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Chana Porter

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

A blend of searing social commentary and speculative fiction, Chana Porter’s The Seep (Soho) explores a world in the wake of a benign alien invasion. Trina FastHorse Goldberg-Oneka is a 50-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle – but nonetheless world-changing – invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. A strange new elegy of love and loss, The Seep explores grief, alienation, and the ache of moving on.

Free

Summer 2020 Online: Science, Magic, and the Mundane: Speculative Worlds and How to Write Them

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

When we think of speculative words, such as those found in science fiction, high fantasy, and urban fantasy, we often wonder how the author managed to come up with fantastical ideas that are both believable and logical. We often don’t stop to think about how much of the scientific in our world could easily be considered magical, or how our mundane life could also be seen as extraordinary. It’s easy enough to say that our technology would be fantastical to someone from a hundred years ago, but what separates the current mundane from the current fantastical in our writing? In this class we will first examine modern technology, current trends, the natural world, and popular beliefs, and convert them to a magical viewpoint. Participants will…

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$185

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Seeding a Speculative World, with Dominica Phetteplace

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class will explore the joys of creating a world that departs from our agreed-upon reality in significant ways. Science-fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism and other genres have exciting storytelling potential arising from the way characters interact with their surroundings. This class will focus on character and world building exercises that set up narratives with depth and momentum. Tin House is proud to announce our latest virtual Craft Intensives Series. A series of 3-hour-long masterclasses lead by  Tin House Residents and Tin House Books Authors, these Intensives combine close reading, discussion, and in-class writing to offer a potent dose of inspiration and explore what makes writing work when it works. Join us! Applying Admissions are rolling—first come, first served—and will fill fast! You do not…

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$75

Ursula K. Le Guin and Her Legacy: Panel Discussion

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

As modern life and literature focus more on material gains and marshall conflicts, the work of Ursula K. Le Guin stands out for her commitment to depicting pacifism and environmentalism in her speculative fiction. Join Becky Chambers (A Prayer for the Crown-Shy), Juhea Kim (Beasts of a Little Land), and Michelle Ruiz Keil (Summer in the City of Roses, All of Us With Wings) for a discussion moderated by Theo Downes-Le Guin about Ursula K. Le Guin’s literary legacy–and the authors who are carrying it forward today.  

Free

Literary Speculative Fiction :: A Webinar with Lidia Yuknavitch — July 17

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Literary Speculative Fiction :: A Webinar with Lidia Yuknavitch Are you writing toward the territory of speculative fiction, the polyphonic novel, or literary innovations in fiction that take you off-road, possibly off-map? In this webinar we will talk about some recent examples of Literary Speculative fiction, explore some narrative strategies, and open up a few writing portals for practice. Good examples to eyeball ahead of time: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Overstory by Richard Powers, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the short story collection Verge (Riverhead Books), the novels The Book of Joan (Harper Books), The Small Backs of Children (Harper Books), and Dora: A Headcase (Hawthorne Books), and the anti-memoir The Chronology of Water…

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$125

Reading by Andrew Joron & John Beer

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

Admission free; proof of vaccination and facial covering required PLEASE NOTE: Doors will open at 7:30; reading will start promptly at 8:00, with no late admission ============================================================= Please join us in celebrating the publication of Andrew Joron’s new book O0, two novellas of speculative fiction. Books by both authors will be available for purchase. Read an excerpt from O0 on the Facebook page for the event. Andrew Joron is a poet, essayist, and speculative fiction writer, as well as a translator and musician. His poetry collections include The Absolute Letter (Flood), Trance Archive: New and Selected Poems (City Lights), The Sound Mirror (Flood), Fathom (Black Square), and The Removes (Hard Press). The Cry at Zero, a selection of his prose poems and critical essays, was…

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Free

Application Deadline: Environmental Writing Fellowship and Residency

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The forests of the Oregon Coast Range are part of a vast ecosystem spanning from Northern California to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The Pacific temperate rainforest is, acre for acre, better than the Amazon Rainforest at absorbing and storing carbon. If left to grow, the majestic cedars, spruces, hemlocks, and firs can hold carbon for an astonishing 800 years or more. These forests are climate forests. As we work toward stabilizing the climate, there is no technology that can sequester carbon at the scale of maturing and ancient forests. Yet less than 10% of Oregon’s old-growth forest remains. Throughout the Oregon Coast Range, the patchwork scars of ongoing industrial clearcuts and wide-scale liquidation of ancient forests are visible reminders of our limited imaginations…

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Free
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