our creative community and hear powerful stories from some of Oregon’s brightest artists. Through story, we build community. RSVP and learn more here: https://www.avstream.me/bookmark.

Free

Lee van der Voo in Conversation With Isaac Vergun

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Do children have a right to inherit a livable planet, and if so, is the government obliged to protect it? That’s the question posed by Juliana v. United States, one of the most critical lawsuits of our time. In her new book, As the World Burns (Timber Press), award-winning investigative journalist Lee van der Voo reports on Juliana v. the United States. Combining unparalleled access to the plaintiffs and reporting on the natural disasters that form an urgent backdrop to the story, Van der Voo shares a timely and important story about the environment, the law, and the new generation of activists. Twenty-one young people from across America sued the federal government over climate change, charging that U.S. actions to promote a fossil fuel economy…

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Free

Portland Storytellers’ Guild: Stranger & Str@ng3r

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Stranger & Str@ng3r, an evening of the Strange, the Odd, and the Delightful with Alton Chung, Anne Penfound, and Holly Robison brought to you virtually opn Saturday October 3 at 7:00. Take an answered prayer, a shapeshifter looking for wild justice, and two boys wandering about in an ancient temple alone at night -- what could possibly go wrong? Add in a wedding gown, a man in a coffin, and a game of skill with a goddess and you have a recipe for intrigue, ingenuity, and unlikely breathless endings. Join storytellers, Anne Penfound, Holly Robison, and Alton Takiyama-Chung for an evening of the Strange, the Odd, and the Delightful. The Portland Storytellers' Guild Virtual season continues on Saturday, October 3 at 7:00pm with Stranger &…

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$10

Livestream Reading: Richard Kreitner: Break It Up

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Richard Kreitner for a livestream reading from his book Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIlcuCgrDwvHtCBF4UKjxc1r-i0WPjZ-PzV From journalist and historian Richard Kreitner, a "powerful revisionist account" of the most persistent idea in American history: these supposedly United States should be broken up (Eric Foner). The novel and fiery thesis of Break It Up is simple: The United States has never lived up to its name—and never will. The disunionist impulse may have found its greatest expression in the Civil War, but as Break It Up shows, the seduction of secession wasn’t limited to the South or the nineteenth century. It was there at our founding and has never gone away. With a scholar's…

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Free

Michael Ian Black in Conversation With Maria Konnikova

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In a world in which the word masculinity now often goes hand in hand with toxic, comedian, actor, and father Michael Ian Black offers up a way forward for boys, men, and anyone who loves them. Part memoir, part advice book, and written as a heartfelt letter to his college-bound son, A Better Man (Algonquin) reveals Black’s own complicated relationship with his father, explores the damage and rising violence caused by the expectations placed on boys to “man up,” and searches for the best way to help young men be part of the solution, not the problem. “If we cannot allow ourselves vulnerability,” he writes, “how are we supposed to experience wonder, fear, tenderness?” Honest, funny, and hopeful, Black skillfully navigates the complex gender issues…

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Free
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