LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

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Launch of Paperback Edition of What Strange Paradise, Omar El Akkad

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

Omar El Akkad, What Strange Paradise We are thrilled to welcome Omar El Akkad back for the launch of the paperback edition of his award-winning second novel What Strange Paradise, published by Vintage/PRH. This novel, which looks at the global refugee crisis through the eys of a child, won the Giller Prize, the Oregon Book Award for Fiction, and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and was a finalist for The Aspen Words Literary Prize and Canada Reads 2022. More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another overfilled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives back in their homelands. But miraculously, someone has survived the passage: nine-year-old…

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Free

Claude Johnson in Conversation With Keith Houlemard

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

From the introduction of the game of basketball to Black communities on a wide scale in 1904 to the racial integration of the NBA in 1950, dozens of African American teams were founded and flourished. This period, known as the Black Fives Era (teams at the time were often called “fives”), was a time of pioneering players and managers. They battled discrimination and marginalization and created culturally rich, socially meaningful events. But despite headline-making rivalries between big-city clubs, the savvy moves of innovative businessmen, and the undeniable talent of star players, this period is almost entirely unknown to basketball fans. Claude Johnson has made it his mission to change that. An advocate fiercely committed to our history, for more than two decades Johnson has conducted…

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In-Store Reading: Jeff Fearnside with Kim Stafford

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes Oregon author Jeff Fearnside for the launch of his new book, Ships in the Desert. Jeff will be in conversation with Portland writer and Oregon poet laureate Kim Stafford. 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. Signed and personalized copies are available for pre-order! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; all orders without a name specified in the order notes will be signed only. About Ships in the Desert: In this linked essay collection, award-winning author Jeff Fearnside analyzes his four years as an educator on the Great Silk Road, primarily in Kazakhstan.…

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Free

In-Store Reading: Bill Lascher: The Golden Fortress

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland author Bill Lascher for the in-store launch of his new book, The Golden Fortress: California's Border War on Dust Bowl Refugees. 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. Signed and personalized copies are available for pre-order! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; all orders without a name specified in the order notes will be signed only. About The Golden Fortress: In February 1936, Los Angeles police officers drove hundreds of miles to California’s state borders with one mission: turn back anyone deemed too poor to enter. Myths of the Golden State’s abundance…

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Free

Patio Reading: Jessica Wadleigh

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

A reading and zine launch celebrating Alone (With You), a zine by Jessica Wadleigh. With performances by Sylvia Rodemeyer, Alissa Hattman, Alayna Becker, and Misha Moon. Friends, please save the date! My zine launch/birthday party is going to be on Saturday, August 27 from 6PM - 8PM on the back patio at the Rose City Book Pub, and you’re invited! @not_plath @poemsbymisha @dudelookslikealayna_ @alissahattman will be joining us for the evening to share their wonderful words as we welcome Alone (With You) into the world. I hope you can join us! Doors at 6 PM, reading starting promptly at 6:30. I am so grateful to be back at the @rose_city_book_pub for an in-person event - very excited to share space with all of you again.…

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Free

Rinker Buck

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

Seven years ago, readers around the country fell in love with a singular American voice: Rinker Buck, whose infectious curiosity about history launched him across the West in a covered wagon pulled by mules and propelled his book about the trip, The Oregon Trail, to ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, Buck returns to chronicle his latest incredible adventure: building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. A modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river on the flatboat Patience, accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, Buck steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo…

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Free

Mike Duncan

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

From Mike Duncan, author of The Storm Before the Storm and host of the Revolutions podcast, comes Hero of Two Worlds (PublicAffairs), the thrilling story of the Marquis de Lafayette’s lifelong quest to defend the principles of liberty and equality. Few in history can match the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over 50 incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought courageously on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a soldier, statesman, idealist, philanthropist, and abolitionist. As a teenager, Lafayette ran away from France to join the American Revolution. Returning home a national hero, he helped launch the French Revolution, eventually spending five years locked in dungeon prisons. After his release, Lafayette sparred with Napoleon, joined an underground…

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Rachel Aviv in Conversation With Stephanie Danler

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Strangers to Ourselves (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is the highly anticipated debut from acclaimed, award-winning New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv, compelling us to examine how the stories we tell about mental illness shape our sense of who we are. In her powerful and gripping debut, Rachel Aviv raises fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress. Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. She follows an Indian woman, celebrated as a saint, who lives in healing temples in Kerala; an incarcerated mother vying for her children’s forgiveness after recovering from psychosis; a man who devotes his life…

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Free

First Matter Press 2022 Book Release Celebration & Reading

205 NW 4th Ave 205 NW 4th Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Our community is invited to join us for a poetry reading and the launch of five new books from our 2022 cohort of authors! Capacity is limited so please register for a ticket to attend. Our authors will begin reading at 5:30pm. We look forward to celebrating with you! **This is an indoor venue. To protect the health of our community, masks are strongly encouraged. ** * Even the Air, Too Heavy by Riley Danvers A vivid navigation through the experience of miscarriage, grief and the search for healing in a blend of text + image, experimental and traditional forms, affirming the transformational power of poetry. * Between These Borders Wanders a Golem by ahuva s. zaslavsky A hybrid book of poems, flash, and short…

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Free

First Friday Art and Poetry with Scott Poole

Birdhouse Books 1001 Main Street, Vancouver, WA, United States

Join us in launching the third installment of Scott Poole's Paintings and Poetry chapbook series! THE CLOUDS WILL SAVE YOU NOW is the new *limited edition* art book of 20 poems and 20 paintings from Vancouver artist and writer Scott Poole. The event, which will include a launch reception, refreshments, a reading, and original art from Scott, will be held at Birdhouse Books on October 7th at 7pm.

Free
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