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A Reading of The Berlin Diaries

Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education 724 NW Davis Street, Portland, OR, United States

Hand2Mouth Theatre and OJMCHE present a theatrically staged reading of The Berlin Diaries, by Andrea Stolowitz, finalist for the 2017 Oregon Book Award. Performers are Erin Leddy and Damon Kupper, Directed by Hand2Mouth's Artistic Director Jonathan Walters. The great-grandfather of playwright Andrea Stolowitz kept a journal for his descendants after escaping to New York City in 1939 as a German Jew. Following the complicated lure of genealogy, Stolowitz goes back to Berlin to bring the story of her unknown ancestors out of the archives into the light. The record keeps as many secrets as it shares; how do people become verschollen, lost, like library books? In this complex, contemporary drama about the search for home, fragmented heritage and Jewish diaspora, two performers scintillate between characters…

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$10 – $15

Crissy Van Meter in Conversation With Leni Zumas

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

Evie grew up with her well-meaning but negligent father, surviving on the money he made dealing the island’s world-famous strain of weed, Winter Wonderland. Although her father raised her with a deep respect for the elements, the sea, and the creatures living within it, he also left her to parent herself. With wit, love, and bracing flashes of anger, Creatures (Algonquin) probes the complexities of love and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief – and the ways in which our childhoods can threaten our ability to love if we are not brave enough to conquer the past. Lyrical, darkly funny, and ultimately cathartic, Crissy Van Meter’s mesmerizing, provocative debut exerts a pull as strong as the tides. Van Meter will be joined in conversation…

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Free

Reading: Rachel Carter & Sarah Coomber

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes Northwest authors Rachel Carter & Sarah Coomber. How do you live when all you can feel is pain? The best word to describe Rachel Carter’s life was “fearless.” She rode a motorcycle in high school, she worked in a cannery in Alaska at 20, and then backpacked solo through Europe. When she finally “settled down,” she married Josh and pursued a career in sales. She lived a picture-perfect life—then Multiple Sclerosis caught up with her. After two years of rapid decline, Rachel found herself lying on the floor, writhing in agony, hoping to die. In Enduring the Cure, Rachel Carter shares how she overcame her struggle with the debilitating disease. It’s a story of pain, decline, an experimental treatment, and healing. But…

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Free

Jackie Shannon Hollis

Broadway Books 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Jackie Shannon Hollis in Conversation with Annilee Durfey Hyre We are pleased to welcome Portland author Jackie Shannon Hollis to read from her new memoir, This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story, published by Forest Avenue Press. Joining Hollis in conversation will be her niece, Annilee Durfey Hyer, to discuss the many ways of being a parent and mentor to the children in our lives. As a farm girl in eastern Oregon, feeding bottles to bummer lambs and babysitting her little sister, Hollis expected to become a mother someday. After a series of failed relationships, she met Bill, the man she wanted to spend her life with--a man who never wanted children. Saying “I do” meant saying “I don't” to a rite of passage her…

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Free

SFWA NW Portland Reading Series – January 2020

Lucky Labrador Brewing Company 915 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

The Pacific Northwest is home to a Tardis-Full of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, a fact celebrated every quarter with the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors in Portland and Seattle. Each event features three authors who read from their latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision. In addition, space is provided for networking and conversation. Booksellers will be on hand with fresh copies of the authors’ books for you to buy and get autographed. Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and author of the New York Times bestselling Robopocalypse and its sequel Robogenesis, as well as How to…

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Free

James X Preview

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR, United States

Corrib Theatre will give a sneak preview of their upcoming play James X by Gerard Mannix Flynn, which plays February 13 – March 1, 2020 at New Expressive Works (corribtheatre.org) Plaintiff James X confronts the defendants, Church and State, for injustices they perpetrated throughout his childhood. While awaiting his trial, James examines his confidential state files compiled over the previous 45 years, and takes us on a journey through the schools, courts, health boards, industrial schools, psychiatric hospitals, and prisons. Artistic Director Gemma Whelan will introduce the play, actor Todd Van Voris will read a short scene, and then Gemma , Todd and special guest Rene Denfeld will discuss issues raised by the play and invite questions and comments from the audience.

Free

Russell Rowland

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

Montana, 1968: The small town of Paradise Valley is ripped open when popular rancher and notorious bachelor Tom Butcher is found murdered one morning, beaten to death by a baseball bat. Suspicion among the tight-knit community immediately falls on the outsider, Carl Logan, who recently moved in with his family, and his troubled son Roger. What Carl doesn't realize is that there are plenty of people who have reason to kill Tom Butcher. Complications arise when the investigating officers discover that Tom Butcher had a secret – a secret he kept even from Junior Kirby, a lifelong rancher and Butcher’s best friend. As accusations fly and secrets are revealed one after another, the people of Paradise Valley learn how deeply Tom Butcher was embedded in…

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Free

Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now

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

With luminous insight and fervent prose, Andre Perry’s debut collection of personal essays, Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now (Two Dollar Radio), travels from Washington, DC, to Iowa City to Hong Kong in search of both individual and national identity. While displaying tenderness and a disarming honesty, Perry catalogs racial degradations committed on the campuses of elite universities and liberal bastions while coming of age in America. Perry’s essays take the form of personal reflection, multiple choice questions, screenplays, and imagined talk-show conversations, while traversing the daily minefields of childhood schoolyards and Midwestern dive bars. The impression of Perry’s personal journey is arresting and beguiling, announcing his arrival as a formidable American voice.

Free

American Dirt – CANCELLED

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

Please note this event (and the remainder of Cummins’s tour) has been cancelled by her publisher. Lydia Quixano Perez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with four books he would like to buy – two of them her favorites. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s…

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Free

Wordlights Poetry ft. DeAngelo Gillispie

Rocking Frog Cafe 2511 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR, United States

Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, February 1st, we'll have a feature from DeAngelo Gillispie and a long set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Red O'Hare! OUR FEATURE: DeAngelo Gillispie DeAngelo Gillispie, hails from Atlanta, Georgia and currently works as a professional stuntman in Hillsboro, Or. He has been a part of the spoken word community for over a decade. He currently performs his own stunts at spoken word venues around the country as well as internationally. DeAngelo was first published at 19 years old & has been bothering the general public with his thoughts ever since. He enjoys johnnie walker scotch & long debates on haiku…

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Free
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