It happens to us all: we think we’ve settled into an identity, a self, and then out of nowhere and with great force, the traces of our parents appear to us, in us – in mirrors, in gestures, in reaction and reactivity, at weddings and funerals, and in troubled thoughts that crouch in dark corners of our minds. In Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents (University of Nebraska), edited by Lise Funderburg, 25 writers deftly explore a trait they’ve inherited from a parent, reflecting on how it affects the lives they lead today – and how it shifts their relationship to that parent (sometimes posthumously) and to their sense of self. Funderburg will be joined in conversation by contributors Sallie Tisdale, Kate Carroll de Gutes,…
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A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own. Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful corporation. Jeff VanderMeer’s Dead Astronauts (MCD/FSG) presents a City with no name of its own, where in the shadow of the all-powerful Company, lives human and otherwise converge in terrifying and miraculous ways. At stake: the fate of the future, the fate of Earth – all the Earths. VanderMeer will be joined in conversation…
Comments closedThe Portland State English Department is pleased to present the 55th Annual Nina Mae Kellogg Lecture, featuring comics creators Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick in converation. Brian Michael Bendis is an award-winning comics creator, Amazon and New York Times bestseller, and one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For the last twenty years, Brian’s books have consistently sat on top of the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts. Bendis’s many achivements include the introduction of the multiracial Spider-Man, Miles Morales, and the creation of the character of Jessica Jones. Bendis has won five Eisner awards, including ‘Best Writer of the year’ two years in a row and was honored with the prestigious Inkpot award for comic art excellence. Kelly Sue DeConnick is…
Comments closedTaking its inspiration from the work of Russian absurdist authors such as Alexander Vvedensky and Daniil Kharms, Jeff Alessandrelli’s Fur Not Light (Burnside Review) interrogates how deep senselessness runs in a post-truth and truthiness world. When Dao Strom’s The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys (Counterpoint) was first published in 2006, it was groundbreaking in its depiction of contemporary young Vietnamese women living in the United States, centering their ordinary lives as mothers, lovers, friends, and daughters against the backdrop of immigration and assimilation. Available now for the first time in paperback, The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys is a beautifully written, psychologically astute foray into the rite of female passage. Alessandrelli and Strom will be joined in conversation by Danielle Frandina, Literary Arts…
Comments closedWhy is there no Native woman David Sedaris? Or Native Anne Lamott? Humor categories in publishing are packed with books by funny women and humorous sociocultural-political commentary – but no Native women. There are presumably more important concerns in Indian Country. More important than humor? Among the Diné/Navajo, a ceremony is held in honor of a baby’s first laugh. While the context is different, it nonetheless reminds us that laughter is precious, even sacred. Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s (Bison) is a powerful and compelling collection of Tiffany Midge’s musings on life, politics, and identity as a Native woman in America. Artfully blending sly humor, social commentary, and meditations on love and loss, Midge weaves short, standalone musings into a memoir that stares…
Comments closedIn a new sequence of three graphic novellas by Matt Fraction (and Elsa Charretier), November (Image) follows the lives of three women intersecting in a dark criminal underground. As fire and violence tears through their city on a single day and night, they discover their lives are bound together by a mysterious man who seems to be the cause of it all. Fraction will be joined in conversation by author Chelsea Cain and comic book writer David Walker.
Comments closedFrom acclaimed author Jami Attenberg comes a novel of family secrets: think the drama of Big Little Lies set in the heat of a New Orleans summer. “If I know why they are the way they are, then maybe I can learn why I am the way I am,” says Alex Tuchman of her parents. Now that her father is on his deathbed, Alex – a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister – feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career. (A power-hungry real estate developer, he is, by all accounts, a bad man.) She travels to New Orleans to be with her family, but mostly to interrogate her…
Comments closedBlack and African American communities have always created and contributed to thriving arts and culture landscapes. Despite racist laws and oppressive systems’ attempt to erase and co-opt these contributions, the resiliency, advocacy, and creativity of Black artists continues to challenge the paradigm. Black artists are bringing art to life across the region, redefining art spaces, creating new systems, and reimagining new futures. Join us for the last Art & Power of 2019 and listen, learn and reflect with local artists Bethlehem Daniel, Carlos the Rollerblader, Christine Miller, and Mic Crenshaw as they discuss their experience as Black artists in Portland’s arts ecosystem, with moderation by S. Renee Mitchell. We strive to host inclusive and accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. There will…
Comments closedCovering the history and context of tattoo design, as well as offering a comprehensive instruction in hand lettering, B. J. Betts and Nicholas Schonberger’s The Graphic Art of Tattoo Lettering (Thames & Hudson) is packed with enough detail to fascinate anyone interested in tattoo design. Learn to recreate all of the most widely used techniques – from embellishing West Coast letter forms to mastering calligraphic style – with guidance from one of today’s most influential tattoo artists. Betts and Schonberger will be joined at the event by Christopher Law, who contributed art direction and design on The Graphic Art of Tattoo Lettering.
Comments closedThe definitive biography of the beloved – often controversial – cocreator of many legendary superheroes, Danny Fingeroth’s A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee (St. Martin’s) presents the origin of “Stan the Man,” who spun a storytelling web of comic book heroic adventures into a pop culture phenomenon: the Marvel Universe. Fingeroth, himself a longtime writer and editor at Marvel Comics, and now a lauded pop culture critic and historian, knew and worked with Lee for over four decades. Fingeroth will be joined in conversation by Eisner Award-winning comic book writer and artist Brian Michael Bendis.
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