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Vanessa O’Brien in Conversation With Phil Powers

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Long before she became the first American woman to summit K2 and the first British woman to return from its summit alive, Vanessa O’Brien was a feisty suburban Detroit teenager forced to reinvent her world in the wake of a devastating loss that destroyed her family. Making her own way in the world, O’Brien strove to reach her lofty ambitions. Soon, armed with an MBA and a wry sense of humor, she climbed the corporate ladder to great success, but after the 2009 economic meltdown, her career went into a tailspin. She searched for a new purpose and settled on an unlikely goal: climbing Mount Everest. When her first attempt ended in disaster, she trudged home, humbled but wiser. Two years later, she made it…

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Free

Coffee Talk #21

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Please join us for an hour on zoom. We'll have five phenomenal writer/readers sharing their grief stories on a variety of topics. It's a heart balm. Love to see you there! Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83022570139?pwd=UXR0bjhXWnRIZEtlelByVWRLSkcvZz09 Meeting ID: 830 2257 0139 Passcode: 455941

Free

April Open Mic feat. Catherine Weiss

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for our April Open Mic! Sign ups will be available in the event 30 minutes before we start! You will have 3 minutes to read 1-2 poems. We will have a feature from Catherine Weiss! More about Catherine: Catherine Weiss (she/they) is a poet and artist from Maine. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Tinderbox, Up the Staircase, Fugue, Okay Donkey, perhappened, Bodega, Counterclock, Hobart After Dark, and Flypaper Lit. They were the 2017 Grand Slam Champion and the 2018 WOWPS rep of Northampton Poetry. Their debut full-length collection will be published by Game Over Books in 2021. You can find Catherine at most any New England agricultural fair — she’s the one admiring the blue ribbon hog, covered in…

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Free

Jenny Lawson in Conversation With Luvvie Ajayi Jones (Ticketed Virtual Event)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken (In the Best Possible Way) (Henry Holt), she explores her experimental treatment of transcranial magnetic stimulation with brutal honesty. But also with brutal humor. Lawson discusses the frustration of dealing with her insurance company in “An Open Letter to My Insurance Company,” which should be an anthem for anyone who has ever had to call their insurance company to try and get a claim covered. She tackles such timelessly debated questions as “How do dogs know they have penises?” We see how her vacuum cleaner almost set her house on fire, how she was attacked by three bears, business ideas she wants to pitch to Shark Tank, and why she…

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$27.99

Livestream Reading: Jamie Yourdon

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes back Portland author Jamie Yourdon for the livestream launch of his new novel, The Space Between Two Deaths. Register in advance here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvcu2oqDMtGNKRmAN4UP5sM1ZBj7RxtMkT About The Space Between Two Deaths: In ancient Sumeria, only a thin veil separates the living from the dead. The lives of Ziz, her mother, Meshara, and her father, Temen, are disrupted when a mysterious crevasse rends the earth. Temen becomes obsessed with the mystery and, capturing a crow to guide him, he follows a path to the netherworld where he hopes to gain wisdom from his dead father. Yet he soon finds that ancestors don't always provide the answers we need. In his absence, a grisly accident occurs on their farm––Meshara and Ziz are forced to flee. Friendless…

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Free

A Reading with Allison Hutchcraft

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Allison Hutchcraft is the author of Swale, which was named the 2019 Editor’s Choice by New Issues Poetry & Prose. Her poems have appeared in Boulevard, The Cincinnati Review, Crazyhorse, The Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and The Southern Review, among other journals. A former resident at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon coast, she has been awarded an Artist Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council and scholarships from the Tin House Writers Workshop, the Key West Literary Seminars, and the Community of Writers. She teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Free

Willy Vlautin in Conversation With Chelsea Cain

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Award-winning author Willy Vlautin (The Motel Life, Lean on Pete) explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives in his scorching new novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family. Barely 30, Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she’s been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother, Kenny. Portland’s housing prices have nearly quadrupled in 15 years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it’s their last best chance to own their own home — and obtain the security they’ve never had.…

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Free

One Page Wednesday – April

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Here is an opportunity to share or listen to one page of work in progress from talented writers from everywhere. Come with a single page of work and sign up to read – or come to listen and prepare to be inspired! Hosted by Natalie Serber. April’s featured reader is Marilyn Freeman. Click here to register in advanced. You don’t need to live in Portland to participate. If you have questions, please contact jessica@literary-arts.org Media artist and writer Marilyn Freeman (they/them) works at the intersections of reckoning and resiliency, queerness and film, and contemplative, creative and social practices. They are author of The Illuminated Space: A Personal Theory and Contemplative Practice of Media Art (The 3rd Thing, 2020) and creator of Cinema Divina®—short evocative films…

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Free

Open Mic Poetry Reading on Zoom

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Since April is National Poetry Month, the theme of the open mic is poetry and it's importance. This year is the 25th annual National Poetry Month celebration by the Academy of American Poets. Anyone who would like to participate in this Open Mic is welcome. Email Tom Hogan at tomhogan2@comcast.net (link sends e-mail) to register. You will receive a zoom link prior to the event. Plan to read 1 or 2 poems depending on the number of participants and length of the poems. If time permits additional poems will be allowed.

Free

Dawnie Walton in Conversation With Nadia Owusu

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job — despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. In early 1970s New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a…

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Free
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