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Ben Nickol in Conversation with Margaret Malone

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

We are thrilled to welcome novelist Ben Nickol in conversation with Margaret Malone, discussing his newly published novel, The Sea Lanterns The book tells the story of Scott Darrow, marooned as athletic director at a backwater college and hungry for more, plotting his ascent to a better job at a better school. Darrow has the talent, charm, and Machiavellian nerve to go far, but when he hires a famous coach to run his basketball program, the coach proves to be unstable and possibly insane.Now, to escape professional oblivion, Darrow must maneuver and manipulate this coach, and manage the town's intensifying suspicions. Ben Nickol is also the author of Sun River: Stories, which was named a Quivering Pen Best Book of 2019. His stories and essays…

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Free

Slamlandia

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

Slamlandia is a poetry open mic that meets every first Thursday of the month inside of Guilder Cafe. This mic provides a creative, fun, and welcoming space for all literary communities in Portland. We encourage poets new and old to come share their work. We strive towards a safer space for poets to read their own poetry, witness others, and participate in community.

Free

James M. Zimmerman in Conversation With Candace Pinger Smith

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

In 1923 Shanghai, native and foreign travelers alike are enthralled by the establishment of a new railway line to distant Peking. With this new line comes the Peking Express, a luxurious express train on the cutting edge of China’s continental transportation. Among those drawn to the train are oil heiress Lucy Aldrich, journalist John Benjamin Powell, and vacationing Army Majors Roland Pinger and Robert Allen, wives and children in tow. These errant Americans and their eclectic fellow passengers all eagerly anticipate an idyllic overnight journey in first class. But the train’s passengers are not the only ones enchanted by the Peking Express. The bandit revolutionary Sun Mei-yao sees in it the promise of a reckoning long overdue. From his vantage in Shantung Province, a conflict-ravaged…

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Free

Kit Schluter, Tatiana Lipkes, & Joshua Pollock

Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660, Portland, OR, United States

Spare Room and Passages Bookshop present a reading by KIT SCHLUTER TATIANA LIPKES JOSHUA POLLOCK Friday, April 7 Doors open at 7:00 pm; reading at 7:30 pm Admission free; no late entry Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660 Portland, OR 97209 503-388-7665 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Kit Schluter is a poet, translator, and bookmaker. Among his books are the poetry collection, Pierrot’s Fingernails (Canarium Books), the book of stories 5 Cartoons (Juan Malasuerte Editores), and the recent chapbook Erosion — Thousand Flies of Unadulterated Bliss (Cryptid Editions). He has…

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Free

OPP April

Mother Foucault's Bookshop 523 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR, United States
Free

John W. Reid

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

Five stunningly large forests remain on Earth: the Taiga, extending from the Pacific Ocean across all of Russia and far-northern Europe; the North American boreal, ranging from Alaska’s Bering seacoast to Canada’s Atlantic shore; the Amazon, covering almost the entirety of South America’s bulge; the Congo, occupying parts of six nations in Africa’s wet equatorial middle; and the island forest of New Guinea, twice the size of California. These megaforests are vital to preserving global biodiversity, thousands of cultures, and a stable climate, as economist John W. Reid and celebrated biologist Thomas E. Lovejoy argue convincingly in Ever Green (W. W. Norton). Megaforests serve an essential role in decarbonizing the atmosphere — the boreal alone holds 1.8 trillion metric tons of carbon in its deep…

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Free

Abel, Ashby, Ready, & Safdie

Soliloquy Fine Arts 2232 SE Clinton Street, Suite B, Portland, OR, United States

Soliloquy Fine Arts is hosting poetry readings on Saturdays in April, in connection with the exhibition Expanse, which features abstract atmospheric paintings and a large-scale mobile by Julie Rall and Ruth Meijer. Soliloquy Fine Arts 2232 SE Clinton Street, Suite B (back of bldg) Gallery hours on Saturdays: 1:00-4:00 pm Readings take place at intervals from 1:30 to 3:00 pm each day. See below for the schedule of readers. April 8: David Abel, Chris Ashby, Meg Ready, Joe Safdie April 15: Marina Lazzara, Jennifer Pons, Michelle Ruiz Keil April 22: Stephanie Baker, David Booth, Monica Regan April 29: Sarah Ellen Sims, Chanel Wiggan, James Yeary The April readings at Soliloquy have been curated by Elizabeth Costello.

Free

Archie Bongiovanni in Conversation With Sarah Shay Mirk

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

Archie Bongiovanni, the comics artist behind the hit A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns, explores queerness in their shockingly frank and funny graphic novel, Mimosa (Abrams ComicArts – Surely). Best friends and chosen family Chris, Elise, Jo, and Alex work hard to keep themselves afloat. Their regular brunches hold them together even as the rest of their lives threaten to fall apart. In an effort to avoid being the oldest gays at the party, the crew decides to put on a new queer event called Grind — specifically for homos in their dirty thirties. Grind is a welcome distraction from their real problems: after a messy divorce, Chris adjusts to being a single parent while struggling to reconnect to their queer community. Elise…

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Free

Taylor Koekkoek

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

An amusement park employee overdoses after eating the gel of a fentanyl patch. Two homeless men discover the body of a drowned woman. A sister encounters a dangerous stranger while driving her brother to rehab. Ex-lovers seek to rekindle their relationship with the aid of an earthquake. In the nine masterful stories that comprise Thrillville, USA (Simon & Schuster), debut author Taylor Koekkoek depicts Americans living on the margins of society, seeking escape from isolation and underemployment in drugs, booze, and self-destructive relationships. While the action is set largely in the rural Pacific Northwest, the characters’ malaise and disaffectedness is endemic of the country as a whole. The title takes its name from the aforementioned amusement park, but Thrillville is as much a state of…

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