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Stranged Writing Release Reading

The Stacks Coffeehouse 1831 N. Killingsworth St, Portland, OR, United States

The Gravity of the Thing celebrates the release of its first anthology, Stranged Writing: A Literary Taxonomy (bit.ly/3d6z94O) on October 13th. Join us at The Stacks Coffeehouse in Portland, Oregon to hear contributors Joshua James Amberson, Alex Behr, Lucie Bonvalet, Benjamin Kessler, Matt Rebholz, and Eli Ronick read their experimental prose, poetry, and cross-genre works. The event is free to attend, and food, drinks, and Stranged Writing will be available for purchase. About the collection: Stranged Writing is an anthology of defamiliarized creative writing curated according to biological taxonomy (species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain) using word count. Each hardcover edition includes a screen-printed dust jacket that transforms into unique literary organisms or book sculptures, the goal being a dimensional and tactile…

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Free

Visiting Writers Series: Lesley Nneka Arimah

Reed College - Eliot Hall Chapel 3203 SE Woodstock, Portland, OR, United States

Lesley Nneka Arimah was born in the UK and grew up in Nigeria and wherever else her father was stationed for work. Her stories have been honored with a National Magazine Award, an O. Henry Award and the Caine Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, GRANTA and has received support from MacDowell and the United States Artists Fellowship. She was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 and her debut collection WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY won the 2017 Kirkus Prize, the 2017 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and was selected for the New York Times/PBS book club among other honors. Arimah lives in Minneapolis and is working on a…

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Free

In-Store Reading: David Ambroz: A Place Called Home

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Los Angeles author David Ambroz for a reading from his new memoir, A Place Called Home. This in-store reading is first come, first served. Seating is limited. Please be mindful of any store health policies that might be in effect on the night of the reading. About A Place Called Home: There are millions of homeless children in America today and in A Place Called Home, award-winning child welfare advocate David Ambroz writes about growing up homeless in New York for eleven years and his subsequent years in foster care, offering a window into what so many kids living in poverty experience every day. Told with lyricism and sparkling with warmth, A Place Called Home depicts childhood poverty and homelessness as it…

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Free

Nabil Ayers in Conversation With Alicia J. Rose

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

Throughout his adult life, whether he was opening a Seattle record store in the '90s or touring the world as the only non-white band member in alternative rock bands, Nabil Ayers felt the shadow and legacy of his father's musical genius, and his race, everywhere. In 1971, a white, Jewish, former ballerina chose to have a child with the famous Black jazz musician Roy Ayers, fully expecting and agreeing that he would not be involved in the child's life. In his highly original memoir, My Life in the Sunshine (Viking), their son, Nabil Ayers, recounts a life spent living with the aftermath of that decision, and his journey to build an identity of his own despite and in spite of his father’s absence. Growing up,…

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Free

Reading: Chris Grant

Rose City Book Pub 1329 NE Fremont, Portland, OR, United States

Waiting 'Round To Die is a coming-of-middle-age tale. A story of a man who flees his suburban life looking for meaning on the open road. Author Chris Grant lives in Austin but grew up in Roseburg. Praise for Waiting 'Round To Die "The characters are lively and well-drawn, the ironic life inspections are intriguing, and the on-the-road adventures a draw for readers who would walk out of their own lives for a period of time." --Midwest Book Review

Free

In-Store Reading: The Great Uncluttering: Carolyn Moore Tribute

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Penelope Scambly Schott, Laura Weeks, and Melody Wilson for readings from the new posthumously published collection of Carolyn Moore's poetry, The Great Uncluttering, as well as their own work. Per our current policy, masks are strongly encouraged at this event. Thank you! Carolyn Moore (1944–2019) was the author of four chapbooks—Against a Second Fall, winner of the New Eden Chapbook Prize; The Great Uncluttering, winner of the Bread and Lightning Chapbook Competition; The Flavors of Quarks and Blame, winner of the Refined Savage Press National Poetry Competition; and The Seven Deadlies, winner of Interrobang’s Chapbook Competition—and one full-length collection, What Euclid’s Third Axiom Neglects to Mention about Circles (White Pine Press, 2013). In total, Moore won over 60 awards and honors for…

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Free

Pete Souza / TICKETED EVENT

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

Pete Souza has spent more time in the Oval Office than almost any person in history. During the Obama administration alone, Souza was inside the presidential bubble for more than 25,000 hours and made nearly 2 million photographs. The result is an unprecedented view of how our democracy really works. Souza's The West Wing and Beyond (Voracious) takes you behind the scenes of consequential moments and introduces the people, places, and traditions that define our nation’s highest office — from the national security staff to the White House groundskeeper. It delivers a new appreciation for the Secret Service, the seriousness of the Situation Room, and even the fun of mini basketball games played in rare moments of downtime outside the Oval. Join former Obama White…

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$60

Daniel O’Malley in Conversation With Charlaine Harris

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

September, 1940: Three women of the Checquy, the secret organization tasked with protecting Britain from supernatural threats, stand in the sky above London and see German aircraft approach. Forbidden by law to interfere, all they can do is watch as their city is bombed. Until Pamela, the most sensible of them, breaks all the rules and brings down a Nazi bomber with her bare hands. The three resolve to tell no one about it, but they soon learn that a crew member is missing from the downed bomber. Charred corpses are discovered in nearby houses and it becomes apparent that the women have unwittingly unleashed a monster. Through a city torn by the Blitz, the friends must hunt the enemy before he kills again. Their…

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Free

Bowen Blair in Conversation With Kevin Gorman

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

The 85-mile-long Columbia Gorge forms part of the border between Oregon and Washington and is one of the nation’s most historic and scenic landscapes. Many of the region’s cultural divisions boil over here — urban versus rural, west of the mountains versus east — as well as clashes over private property rights, management of public lands, and tribal treaty rights. In the early 1980s, as a new interstate bridge linked the City of Portland to rural counties in Washington, the Gorge’s renowned vistas were on the brink of destruction. Nancy Russell, 48 years old and with no experience in advocacy, fundraising, or politics, built a grassroots movement that overcame 70 years of failed efforts and bitter opposition from both Oregon and Washington governors, five of…

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Free
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