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PNCA Low-Residency MFA Program Summer 2020 Residency Classes & Readings Open to the Public

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

As part of the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program, PNCA offers talks, discussions, and readings by acclaimed writers and artists, July 24th to August 3rd. Everything is free and open to the public. All events this summer are hosted via Zoom. The passwords for all faculty classes are 515000. CLASSES Saturday, July 25 10am: Unsafe is Not a Feeling: How Writing Contends with the Illusion of Safety Sara Jaffe https://pnca.zoom.us/j/98345715004?pwd=OVVOLysrZUh5S0hxS0d5QlBHUDZMUT09 2pm: Winter Poop, Spring Revivals, Summer Fires, and Fall Marigolds Alison C Rollins https://pnca.zoom.us/j/98224439656?pwd=TnNGWkJmQUZaTWlOOXFhZjlhUnJudz09 Sunday, July 26 10am: THE ART OF WEALTH (in life & in literature) Vi Khi Nao https://pnca.zoom.us/j/95075415254?pwd=YVd4ZVJON3YrZHIrdWF1MXN4WmkwZz09 Monday, July 27 10am: Outsider Ecopoetics Tyrone Williams https://pnca.zoom.us/j/95516376236?pwd=T1EycmFvM05STEJlN1JPZ3k3WVY3dz09 11am: Feminism / Queer Theory Shawna Liption and Sloane McNulty https://pnca.zoom.us/j/97573944766?pwd=Y0NZeEtETmxZdDFRczRrYU0wdEJLdz09 Tuesday, July 28…

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Free

Stephanie Scott in Conversation With Margaret Malone

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime — for readers of Everything I Never Told You and The Perfect Nanny — Stephanie Scott’s What’s Left of Me Is Yours (Doubleday) charts a young woman’s search for the truth about her mother’s life — and her murder. In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the wakaresaseya (literally “breaker-upper”), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. When Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. But Satō has never truly understood Rina or her desires and Kaitarō’s job is to do exactly that…

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Free

The August Open Mic feat. Ashley Finley

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for our August Open Mic! You can sign up for the open mic the day of the show when we post a call about 30 minutes before the show. All poets have 3 minutes to read 1-2 poems! We will have a feature from Ashley Finley! More about Ashley: Ashley Finley is a performance poet, writer, and activist who grew up in the diverse neighborhoods of Southern California. At a young age, she began to use poetry as a way to process her experiences as an adopted, African-American girl, growing up in the melting pot of Los Angeles. As an adult, Ashley strives to empower those in under-served and underrepresented communities. Ashley uses her platform to remind these communities that their stories and…

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Free – $5

Steve Olson in Conversation With Tom Carpenter

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In the desert of eastern Washington State, far from prying eyes, scientists Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, and many thousands of others — the physicists, engineers, laborers, and support staff at the facility — manufactured plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and for the bombs in the current American nuclear arsenal, enabling the construction of weapons with the potential to end human civilization. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and storytelling, Olson asks why Hanford has been largely overlooked in histories of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. The Apocalypse Factory (W. W. Norton) offers a new generation this dramatic story of human achievement and, ultimately, of lethal hubris. Olson will be joined in conversation by Tom Carpenter, attorney and Executive Director of…

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Free

Livestream: Jeff Wallach: Mr. Wizard

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for Portland author Jeff Wallach's livestream reading from his novel, Mr. Wizard. Livestream registration link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/jeff-wallach-mr--wizard Two brothers. One mother. One big question. Two days before her death, Jenny Elliot suggests to her fifty-year-old son Phillip that, being half Irish, he should be more careful about his drinking. Phillip, along with his brother Spencer, has grown up believing they were the fully Jewish-American offspring of Jenny and her late husband who died in the Vietnam War. Was his mother uttering some dementia-inspired fantasy, or was her true character shining through in her last moments to leave the brothers a clue to their real heritage? After her death, Phillip decides to take a DNA test. The brothers set off on a genetic treasure hunt in…

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Free

Daniel Kraus in Conversation With Mary Roach

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

George A. Romero invented the modern zombie in his seminal film, Night of the Living Dead. Without Romero, there would be no World War Z, no The Walking Dead. When he died in 2017, Romero's giant, contemporary zombie novel was unfinished. Completed by bestselling author Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water) with the full cooperation of the Romero estate, The Living Dead (Tor) is an entirely new tale. Not a novelization of any of the films, it is the story of the zombie plague, from the first rising to the fall of humankind… and beyond. Kraus will be joined in conversation by Mary Roach, author of Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Register for the…

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Free

Molly Wizenberg in Conversation With Emma Straub

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

From bestselling memoirist Molly Wizenberg (A Homemade Life and Delancey) comes The Fixed Stars (Abrams), a thoughtful and provocative story of changing identity, complex sexuality, and enduring family relationships. At age 36, while serving on a jury, Wizenberg found herself drawn to a female attorney she hardly knew. Married to a man for nearly a decade and mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life as she knew it, but something inside her had changed irrevocably. Instead, she would discover that the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we'd like to believe. The Fixed Stars is a taut, electrifying memoir exploring timely and timeless questions about desire, identity, and the limits and possibilities of family. In…

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Free

Bonnie Tsui in Conversation With Crissy Van Meter

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Bonnie Tsui’s Why We Swim (Algonquin) is an immersive, unforgettable, and eye-opening perspective on swimming — and on human behavior itself. We swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. We swim for pleasure, for exercise, for healing. But humans, unlike other animals that are drawn to water, are not natural-born swimmers. We must be taught. Our evolutionary ancestors learned for survival; now, in the 21st century, swimming is one of the most popular activities in the world. Why We Swim is propelled by stories of Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club that meets in Saddam Hussein’s palace pool, modern-day Japanese samurai swimmers, and even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six-hour swim after a shipwreck. New York Times…

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Free

Corbin Reiff in Conversation With Mark Yarm

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Total F*cking Godhead (Post Hill) is the complete story of the complex and enigmatic artist, Chris Cornell. It’s the riveting account of a blue-collar, high school dropout emerging from Seattle, Washington, to become one of the greatest singer-songwriters and voices of his generation. With input from people who knew and worked with him — together with Cornell’s own words — the book recounts in great detail the rise of his immortal band Soundgarden as they emerged from the 1980s post-punk underground to dominate popular culture in the ‘90s alongside other Seattle bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana. Long-time Seattle resident and rock writer Corbin Reiff examines Cornell’s dynamic solo career, as well as is his time in Audioslave. He delves into Cornell’s…

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Free

Hilary Moore & James Tracy in Conversation With Mark Bray

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Hilary Moore and James Tracy’s No Fascist USA! (City Lights) is the story of how a national grassroots network fought a resurgence of the KKK and other fascist groups during the Reagan years, laying the groundwork for today's anti-fascist/anti-racist movements. In June 1977, a group of white anti-racist activists received an alarming letter from an inmate at a New York state prison calling for help to fight the Ku Klux Klan's efforts to recruit prison staff and influence the people incarcerated. Their response was to form the first chapter of what would eventually become a powerful, nationwide grassroots network, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, dedicated to countering the rise of the KKK and other far-right white nationalist groups. No Fascist USA! tells the story of…

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Free
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